Jan and Caitlin Taking Over

John/Dad has left the country and left us to fend for ourselves in Kerala (southern India). We flew from Mumbai to Cochin this morning and were greeted by very tropical weather and a tamer Indian city than we expected. We have not seen many goats or cows wondering the main streets, people actually stop at red lights and stay in their own lanes! It took us 90 minutes to drive 40 km-- we thought they were over exaggerating when they told us it would take that long. We were a little worried because the closer we got to our hotel the seeder the neighbourhood got. I (Caitlin) was thinking maybe they are taking us far away to kill us and take all our pashminas. We ended up arriving to the historical beach community called Fort Cochin. We're staying in a historical Tea Bungalow that has 10 unique rooms in this 100 year old house. It has a beautiful garden (dad- the swimming pool is fabulous! wish you were here) and we have a room that has a balcony that over looks the gardens. We're within a 10 minute walk of the beach which has a large collection of Chinese fishing nets and catching and selling a huge variety of crab, shark, prawns, kingfish, and barracuda. We just watched the sunset over the ocean and now we're heading back to our hotel to relax and go for dinner.
Life is rough here in India but I think we'll manage with the beach, 30 degree weather and all the shopping yet to be done!
C & J