2024-03-15 Southern India: Mar 31 – Rubber Plantation and a Harbor Cruise

The morning was spent driving. We had a rest stop at a place that featured lots of carvings and other touristy types of knickknacks.

And chocolate. This area grows cacao, used to make chocolate. We passed on the chocolate but did buy a bag of their hot chocolate mix. Hope it is good.

Countryside photos.

As mentioned earlier, this area has a modest Christian presence, so we saw a few churches along the way.

We were getting a tour and lunch at a farm. But before lunch our host took us on a little tour of his farm, showing some of the things he raised.

Cacao (for chocolate)

Cashews

Coconut

Turmeric

Pepper

And a plant that can be rubbed to release a red coloring. Came right off.

He also showed us a childhood game he and his brothers used to play with these long leaves. They split the leaf along one side of the rib and wrap it the side of your finger. You then pull down sharply on the part around your finger, ripping that half of the leaf from the rib. This launches the other half into the air. We all tried it. We all needed more practice.

The farm is also a rubber plantation. He demonstrated how the tree sap is collected. Using a special tour a thin layer of the outer bark is shaved off on a half spiral down the tree. Almost immediately we could see the white latex sap oozing out of the tree and the droplets gathering to move down the spiral. It drips into the collecting cup below a little channel/funnel inserted into the side of the tree.

The work is done at night as the cooler temperatures allow the latex to run longer before coagulating. Thin layers are shaved off over several months before they switch sides of the tree. The tree is then able to heal itself by growing bark over the wound.

We rubbed the latex between our fingers. The liquid was pretty smooth but as the liquid rubbed away you could feel and see the small dark bits of rubber being revealed. We had never seen this before and found it very interesting.

The farmer’s wife put out a great spread. We all had a great visit. The farmer was a bit of a talker.

Then it was off to Cochin. We dumped our luggage at the hotel and then headed to the harbor. On the way to the dock.

There we boarded a boat for a sunset cruise around the harbor. Photos of the city and waterfront taken on the cruise.

The shipyards where the load and unload big cargo ships.

and a cargo ship heading out to sea.

Chinese fishing nets.

A lot of egrets around the harbor. They especially seemed to like roosting in the rigging of the Chinese fishing nets.

There were a number of small boats doing their thing in the harbor.

And lots of colorful fishing boats at anchor.

Some boys playing on a boat. They were very friendly.

We also got a brief glimpse of a dolphin in the harbor. Tara said she had taken the cruise many times and never seen a dolphin. So we were quite lucky.