Wednesday April 15, 2026
Hi Gang! We’re in Sri Lanka for the first time in our lives! Specifically today we were anchored in Galle so we had to take tender boats from the ship to the mainland. Galle is a city on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka. It’s known for Galle Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as its old city founded by Portuguese colonists in the 16th century.
Today we did a tour starting at 9:30 AM called “Masks, Turtles and Cinnamon”. We first drove to a cinnamon farm and they walked us thru the process of burning the leaves to make the oil as well as carving the bark to make cinnamon sticks. Oh, and of course they took us thru the showroom to buy all the products! Did you know that cinnamon oil cures everything??? Lol. But it did smell nice!
We then drove to the beach town of Kosgoda that’s known for its turtle nesting area where five (Green, Olive Ridley, Loggerhead, Hawksbill and Leatherback turtles) of the seven species of marine turtles’ nest on the local beaches. The other two species are Kemp Ridley from Mexico and Flatback from Australia. In 1981 a turtle hatchery was established here to protect the eggs of sea turtles.
At the hatchery we saw the turtle eggs and where they buried them in the sand to hatch. We also saw turtles that were 1 day old, two days old, 5 days old, and even a 50 year old turtle! Heck they also had an albino turtle. Kathy even held a turtle. Ick!
After that we drove to the mask factory. OK, I could have skipped that stop but it did offer a bathroom break! The masks were pretty wild. They are central to the local’s folklore, particularly in Sanni Yakuma (exorcism ceremonies to cure illness – YIKES!), Kolam (satirical dance-dramas), and Raksha (demon/festival) dances. Like I said, wild! We then drove back to the ship and boarded around 5 PM (long day!).
As background to the country, there are 22.7 million people in all of Sri Lanka. But in 2004, on Boxing Day (Dec 26), most of Sri Lanka was destroyed by a Tsunami. Therefore they built both a Tsunami Buddha and a Tsunami Memorial dedicated to all the people that lost their lives. We drove past both and took pictures. I’ll do another update tonight.
The Wandering Italian 