We stayed two nights at the Santani Wellness Spa and Resort. The resort is beautiful, the architecture stunning, and the food was always delicious and beautiful. The tour company suggested this would be a good "time out" for us after all the exciting and taxing activities we had been doing since arriving in Sri Lanka. We demurred, but ultimately accepted the suggestion.
Neither the common rooms nor the guest rooms have air conditioning. The best breeze and view are in the dining room next to an open window. On the second night we found that by leaving the sliding glass door open in our room we could be comfortable in a concrete room.
Our first full day, we met a naturalist at 6:00 am for bird watching. We heard a lot of birds which the naturalist identified, but we rarely saw them ourselves. On our walk we did have a nice view of "Knuckles" a mountain named by the British because the peaks look like the knuckles on a hand.
At 10:00 am we took a nature hike down to the river and then back up to the resort. The resort is on the former Aratenna Tea Estate. The walk took us past fields of tea with acacia branches standing tall above the tea plants. The acacias are planted in the tea to put nitrogen into the soil. The naturalist pointed out clove trees and black pepper vines. Down at the river, the tallest tree there was a Mee Tree. And, we watched as two resort workers plucked lotus blossoms from a pond. It was a very hot walk during late morning hours.
During the heat of the afternoon we rested in our room until I went to a late afternoon yoga class and Dan went to the pool. I met Dan back at the pool where we enjoyed a glass of wine and the coolness of early evening before going in for dinner. The hotel does offer many expeditions away from the resort, and you can do more yoga, have massages, or sit in a hot sauna.
Tomorrow we move on to the city of Kandy and a little more activity.
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