backwaters

Yesterday we took a day long trip through the backwaters of Kerala. Because this is the beginning of monsoon season there aren't many tourists anywhere and we were surprised when we had almost a full boat (about 10) of tourists, who were fun to meet and hang out with for the day. We took a van about an hour south of Kochi to the start of our backwaters trip, fortunately we had an absolutely perfect day with no rain and a couple clouds in the sky. The backwaters are extensive freshwater canals some of which are only large enough for a canoe to fit through. We floated along the backwaters and just soaked in the calm freshness of rural india. For lunch we stopped on a small island where we had traditional keralan food, papaadum, keralan red rice, samber, vermacelli cashew pudding and lots of coconut flavored vegetables served on banana leaves. We also stopped and saw how they make rope our of coconut fiber and also saw a small processing factory for lime. Along the waters many fishermen were out collecting mussels and "kerala fish". When people don't know the name of something here they just say the state or city we are in is the name, it's pretty funny. This was probably the most relaxing and fun experience ever, yay!
Today we toured Jew town in Kochi. Apparently Jews came to India during the reign of King Solomon and there has been a connection ever since. We also had a cooking class and learned how to make masala dosa, fish masala, lemon rice and aloo gobi and then got to eat it all, it was amazing!! Kochi is known for its spices and so we explored several spice shops this morning and then we excited to learn how to cook with some many different spices during our cooking lesson.
Tomorrow we had inland towards the mountains and tea plantations where I am most excited about the temperature drop!
The pictures are from our backwater trip.