• Sinharaja Rainforest

    March 21 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    This forest is Sri Lanka's last primary (never cut) tropical rainforest. Amazingly, more than 50% of the plants and animals in this lowland area are endemic to Sri Lanka. Sinharaja means lion (sinha) king (raja).

    Our guides were extremely knowledgeable, helping us spot creatures our untrained eyes never would have seen otherwise.

    We wore long pants and 'leech socks'. None the less, land leeches featured prominently in the walk. At first, only Aaron had one. But then, the rains started coming down hard and the leeches seemed to be under orders to attttack! We rubbed salt on our shoes, sprayed our lower halves with mosquito repellant, but even so, any time we stopped, we found the little suckers on our tender, warm flesh.

    After the walk, our guide Eddie shared some of his experiences with the 2004 Tsunami, which you can read in Aaron's blog post. It was sobering to hear about the devastation and loss.
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