Hitting Hikkaduwa

Our first weekend in Sri Lanka was upon us, and the pressure was on! The team decided to travel together, and I needed to plan the journey. Knowing very little of our new location, I went with what Meadows and I do best: the beach.

Hikkaduwa sits two hours south of Colombo. It’s known for its abundance of sea turtles and excellent snorkeling. The seven of us got off to a late start on Friday and traffic was horrific, so we ended up at a McDonald’s before even starting our road trip. Who would have thought that I’d have to go to Sri Lanka to have McD’s for the first time since high school! It was delicious.

We didn’t get in until after 10pm, so we freshened up and decided to grab a drink at a nearby bar. After one drink (yes, actually just one drink), we headed back to the hotel. At this point, one of the teammates was robbed. It was so surprising and awful. I won’t get into the details, but it was a nasty reminder that we must always be extremely careful no matter where we are.

[Can you see the man climbing the palm tree to fetch a coconut?]

Our resort had a fabulous pool and a great beach, but the best thing about being there was the sea turtles! Within a few steps into the ocean, we had sea turtles inches away from your feet – it was incredible! They aren’t trained or captive; they’re simply wild sea turtles who know that tourists will toss them some seaweed from time to time. [But notice that he totally denies Meadows’ seaweed offering in the video! I like to think that he evens swats at him at one point.] We spent most of Saturday swimming with the turtles and just watching them. This began my recently discovered fascination (borderline obsession) with animals.

Saturday evening brought a stunning sunset. We had a front row seat on a grassy area overlooking the beach. I decided to try out the time lapse photo feature on Meadows’ new GoPro — this one’s for you, Bo! Great idea in theory, but I need to get all the people out of my way next time 🙂

Time lapse montage fail aside, the seven of us had a much-deserved peaceful moment watching the sunset. In contrast with the previous night, this was the respite for which we came!

Since we only had a two hour drive back to Colombo, we decided to stay in Hikkaduwa for much of Sunday. Meadows and I took advantage of the time to do a bit of snorkeling. We went out on a tiny side-rigger boat (you can see it behind us in the photo) to the giant rocks out in the ocean. The snorkeling was good, not great; but we really enjoyed being in the water and looking back at the resort from afar.

Overall, we had a fabulous weekend. It was our first taste of all the beauty (and animals!) that Sri Lanka has to offer.