Episode Tin (Three): O Christmas Leech, O Christmas Leech...

It's now been three months since we found ourselves waking up on Christmas day in Kumily, India having no idea of what misadventures the day would hold. For months, we had been planning our final trip to southern India and made sure that Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary was on our itinerary. Lured by the possibility of encountering tigers, wild boar, elephants, and other foreign woodland creatures, we booked ourselves on a full day hiking trek with about a dozen other estranged foreigners spending the holidays in a most untraditional way - tiptoeing through the leeches.


After renting some binoculars and getting scammed by a tour guide, we finally hit the trail. A mile into the forest our guides stopped us, told everyone to tuck their pant legs into their socks and then proceeded to shake a tin full of powder over everyone's shoes and ankles.

"For the leeches."


They swore that the "literature" about the trek included information about leech prevention measures. As we had never received such "literature" and were the only couple wearing footie running socks, we resigned ourselves to becoming the sacrificial tourists - diverting the blood sucking varmits to our available and ever-so succulent ankles and away from our friends.

The scenery was magnificent. Thick green valleys, swampy fields of tall reeds, grass covered hilltops, and blooming flowers under a canopy of tall trees. I managed to see most of it while staring vigilantly at my wife's feet in front of me and my own for those vampire-like inch worms. Every 25 feet I'd have to swat, flick, wipe, or pinch off a thirsty hitchhiker from our feet.


For most of the day, the leeches were the only wildlife we saw. At lunch, a French girl pulled down her socks to reveal 9 leeches firmly stuck to her legs. That sucked. After dishing out a round of band-aids that I brought, we all heard what sounded like a strange barking sound. The guides pursued the sound and pinpointed some wild elephants just 200 yards away in the woods.

Finally, a real wildlife safari!

We crept around the wooded hillside like a National Geographic crew - me with my overpriced rented binoculars and fierce determination to get one dang picture of an elephant if it killed me! I kept walking closer and closer to the lookout guides despite their recommendation that us tourists remain at a safe distance. I think they appreciated my curiosity because one invited me up into a tree to get the best view of a mother elephant and her calf eating an afternoon snack. I was surprised by the wide variety of sounds they made - barking, low moaning, trumpeting, and even a few squeeks.

Ah, the wild.


After an hour of whispering and stalking, we left the elehants and hit the trail back to Kumily. It must have been feeding time because we then saw water buffalo, white monkeys, an Indian squirrel, and other stuff.

Okay, honestly it's hard to recap our time there with interest in light of what our life has been like since then.

To sum up, we saw beatiful tea plantations,


A really nice spice garden owner with really nice long ear hair,


A cross-faced flower,


Mountain goats galore (Nilgiri tahrs) in Eravikulam National Park,


Fancy cantilevered Chinese fishing nets,


And managed to get all of our luggage on the plane as well.


We were thankful to have had such an amazing experience in India, but we were certainly ready to come home. We hope our pictures and words about our experiences in this journal do justice to how we truly feel about that fascinating country - this last entry about India most likely doesn't. I'm not really in the mood for a sentimental yearbook-type good bye to a place we plan on visiting again, so that's what we've got.

Upon returning to the states, I promptly got a job as a carpenter building houses, Jen returned to teaching, and we tried to settle in as best we could and limit our complaining about how much food items cost. The newest adventure in our lives is PARENTING! Jen says we left the leeches in India behind only to pick up another type of sucking creature (suckling rather) when we got back - a little girl. So tune in next time to hear more about our swashbuckling adventures as parents of the cutest baby in the world . . .

Jimmy

PS Here's a teaser . . .