What an exciting day today was! We traveled up on the Western Ghat Mountains to Thekkadi. The roads were long and winding and definitely bumpy. I attempted to take pictures while driving, but I only got a few good ones.
Tea plantations
More tea plantations
We took a break from driving at a church with great views of the area:
Photo courtesy Katie G.
Group shot
After checking in the hotel we immediately went to ride elephants! The elephants were so cute and sweet!
I'm on an elephant!
After riding elephants we toured a spice plantation. I learned so much about how certain spices grow. We saw cardamom, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cocoa beans, coffee beans, kanthari, and rubber trees. I think cinnamon was the most interesting. Cinnamon is from the bark of a tree. The rolled sticks of cinnamon come from the inner bark.
Cocoa bean and pod
Cardamom
Sheet of rubber from rubber tree sap
Ginger
Jeremy eating a Kanthari
Tumeric
Allspice leaf
After that I walked around the town a little and had dinner, which I took a picture of because it looks disgusting, but was actually quite tasty.
"Palak Paneer" with chapatti
Flowers of the day:
YAY elephant rides!!! How exciting! You're photos are beautiful! I'm sure it was much better in person! Glad you are liking the food that you are finding! I would have LOVED the part where you saw all of the spices! It makes me want to go home and cook and bake!
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