Day 10

Day 10. Sweeping around the hotel, tea field, people harvesting tea , woman gathering firewood, scarecrow to keep bad spirits from the tea plantation.






You can tell we are on the west coast of India where Christians, Muslim and Jewish traders arrived to trade in spices but also left their influence.




Pineapple plantation 

We stopped at a small rubber plantation. Leo showed us how they get rubber sap. Looks a lot like the maple syrup process



Portuguese style house built around a courtyard.

Teak tree
Welcomed to the boathouse before boarding the boats.

Several of us are hoping to find this stunning book in Cochin. Amazon has a kindle version which wouldn’t do it justice



We are now in the backwaters of Kerala. The British built canals to connect the different channels.This is where the book Covenant of Water by AbrahamVerghese takes place. The business is rice farming. And you can tell from the lovely houses some are doing quite well. A bit different from Covenant of Water time!







Lunch on the boat. We won’t starve.


Grand central station of the lake connecting the canals. These are mostly Indian tourists aboard.


I apologize to my birding friends. I am clueless and often missing them. One woman is a serious birder who’s gone on birding trips around the world. She says Merlin isn’t recognizing all of the birds

They divided us up on two boats. We caught up
With our friends. 




They went past my cabin window. I waved and they waved back. 
Sunset from where we docked the boat. 





We were all puzzled by the bucket. I guess the overhead showers are just in our nice hotels. Traditionally they don’t do overhead showers so the bucket is if we want to wash our hair!

In case you want to know more about tea:
A few facts traveler Andrew shared:Camellia sinensis is the evergreen shrub or small tree from which all traditional teas (white, green, oolong, black, pu-erh) are made, with different processing methods creating the various types. Native to East Asia, its leaves and buds are harvested and processed differently to control oxidation, with black tea being the most oxidized and white tea the least. The plant is also known as the tea plant, tea shrub, or tea tree. 

Key characteristics
Plant type: Evergreen shrub or small tree. 
Leaves: Light green, turning darker with age; young leaves and buds are used for tea. 
Flowers: Small, delicate, and white. 

Varieties: Two main varieties are cultivated: C. sinensis var. sinensis (Chinese) and C. sinensis var. assamica (Assam). 

Tea production
White tea: Made from buds.
Green tea: Made from young leaves.
Oolong tea: Made from older, larger leaves.
Black tea: Made from older leaves, with the most oxidation.



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