As predicted yesterday, it was a hot and sweaty night. Neither Re nor I slept very well, and the fact that it was pouring rain did nothing to improve our attitudes. Since we didn't have to be to the jetty for the canoe trip until 9:00 am, we decided to give it to 8:30 for the rain to stop, or we would skip the canoe trip and head to Varkala once the rain subsided. Since our canoe trip was supposed to run from 9:00 am until 1:30 pm, and our checkout time at the hotel was 2:00 pm, we wanted to have everything packed and ready to go before we left that morning. While we worked on getting ready, the rain did stop. At 8:30 we hopped on the bikes and rode to the jetty, where the boat company people found us a place to store our helmets and park the bikes. It was now that we found out that our 4.5 hour boat tour was actually a 1 hour autorickshaw ride, then a 2.5 hour canoe ride with a 1 hour return autorickshaw ride. Oh.

So at 9:00 am, we boarded our autorickshaw for the twisty, bumpy ride to Monroe Island and the home of our tour guide.



There, we boarded a 75-year old wooden canoe and headed out through the canals. Our guide was very knowledgeable and pointed out all of the various trees, spices, birds, and other animals we saw along the way.



We stopped for a demonstration of coir rope making and some tea.



We made another stop at a boat building business and saw how the local boats are built. They use planks of wood that are stitched together, and the seams are waterproofed with coir and fish oil. After our return autorickshaw ride, we zoomed back to the hotel and loaded up the bikes for our very short ride south to Varkala.

Varkala is supposed to be a nice beach town, and Re and I are looking forward to some quality relaxing. The ride was only about 25 miles, and we soon found ourselves lost. The beach at Varkala is at the foot of a 100-foot high cliff, and all the hotels and businesses are arranged along the top of the cliff. We had a general idea where the hotel was, but the connections from the main road are a maze of narrow alleys and footpaths with very little signage. After riding around and asking for directions for twenty minutes or so, we finally called the hotel and were assured that we were very close, but they would come and find us. A few minutes later, a man appeared on foot and led us the quarter mile to the hotel. The funniest part of the ride was that we had to turn onto the main footpath at the cliff top and ride a couple hundred yards through the pedestrians to the hotel.



And what a nice place!



All twelve rooms at this two story hotel had front balconies from which you could see the ocean, and our room was on the second floor with a particularly nice view. We decided once again to skip the AC since the room had big windows, a mosquito net over the bed, and a very powerful ceiling fan. All this for only 14 bucks! After unpacking the bikes and settling into the room, we went for a walk along the cliff to scope out our dinner options and then descended the steps to the beach for a stroll and a dip of the toes in the water. The beach here is beautiful, and the scenery ain't bad either. Later that evening, Re and I found ourselves sitting at a front row table overlooking the ocean and enjoying a delicious dinner. Life does not suck right now.

26 miles in about 1.5 hours. My bike doesn't seem to be very happy at part-throttle.