The next morning we were off to Nuwara Elya. In Singhala this means City of Light, but our tour book calls it City of Blight. In our estimation it was one of the more vibrant communities we visited. The City is located in the highlands at an elevation of 6182 feet. This is over 3000 feet higher than Kandy in just 50 miles of road. Needless to say there was a lot of “up” as we traveled. We were really surprised to see pine trees and lots and lots of waterfalls.

As we got higher, we began to see tea plantations . The higher the elevation,the better the tea. The tea is all picked by hand, generally by women, but there were a few men as well although they seemed to be pruning the plants or weighing each woman’s harvest. The pluckers as they are called traverse the hillsides barefooted with large bags suspended over their back, but held up by straps that go over their heads. Most of the slopes they were working on were a minimum of a 45 degree angle. We could only imagine how tired they must be at the end of the day.

Tea plants are harvested once each 7 days. Only the top two leaves and bud are picked. And the plants is viable for 45 years.





Once harvested the tea is taken to the factory. Here it is spread on a screen table were a fan blows under the screen to take out some of the moisture. These are called withering troughs. The tea is then rolled apressedsed in a machine to express the juices which coat the leaves. The tea is then left to ferment in a contolled humid environment in order to produce the desired aroma. The fermenting process takes two and a half hours. Finally the leaves are dried by passing them through a heated drying chamber and then graded-the unbroken being the best quality down to the fannings and dust, the lowest quality. The entire factory process takes as little as 18 hours.

Tea was introduced to Sri Lanka by James taylor in 1849. It was an experiment to find a crop to replace the unfortunate diseased coffee. The coffee plantations in Ceylon were destroyed by a leaf blight around that time. After textiles, tea remains Sri Lanka's second biggest export. Although introduced by the British, the tea industry is a source of immense national pride. Sri Lnak is the world's third biggest producer of tea and the largest exporter with a 20% share of the global demand. Pretty impressive when you consider how small SL is.

We spent two nights in Newara Eliya at the Grand Hotel. A very tired dowager from the colonial period. However, the garden was spectacular in a very formal English way. After a morning of meetings with Officials from two Local Authorities, we played in the afternoon and went to lunch at a restaurant that specializes in strawberries. Almost everything on the menu has strawberries: shakes, ice cream, waffels with strawberries, pancakes with strawberries. And get this, strawberies are in season all year long! Unfortunately they're not the big plump variety we're used to in the Northwest, but good none the less. From there we went to a botanical garden that was established in 1861. That's right, the same year the Civil War started. We surmised it was the brain child of a bored Governor's wife. Who knows?

That night we walked throuh the local market where you can buy Columbia Sportwear and Helly Hansen parkas and jackets for $5.00 to $15.00. Yes, the same ones we spend $150.00 or more on.

After a fine dinner buffet, Alix, the director of the program I'm working with and I played a plebian game of snooker on the biggest pool table I've ever seen. It wasn't so much that I won, as Alix lost.

The next day we travelled to a third Local Authority called Hatton, which is about an hour and half west. From here we scouted out places to stay, for future trips. We found an absolutely gorgeous bungalow from the 1920's that had been a plantation caretaker's, but has now been transformed into a very upscale resort. Only $200 per night, but that included all the meals and libations. Too bad it's too far from the main road (only 20 km along a dirt path), and way above the budget.

Getting back to the main road, we traveled southwest towards Colombo through the most spectacular scenery imaginable. We passed endless watefalls, gorgeous vista, and picture postcard scenery. Passing through Kitulgala, the Sri Lankan whitewater capital on the Kelani River with class 4 and 5 rapids!

We arrived back in Colomb about 4:00 PM. We were pooped from 4 days of hard travel. We had to check back into the hotel, as we'd packed up all our belongings here, and left most of it with the Bell Captain; and only took a small carry-on sized bag. We had to unpack and re-iron all our stuff. Can't wait to get into a house!

Next day, back to working the office and shopping for furniture and houshold items. Hopefully the lease will be approved by ICMA and we can plan the move to the house. Our goal is the 15th of November, but that may be too optomistic.