Varkala 12/19 - 12/22

Varkala Beach from Cliff.

 The 19^th we took a short train trip even further south in Kerala to the small town of Varkala. We managed to book a homestay over the phone that had free wi-fi. The lady over the phone spoke English which was wonderful as we have had been having quite a hard time communicating lately. (It seems that for the most part people do speak English, but explaining things takes a while and people don't always get what we mean. We also have a hard time understanding the locals. I think we've finally caught on with the “Indian Head Wobble”. It's pretty much a laid back way of saying yes or ok. There were several times where I have gotten a short wobble to one of my questions and was left bewildered.)

Katrina, the lady from Casa Eva Luna, met us at the train station in Varkala because she said that our homestay was difficult to find. Indeed, we followed her scooter in a rickshaw up the main road toward the cliffs of Varkala and turned off into a side street that really looked more like an unmarked trail. This place really was off the beaten path, but just a few steps off, in the middle of a palm forested area full of small homes. The cliffs and beach were just a short walk across the main road. The house was clean and spacious and painted all different colors. We stayed in the orange and yellow “Sun Room” upstairs with a private bathroom and a yellow mosquito net. It was wonderful. There was no AC and the beds were as hard as in all of Kerala, but we slept well and awoke to the sounds of goats, dogs, birds singing, and even far off chanting one morning. Of the two ladies that ran the house, one was from Barcelona and so we had strong cortados for breakfast. Our last night there we ordered tapas and had a delicious homemade Spanish dinner. Who would have thought that we would get authentic Spanish coffee and tapas in India?

View of Beach from Cliff.

Sunset on the Beach.

Peter's Temple Outfit.

In Varkala, we walked the cliffs, visited the beaches and, of course, rented another scooter so that we could explore on our own. We visited the main temple in town which is supposed to be 2000 years old. We were allowed to walk around inside the temple complex (no pictures allowed) but not in the main shrine. Upon entering the temple, we were sold a banana leaf full of little bundles of grass. I am not sure what we were supposed to do with this...I think it was an offering, but we didn't know where we were supposed to put it. People kept gesturing to us, but we didn't know what they wanted, so we left the grass on an altar and ran away!

We also drove through some very primitive villages to see a fort, but mostly we relaxed. We hung out a bit on the beach and in the numerous cafes and restaurants at the top of the cliff. We had some delicious barracuda at one of the bars. The cliff side of Varkala is packed full of homestays, bamboo cottages, hotels, internet cafes, bars, restaurants, shops....all jammed into one little area. This seems to be the place to be if you are interested in ayurvedic medicine as there are all sorts of clinics and shops devoted to it. There are also a ton of yoga and massage places as well as a number of older hippies and dread lock sporting youngsters. Varkala is so incredibly beautiful I could probably just stay here for the entire three months.