Saturday morning started off with a bang! We got up early to head to Aruku Valley. It's about a 2 hour drive (without traffic) and we wanted to be back in the early evening so we left at 5am. We prepped the boys the night before that they needed to be ready to get up, eat breakfast so we can leave. I set the alarm for 4:30. When I got up, I lazily got out of bed, turned the light on to the bathroom and went inside to use it. When I finally woke up, I looked up and saw this huge cockroach running around like crazy in the bathroom. I screamed and Ryan came running in as I went running out. There is one thing Ryan hates...spiders. I kill spiders. If I had to pinpoint one thing I hate, it would be cockroaches. This is the first one I've seen (in the apartment) since being here and I've decided they probably party all night, I just don't usually wake up early enough to disturb them. So, instead of freaking out, there will be no more early rises.

We picked up our good friend Mounika on the way to Aruku Valley because we wanted her to come with us and it was a good thing because she was able to translate for us while we were there as well. The drive up was a little crazy, most of us had motion sickness at one point, but Mounika actually got sick on 2 different occasions, I blame it on the drivers, they zig and zag their way around people, bikes and cows, and then stop abruptly when reaching a pothole or a speed bump. I can't believe I'm not the one that got sick.

picture spot on the way up to Aruku Valley

looking out over the hills, so beautiful!

local working in the rice field

Our first stop was to the tribal village. All the way up we saw rolling hills full of rice fields, workers out with their cows or oxen plowing the fields. It was quite a sight to see so many small villages. Lots and lots of banana trees, sugar cane fields and of course animals and people.

We walked around the ‘Tribal Horticulture Nursery’. I’m not sure what exactly the purpose was, but we walked around and saw many varieties of trees, including mango, papaya, a silk cotton tree and many, many beautiful flowers. The grounds were gorgeous and if we wanted to, we could have stayed the night in a ‘tree cottage’ for 500 rupees. We opted out of staying. 

my favorite

Guava tree flower

funny pose at the nursery

funny mermaid statue

 After the nursery we went to the tribal museum. Again, no cameras were allowed inside the museum, but we were able to see basic life of these tribal peoples; tools used for cooking, marriage ceremonies, dress and daily living. What seems so ironic is that the tools used hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago are still used today. I guess ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. When we left the museum, the boys were able to try shooting a bow and arrow. Nobody hit the target. Brayden and Ryan got close, Conors went about half way there, Davis decided it was too hard and Dallan’s arrow never left his hands, except to fall to the ground. Regardless, they had fun shooting them.

outside tribal museum

practicing their bow and arrow shooting

After leaving Aruku Valley we headed towards Borra Caves. They are about 30 kilometers apart so we had a little time in the car. Initially the plan was to have a picnic, but the rain kept us confined to the car for a ‘picnic on the road’. Mounika was introduced to PB&J sandwiches, Pringles and other junk food we Americans eat. The driver couldn’t believe we didn’t want to eat at any of the restaurants in town. Luckily I’m smart enough to know my kids won’t eat anything except what is familiar to them so I packed a backpack full of snacks and sandwich stuff and called it good.

On the way to the caves, the rain stopped so we sidetracked and took a jeep 4-wheeling up to a local waterfall. It was a serious jeep ride. (My back is still sore from the bouncing and stress of making sure the kids didn’t bonk heads.) The kids had fun being bounced around all the way there and back. When we got as far as the jeep would take us, we hiked about ½ mile to get to the base of the falls. It was amazing. It was definitely nature at its best. The only complaint I had with the hike was the amount of trash lying around. It makes me so sad that there is this beautiful area, with such stunning views, and then so much trash around. When we hike in the U.S. and see a piece of trash, typically Ryan or I will pick it up at put it in the trash can. First of all, there are no trash cans around, and secondly, if would have been available I’m not so sure they would be used anyway. It’s just how they’ve been trained around here.

lookout point

one of the vendors on the way to the waterfall

waterfall from a distance

"When in Rome"...don't EVER tell Conor about this...he would DIE!

The gang

our cute fam!

The boys

pretty shot

10 rupees for a chicken kabob...but what part of the chicken are you eating? My guess is as good as yours...

