Cochin Harbor fishing nets. Photo by Lorre Weidlich.
    The following morning I toured a spice plantation. Kerala is known as a spice-growing area. The plantation was small, but because spices are an expensive commodity, an acre and a half can support about 10 people. I saw not only a variety of spices growing, but also coffee, cocoa, fruit, and plants used in Ayurvedic medicine. It was a lush, cool, green environment. I was introduced to the plantation owners and called upon my one phrase of Malayalum, "Sugha mano?" (Are you fine?). They laughed.
    I learned a few additional words of Malayalum from Unni: ana (elephant), panni (wild boar), and kadua (tiger). Despite the fact that this was the Periyar Tiger Reserve, I did not see a kadua; they are rare and becoming more so. I did see a panni, in fact, an entire herd of them, as well as bison, monkeys, and less familiar black monkeys. Best of all, I rode an ana, something I've always wanted to do. The world looks different when you look at it from that far above the ground.

Days 6, evening, 7, and 8, morning: Munnar
    From Periyar we climbed upward to Munnar, the highest point in Kerala and the land of tea estates. It was not a drive for amateurs. The road wound in circles around the sides of the mountains and the drop-offs on the other side of the road went straight down. Unni drove the Indian way: as we rounded every curve, he honked to warn oncoming traffic. I looked out over incredible valleys with a patchwork of green: clusters of precisely manicured tea trees, with pathways winding between them. We passed spectacular waterfalls. About 5:30 the mist began to rise, creeping in fingers over the valleys and mountains, and then twilight fell. By 6:30, when we pulled into Munnar, everything was enshrouded in mist, and