Turtle Farts and More

Morning with the Turtles

I am still not on a regular sleep schedule. It took me forever to fall asleep. Last night there was hand drumming and chanting/singing until 5am. It wasn’t a party as the drumming was very rythmic and not like a dance tune. Our host didn’t know what it was. John googled and one possibility is a Buddhist all night ceremony to expel bad spirits.

After a breakfast supplied by our Airbnb, a driver picks us up and takes us to a family run snorkel centre about 20 minutes away where they fit us with snorkel gear and rash shirts. Then we hop into a tuktuk with our guide, Aja, and head to the turtle beach.

The water is warm and very shallow. There are less than a handful of other people in the water. Within seconds of getting into the water, I am swimming with a green sea turtle. Suddenly a second is with me, then a third swims directly under me, brushing my stomach with its shell.

I have swam with sea turtles in many places but never with so many at once. They are everywhere here.

The turtles are very serene, their big, dark eyes taking everything in. They don’t seem to mind or notice if you pet their shell.

They have no fear and although not interacting with us they continue doing their turtle stuff.

While swimming behind a turtle, he shares something from deep within his core.  A large stream of bubbles escapes from under his tail proving that turtles really do fart. Please click here for a video that I found on YouTube.

We swim with two types of turtles, Green Sea Turtles and a few Parrot Head Turtles. I do not have an underwater camera with me so click here and here for a green turtle picture and here for a Parrot head turtle picture.

One guy seems to be harassing a turtle by sticking his GoPro camera in its face over and over again. Eventually the turtle swims off.

Too soon our time with the turtles ends and we head back to our guide’s place where we shower, change and have tea before our driver returns us to our accommodation. 

We spend a few hours on our balcony, watching the boats and some local children playing on the beach.

Mirissa Beach and Secret Root Spa

We head to a bar on Mirissa Beach for a bite of lunch and to watch the surfers.

A group of six beach boys sit on a bench sipping their bottles of water before setting back into the waves.

We walk down the beach and up a quiet lane to Secret Root Spa. There are a lot of massage spas in Mirissa but this is the the first one that most people recommend. You have to book in advance. I wanted 1.5 hours but they could only fit me in for an hour.

There are numerous pretty massage huts in a garden setting. There is no shortage of colourful flowers and Zen music is piped throughout. Needless to say, the mix of deep muscle and Ayurvedic full body massage is amazing. I wash the oil from the head massage out of my hair.  John is waiting for me when I’m done. I have a relaxing cup of herbal tea before floating down to the main road.

We pass an adorable Oriental Garden Lizard. He is a breeding male. You gotta love Chat GPT.

Zephyr Ceylon Restaurant

We catch a tuk-tuk to Zephyr Ceylon Restaurant on a very quiet beach. Our host said that this is her favourite restaurant. We have a beachfront table but sadly clouds blow in just before sunset. It doesn’t matter, the location is still utterly beautiful.

The beach dogs seem to be attracted to John and when not being chased away by staff, they settle around our feet.

They also try to sleep on the lounging chairs until chased away.

I order the miso and mushroom infused mahi mahi with extra veggies (perfectly done and delicious)and John orders a fish burger. 

We organized with our tuk-tuk driver to meet us at the restaurant after supper. It’s Saturday night and the streets are crowded. The traffic is insane. Click here for a short video. Our driver initially goes to the wrong place but eventually he gets us back to our accomodations.