Sri Lanka - Part 3 - Elephants (Mostly)

Today we drove from Colombo to Anuradhapura with a few stops along the way.

We started the day with a short visit to the Sapumal Foundation in Colombo. The foundation has an interesting collection of mid-to-late 20th century art housed in the old house of one of the artists. This group of artists, the '43 Group, was responsible for the temple paintings we saw yesterday.

It's pineapple season. We stopped for a snack of fresh cut pineapple along the road. 100 rupees (about 70 cents) for a totally delicious pineapple.

Our next stop was the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, which is a sanctuary for elephants that have been orphaned when their mothers were killed -- mostly by farmers protecting their crops.

One of the shelters where elephants are fed.

Elephants walk silently because of the soft pads on the soles of their feet.

Every day the elephants walk to the river to bathe and have fun.

Elephants on parade. They walked quickly.

The end of the line.

Elephants enjoying the river.

Sue feeding bananas to elephants Monica and Pinky.

The Elephant Orphanage makes handsheet paper from the elephants' dung, then sells the paper products in gift shops in town with the profits benefiting the orphanage. Naturally, we had to buy some "poo paper".

We took a short break in Kurunegala on our way to Anuradhapura. The town is surrounded by large rock monoliths, and has a very large Buddha sitting on top of Elephant Hill.