In the jeep

By the time we came back down the hill and got to Borra Caves it was about 1:30. Remember, in India there are no public bathrooms. All the way up to the valley we saw little kids, men, whoever, on the side of the road squatting if they had to pee. We left our apartment at 5:10 am and now it was 1:30…you do the math. The boys were able to go the bathroom on the side of the road, at the falls, wherever, because nobody cares, everybody does it like that here anyway. "When in Rome", right? Even when we were waiting outside the tribal museum, there was a lady walking down the street who had to go to the bathroom so she just squatted in the street (more of a side road) and went. No biggie, right? HAHA…yes, very biggie! After waiting as long as I possibly could, we found a bathroom by the caves. When I say “bathroom” what I really mean is a hole in the floor with a door. See for yourself! (This is exactly why I have only used the toilet at our apartment or Ryan’s office).

potty break!

Last stop was Borra Caves. Mounika told us if we took bananas with us we would be able to attract monkeys. She said many monkeys would come out if we just held a banana in our hands. As we were entering the caves we saw several monkeys walking around, I had the bananas hidden in my purse. The caves were amazing, and went back so far. We saw this amazingly large spider (the kids and Ryan didn’t think it was that great…remember, Ryan doesn’t like spiders), but we had to walk super close to it because it was near a narrow passage way. As we walked and walked and looked at the amazing formations, we realized there must have been thousands and thousands of bats above us. The screeching was so loud as we continued to walk further back and in one area, the entire pathway was covered in bat poop. The kids thought it was so awesome! (Although they thought the cave was awesome, too, they were refereeing to the bat poop covering the walk way being awesome!)

This mommy monkey wasn't sure ehat I was doing. If you look close, you can see her hiding her baby

going down into the caves

looking up from about 1/2 way down

formations

Brayden and Mounika

Davis

more formations

Having Monika with us as we went around was great. We always assume people are talking about us and so we would ask her, "What did they say?". She would translate for us, but usually the conversation had nothing to do with us. There was one point in the caves when the kids wanted to go to the very top of a set of stairs. Ryan and I opted out because all you did at the top was ring a bell. As we were standing at the bottom of this particular staircase, we kept getting dripped on from water that was coming down from above us (no, not bat poop). I looked at Ryan and said, "I feel like everywhere I stand, I'm getting wet." There were a couple of gentlemen behind us and one spoke to the other in Telugu. I then heard the second guy say, "She said, she keeps getting wet every time she moves". I thought it was funny because we had been asking all day, "What did they say, what did they say?"

On the way up the stairs to leave the caves, Brayden asks for a banana. I give him one and he runs up to the top out of the cave. As soon as he walked out, a monkey came up and took the banana from his hand, ran straight for a rock on the other side of the fence, peeled the banana and started eating it. Being 13, it took more time to register than it took the monkey to eat the banana. Ryan grabbed the other banana, hid it in his shirt and walked to an open area. Before I could get my camera ready, there were 4 monkeys by him all making monkey sounds, practically doing tricks. He broke it in half and was able to give 2 monkeys each a piece. You almost felt bad for those who didn't get any, they just looked at you with those monkey eyes, and then ran and chased the other monkeys down to try and get some of theirs. Because we never see anything like this in the U.S. it was super funny. I just can't get enough of the monkeys in the wild.

(will post more pictures here in the future. not being allowed to upload photos)

Speaking of 'monkeys in the wild', reminds me of my kids. You know how every where we go we cause a scene. Well if the fact that we are white isn't enough, my kids have learned some Telugu words on top of it. For instance (I am spelling them phonetically, so please, no Indians are allowed to laugh!)...nomusko, valoo, corti, elu, ackepondu, etc, etc. The best part about these first two words especially, is that they mean "shut up" and "go away". The others aren't so bad corti = monkey, elu = home, ackepondu = banana.  The problem arises is when they are going crazy and they start shouting, "nomusko, nomusko". They say it and laugh. Usually they are in the car and the driver laughs with them, but every once in awhile, they are walking down the street, or up to the waterfalls and are yelling these words at each other. I'm not so excited about it, but it is pretty funny when you hear a white kid yell, "nomusko corti". Especially when there are no "corti's" around. My favorite is when Raju (the driver) starts to bug Dallan, he'll now tell him, "valoo, Raju"! Raju just keeps laughing and bugging him!