This is what passes for excitement these days...

 

Galle Port gets a lot of cement and cargo ships of various sizes, but we were surprised to see this ferry pull up a couple weeks ago. It is brand-new and was on its way from its birthplace in Vietnam to its final home in Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Matt made this delicious cherry pie for Thanksgiving

Our minimal activity (mostly walking a lot) since tying Perry to the wall here in Galle back in March has now ground to a virtual stand-still. Sri Lanka conquered the initial wave of Covid-19 by imposing strict lock down measures and seemed to have eliminated community transmission altogether. There were virtually no new cases in June, July and August and the total cases stood around 3000 (the few new cases were through citizens returning from overseas) and only 13 deaths. Then, at the end of October, there was a cluster of cases at a garment factory here. Now, a month later, Sri Lanka has had over 24,000 cases and 124 virus-related deaths. Although there are not many cases in Galle, everyone is being very vigilant.

Our area has not been subjected to any lock downs, but everyone wears a mask and stores require that you sign in, wash your hands, and have your temperature taken. We have chosen to go out only when we need to (mostly for groceries). We don't want to expose ourselves unnecessarily (if we tested positive, it's not clear whether we would be forced to go to an external quarantine facility and we don't want to find out) and we are trying to be respectful of the country's attempt to contain things.

But overall we can't complain (despite the fact that we now have two teens in close quarters <<muffled scream>>). Mark and Conrad made Halloween costumes and shared treats with the guards in the port. We made lasagna and cherry pie for Thanksgiving. We have been eating a lot of stuffing with our roasted chickens lately (bread is cheap here and we generate a lot of bread crumbs), so we decided on lasagna for a change. It turned out to be almost as much work as a traditional Thanksgiving meal since Matt had to make the ricotta and lasagna noodles from scratch. 

We exercise within the port, decide what to make for dinner, and feed/pet the stray dogs, to whom we have given creative names like 'Doggo' and 'Red dog'. Thank goodness for relatively inexpensive Internet and for Netflix (thank you Grandma and Grandpa!).

A couple days ago, there was a ten-foot crocodile in the harbor. By the time we saw it, it was too far away for a picture. That's yet another reason not to swim in the port (the scuzzy water and debris--including dead fish and animals--being the main reasons).

 

Look ma! We have been in Galle Port long enough to show up on the Google satellite images. I guess that's not unexpected when you've been in the same place for over eight months (having arrived with plans to stay for a week or two). The boats with X's through them are no longer here (one of them was a derelict boat that sank and the other two are cruising boats that have left).

The sailboat circled on the left is Nostromo. If you're bored, there's an interesting story behind how the boat came to be in Sri Lanka, involving the attempted rescue of a middle-eastern princess.

Many countries are slowly loosening their border restrictions (with many changing requirements). We plan to stay in Sri Lanka until early next year and then head to the Maldives. Chagos recently announced that it would reopen to cruisers, which is good news for us. If we are able to get a permit, we hope to go there after a stint in the Maldives.