Nature and Spices

I finally did what I was yearning to do: I went to Kumily, the town of spices, tigers and elephants. Yesterday I spent a wonderful day hiking, safariing and rafting in the natural reserve. I saw elephants, bisons, deer, HUGE squirrels, makkaken monkeys in different varieties and a cobra. The cobra was a baby cobra and the boys I am travelling with didn't know that it is a poisonous viper and played with it -- later the guide told us that a bite would have killed us: if the antidote is injected within 3 hours its not problem, but we were 1.5 hours away from civilization and again at least 1-2 hours from the next hospital. Due to monsoon season there were massive amounts of leeches, without salt and protection gear we would now be aneamic.
At the end of the day we reached a little waterfall, and well, you know me, I just needed to climb up. Otherwise I would have regretted it badly --- the way up and down wasn't a problem until the last step where I glid away and twisted my ankle. Yippie, thank god I just had to limp to our raft 10meters away. I can now proudly present a list of diseases I accumulated in India: Stomach problems, twisted ankle, a badly infected mosquito bite, a pretty horrible bout of psora, a cold (I didn't know my fancy room in Varkala had A/C) and an athlete's foot (according to leo this is the translation of Fusspilz: it is supposed to be common in tropical countries). But: I am having the best time of my life!

This morning I went to a spice garden, a third generation spice grower. He showed me all the spices, how they are prepared etc. It was terribly interesting and tasty: fresh fruits from the tree as well as freshly created Jackfruit crisps. Yum! Whenever you come to Kumily: Abrahams Spices is the place to go. He knows all the names in English, French and German, I have to admit that I didn't even know some of the German terms (though I knew them in English). I wanted to go to the tea factory, but its sunday and the commune doesn't work on sundays -- how dare they ;). Later, I will be leaving for Chennai to do the social part of my journey.