Pune to Trivandrum

Our destination upon leaving Pune was Cochin (alt. Kochin) in Kerala, the name given to a cluster of settlements made up of Ernakulum on the mainland, Fort Kochin, an island offshore, and between them, Willingdon Island, a body of land piled up when the harbor was originally dredged. It was to be our first introduction to Kerala, (#1) the only state to annually find itself on the list of civilized places of the world and the only one with a communist government.

When Christian missionaries came here many ... (more)

1. Large Banyan Tree in Ft. Kochin
This is one of the large trees that line a park just in front of our guesthouse.

2. Catholic Church
This is one of many Catholic churches in the town. This area of India...

3. Church interior

4. Jain Temple
This is a Jain Temple complex with many worship areas and place for...

5. Jain temple interior

6. Jain Temple interior

7. Communist Party Building

8. Communist Party Poster

9. Spice Trading House
There is an old area of town which is predominately Jewish. The...

10. The interior of the Spice House
You'll notice the balance scales to the left and the man dressed in his...

11. Drying spices
Just outside the spice house these people are working at drying spices and...

12. Indian Truck
This is a familiar site in India. The trucks here are usually decorated and...

13. Fishing Nets
These are large fishing nets used at Fort Kochin. They are weighted down into...

14. Nets at sunset
Fishing nets along the river at sunset.

15. Sunset
Some children playing at the edge of the river at sunset. Many Indian...

16. Portuguese mansion.
This is a hold over of the colonial era. One of the homes of the aristocracy...

17. The Dutch Cemetery
This is a walled area with old graves just along the seashore.

18. Katakali Dancer applying makeup

19.katakali singer
This man sat through the performance singing and making vackground music with...

20. Katakali musicians
These two men provided the percussion sounds for the dancers

21. Katakali expression of love
The dancers rain for years and learn standard expressions and postures...

22. Katakali expression- Fear

23. Katakali
This is a scene from the dance. The hero is talking with a local...

24. Katakali demon, Ravana
Here is Ravanna, the demon. The hero ultimatly defeats him in battle.

25. Ravanna
Notice his eyes. A feature of this type of dance is placing a seed in the eye...

26. Close up of the hero, Bhima

27. Poler on the backwaters
The is the man who poled us as we boated through the backwaters of Kerala.

28. Coconuts
28. Our raftsman took a break and got the people on the boat some coconuts to...

29. Local canoe in the narrow channel

30. Canoe at the river bank

31. Rope machine
Girl watching as the machine worked to spin rope from coconut fibers

32. Grandmother making rope.
This woman showed us how they made rope in the past without the aid of the...

33. Lime factory
This is the interior space of the lime factory. Everything is covered with a...

34. Men at work.
These men are hard working in very hot conditions. They mix and shovel...

35. Will is appraoching our boat.
Our boat is docked on the river bank near the lime factory.

36. River scenes

37. River scenes

38. Sailing canoe.
This was the only craft of its kind that we saw on the back waters.

39.Coconut fiber soaking.
This fiber will soak for 6 months, soften and then be made into mattresses.

40. House in the small canals.
There are many villages that line up on these small canals. Some of them have...

41. Problems with the Tuk-tuk driver
There was a tuk-tuk strike and unknown to us our driver took us out...

42. Will's lodging.
Will had a very nice room to himself over looking a quiet field bordering the...

43. Approaching the boats.
This is the path down to the boats that take us through the park. Its about...

44. Pair of Cormorants.
Many birds were nesting on these tree stumps along the lake channels.

45. Periyar sunrise.
As we boated along the sun rose over the trees and began to cut through the fog.

46. Periyar shore view as the sun came o

47. Wild boars at the shore line.

48. Periyar family of otters

49. Cormorants

50. Periyar docks.
As we returned to the docks these Indian women colored the view...

51. Periyar elephant.
We saw this elephant on our second ride of the day in the afternoon. It was...

52. Organic spider.
We had a wonderful tour of a family owned organic spice garden. The...

53. Painted bamboo.
We all really like bamboo. This variety is particularly beautiful as it looks...

54. Spice garden coffee

55. Vanilla beans

56. Cocoa

57. Tea plantations.
This woman is harvesting tea.

58. Franciscans.
This is a church with a monastery surrounding it in the back. It is...

59. Rubber collection.
As we drove to Kovalam where we would get a ferry to Alleppey we asked the...

60. Rubber drying.
The sap is collected and dried in these pans then run through this machine to...

61. Rubber is drying on the lines

62. The final product.
This is the result of heating and it is the final product that is...

63. Ferry to Allepey.
This is a local ferry and takes people from one short stop to the...

64. Ferry stop
This was a drop off point for many children coming home from school.

65. Ferry trip.
People waiting for pick-up

66. Kerala houseboat.
Kerala is famous for houseboats that accomodate tourist for two or...

67. Varkala train station

68. Train heading north

69. Sunrise fishing.
These are fishermen preparing for the a.m. fishing. You can see some...

70. Fishing.
This is one of the three groups of men pulling in the nets.

71. Small boats.
71. Small boats. These boats hold one man who follows the nets and...

72. The catch

77. Noon prayer
Many of the fishermen are Muslims and this man is taking a moment for his...

74. Sunset

75. Guesthouse
75. Guesthouse We stayed at this beautiful guesthouse in Trivandrum...

76. Horse palace, exterior

77. Horse Palace, detail

78. Vishnu Temple

79. Vishnu Temple

80. Beach at Trivandrum.
The ocean here is this amazing color of caramel. The Indian tourists come to...

article published 04/02/2005

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