From sea to shining sea......

Namaste, faithful readers!

We last left you in Trichy, digesting a delicious curry. The following morning we woke up and were out the door by 7am, and on the bus downtown, to check out the Rock Fort Temple. Built on a rock (surprisingly), it towers over the short city and gives a 360 view of the area. Gorgeous! We discarded our flipflops and ascended the many stairs up to the first temple, which looked amazing but as we are not Hindu, we were denied entrance. On the second set of steps, Ryan cut his foot open on some broken glass, and while Oli played nurse with him, I jumped up and down at the sight of monkeys and played photo shoot. We continued up to the summit, and were greeted by a very nice Hindu who gave us candy, blessed our heads, posed for a photo, and stole Oli's special pen. We climbed back down to the street and hopped back on the bus to head to the outskirts of town to checkout some standing temples. Phenomenal towers of vibrant colors and carvings, the temples are scattered throughout all of India, and are all still in use. We wandered around taking photos and enjoying the local people watching before hopping on a bus back to the hotel. We had the best Indian breakfast ever, then grabbed our bags and headed 5 hours south to Madurai.

Madurai has a giant complex of temples, with dramatic carvings and paintings around every corner. The place was swarming at 7am when we took a look around, after being foiled the night before by mixed up directions and wardrobe issues. We wandered throughout the complex, feeling a bit awkward taking photos while the people around us worshipped. After the temple we had a bite to eat then headed to the bus station to head down to the tip of the country.



Three hours on a bus and we arrived at the end of the subcontinent- Cape Cormorin. Our main goal in this town was to watch the sun set and then rise over the same beach. The Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea all meet at this point, making this town a very spiritual retreat for Hindus. Rad! We checked in at our 350 Rupee hotel ($7 for 3 people)then rushed to the sunset point. We trekked a few kilometers and once we arrived, we were greeted with the beautiful Arabian sea and an overcast sky. Shoot! We headed back to town and had a delicious but cold dinner nearby. When we arrived back in our room, we discovered that Ryan's bed was absolutely covered in baby ants. We requested a change of room, but they dishonestly declared the hotel full and gave him a sheet to cover the bed . We were the only people on our entire floor! We slept in our sleep sheets and surprisingly had no more problems.



We woke up at 5 to make sure we could see the sunrise, which we could just view from the rooftop outside our room. Of course, we were foiled again by the clouds. Doesn't it figure? We slept a bit more then grabbed a big breakfast before we headed out towards Varkala. Two bumpy bus rides and 2 terrifying rickshaws later, we arrived in the beach side resort town and checked in to our lodgings. Starving, we grabbed a pizza and attempted to watch the sunset- clouds again. The boys went out to check out the local 'nightlife' while I did laundry and tried to enjoy some solitude, though at the restaurant next door some people decided to see who could make the best and loudest animal noises... for an hour. Boo.

Woke up for yoga today, but the instructor never showed up. Grabbed breakfast, and now we are headed for the beach!!

Love and kisses, miss you lots. BTW there is a pause in beer photos because we have been in dry areas, but thank you so much for the donations and we will put photos up asap! xoxo