Good morning Sri Lanka!  We are excited to be here again and have much more time to explore Yala National park in search of leopards than we did last time.  We have booked our tour with Rumesh, our guide from our previous trip – of course!  No way we wouldn’t have booked with him – he was so great. And we just messaged him directly, so he gets the entire fee, not some tour consolidator.  So, early morning, no gym, we are up and out, cleared by the officials and on the first shuttle to Gate 2 for our pick up.  The shuttle driver goes to the wrong gate, which is totally hysterically, with some of the other passengers who actually have a sense of humor narrating the ride:  “thank you all for coming, this is the end of your tour of the port area in Hambantota.”  Ok – maybe these people are better than the last group.

We are finally unloaded at Gate 2 and go out into the hub bub and general tour guide hawking mania to find Rumesh.  As we are looking for him, and his WhatsApp number, we see he messaged earlier saying he thinks we should go to the Wetlands park instead of Yala because it will be so crazy at Yala with the ship tours.  Well, heck, sure.  We don’t care – we’ve already seen Yala – and the chances of seeing a leopard? Yeah, not many – so wetlands it is!  Of course this is all fine, but we still need to find Rumesh!  He finally spots us – as we are having a WhatsApp conversation with him – and we have a joyous reunion – we do love him. He is so fun.  He escorts us to the jeep – a different one from before – for our tour and hands us off to his best friend (whose name I swear we never, ever can remember!) and who drove us last time because, same as today, all the other drivers were busy with ship tours.  Only this time it is just his buddy (who we will know call Buddy), no Rumesh because he’s now in charge of a whole bunch of tours and is leading his own tuk tuk Village tour – so we get BF.  Well, ok, we’ll miss him, but he’s got bigger fish to fry and we understand being a tour company/group manager/owner.  We’re outta here! Quickly driving out of the port, and away from the hospital and other facilities we remember from our last visit, onto the more rural streets around Hambantota.

About 45 minutes later, we arrive at Bundala National Park, a 15,000 acre Wetland area.  Even on the entrance road, we begin seeing animals.  A herd of water buffalo, birds, and gorgeous wetland scenery.  At the Welcome Center, we wander about the little museum, getting our bearings with the bas relief map and walking along the huge Terrapin shells, giant water buffalo skulls, and more delicate deer skulls with antlers.

After a quick restroom break, we are out into the park catching glimpses of all sorts of animals – parakeets on the wire, more water buffalo, monkeys (of course monkeys!)   Only these are Grey Langur, or black face monkeys that are so much more human like than many other species.  They sit on the side of road with their little arms on their knees, just like they’re thinking or waiting for someone to come by.  So fascinating.

While we are driving, we examine our snack jug – filled with cookies and crackers and bananas!  Yes! Bananas.  You know I’m a happy girl, ummm, monkey!  Although with all the monkeys out here, we do need to be careful with our banana eating with all the real monkeys around.

The morning proceeds along, absolutely fabulously and peacefully.  We have seen only a couple of other jeeps so far, and mostly we are alone out here with Buddy – all on our own.  Our kind of heaven.  Oh, and then? Heaven gets better!

Elephant!!!!  Really did not expect to see an elephant – but lo and behold, here is a sweet guy who is cooling off in one of the ponds.  He is so cute and photogenic, submerging and then sort of playing with his huge trunk.

After watching our elephant pal for quite a while, we head off deeper into the park for more funny monkey activity – they are just characters, all over the trees, and the way they run!

We travel past some small lily ponds, looking for birds and wildlife before arriving at the shore where there are a couple of little fishing huts and boats pulled ashore that Buddy tells us is still active. The fishermen are out here at first light, then back into the villages to sell their catch by now.  Stretching our legs up on the ridge above the water, we get some gorgeous views across the rocky, jagged coastline, as well as some fun photo posing with Buddy as photographer.  A very nice place to stop and rest – and maybe even picnic if it was that time.  As it is, it is only barely 10am – we’re still snacking on our bananas – surreptitiously!

Back in the jeep, we continue our circuit around the wetlands, past different ponds and lakes filled with birds and crocodiles!  We actually spotted a baby croc as well as another crocodile in the same pond.  Just the backs as they came up for air – but still so scarily cool.    

Tons of gorgeous scenery and tons and tons of birds – painted storks, black headed Ibis, Cormorant, Purple Swamphen, tracks from some sort of animal, maybe the fishing cat? Totally fun watching the birds, especially the Ibis feeding. It was a joy to just drive around, virtually all alone, enjoying the bucolic scenery and peace. 

Oh, and of there were more monkeys.  Never far from a monkey!

On our way out, we spotted more elephants too!  A group this time, with a baby!  So exciting.  They huddled around protecting the baby, so it was hard to get a shot, but it was such a joy to just sit and watch them. 

Our final sighting was a jackal out in the field, then more pretty wetland areas and poof – we were out and back on the road, heading for lunch.

Originally, we were scheduled to have a picnic out in Yala, but since our entire itinerary changed, we instead went to Rumesh’s “house” for lunch. We’re so excited, because we finally get to meet his wife – as he had wanted to do our first visit, but we ran out of time.  Buddy drives us off toward Yala – which is where Rumesh lives and then proceeds to get lost in all these villages.  He had to stop for directions 2 or 3 times. One guy even escorted us to the right road on his scooter. Plus, we got stopped twice by construction blocking the road – and they moved the construction vehicles to let us by.  That would never happen anywhere else! It was hysterical!  I mean how does he not know where he is going?    But it gave us a great tour of the villages out here, which are all totally different and wild – some with shanty like shacks, some with very nice houses – and of course rice fields everywhere.

Stopping for something – mints, throat lozenges, maybe? – at some random store at the crossroads of a village, we finally arrive at Rumesh’s house – the one where we switched Jeeps to go back to the port last time, there is no one there. When Buddy goes up to know on Grandma answers – apparently this is the wrong house!  Grandma is obviously watching the kids – we have to go to the other house.  More giggles ensue, but hey, we’re getting double for our money as now we get another Village tour!

Arriving at the “lunch” house we figured this must be Rumesh’s 2^nd place, designed just for this?  Not sure, but regardless, we are here along with his tuk tuk tour, who are just finishing their meal.  Rumesh meets us there, greeting us fondly, and seats us, fortunately, at our own private table on the corner of the porch, nice and quiet with the dogs in attendance at our feet.   We had a lovely lunch, full of typical Sri Lankan veg dishes, as well as a really excellent chicken dish thrown in. Plus, more bananas for dessert!!!  You know I’m in heaven!

As we are finishing our dessert, Rumesh comes over to say goodbye – he’s off with his tuk tuk tour – telling us we don’t have to rush, just relax. Which we do, finally meeting Rumesh’s wife!  And one of their mom’s, who also helped cook and serve.  After pictures with his wife, and of course with Buddy, our new best friend, we hit the jeep for the drive back to the ship.

Back through the Villages and rice fields, with the rice drying on the side of the road, past water buffalo cooling off in the water, and onto the port – actually stopping at a shopping area to pick up Rumesh, who was tired of the shopping stops all the time!  Yeah, gotcha, that’s why we’re here all by ourselves!

At any rate, it was a really nice way to catch up with him on the rest of the ride, and a proper goodbye with big hugs and promises to see each other again at the port gates.  Then it was back onto the shuttle, back onto the ship for normal afternoon and evening activities and a gorgeous night watching the full moon on the balcony.