South India and a sigh of relief

We have finally reached South India and we had no idea what a relief it would be to come here. We're in Fort Kochi, in the state of Kerala. This region is famous for it's backwaters, there are just rivers everywhere. We've done the compulsory tourist boat tour on the back waters which was quite nice though I think I perhaps enjoyed the journey to the place even more. We took local buses, which when not overcrowded and time is not an issue can be quite fun. You just see so much. If you want a quick overlook at what a place is really all about get on some local buses. We passed village after town after village and when we had to change buses a friendly young guy obsessed with his cell phone walked us to the next bus and told us which one to get one since all the signs down here are in the local language, Malayalam. This is a bit of a dissapointment to Hernando because he has actually been learning some Hindi since we got here and now he can't use his skills.

Speaking of Hernando and his love of learning he is currently taking a class on an Indian instrument called the veena. It has 12 strings like a sitar-- see the photo. And this morning we took a yoga class that apparently turned out to be an advanced class though we hardly ever done any yoga before! We took two classes a week ago and liked it but we did not go in prepared for what was ahead of us this morning. A little way into the lesson we're doing these stretching poses on our backs with our knees bent and legs in the air and the guru decides I'm ready for the advanced pose. He literally folds me into a pretzel with my ankles crossed and my head sticking out in in front while on my back like a flexible but helpless beetle. And then halfway in we were both doing headstands-- gettingup and staying up independantly! Go us and this amazing yogi who I think in turn wants to turn me into a yogi before we leave India.

Two nights ago we watched a Kathakali performance. It's traditionally a dance or play performed in Hindu temples illustrating important stories about the gods but it seems that it is mostly preserved for tourists now. Indian people have little interest in it anymore, what with Bollywood, TV and the internet, and it's quite profittable to charge tourists $4 a piece and fill up an auditorium. Wow that was touristy. I honestly felt like I was at the zoo while I and all the other white tourists snapped their digital cameras away at the centerpiece. But I'm glad I went and got to see it still. Hernando had an amazing time to my left. I keep looking over at him silently dying of laughter in reaction to the very expressive acting/dancing. I mean VERY expressive. You have to be when you don't use words and just use your body to convey messages. They paint their faces beautifully and colorfully and wear amazing costumes. The best was the female demon, as is typical of female demons she (acted by a he) had a black painted face and exposed pointy breasts you come to understand that she is evil by her mischeivous eyes and maniacal screams.

I think Hernando and I have found a place we really like and will want to take it easy in for the next week or maybe longer. The people are so nice and friendly, they are so much more pleasant than people in the north. Life is more laid back and though you get used to constantly being on the offesive up there it's a huge sign of relief to be friendly again to strangers and not have to shoo them away like flies because you are constantly being hounded.

One more thing that surprises me that I'm sure you're all curious about is that Hernando and I turn out to be great travel buddies. Honestly before we left we weren't sure how long we'd have before we wanted to kill each other. But even though we've spent every moment of every day together for the last two months we have managed to remain not just civil to each other but enjoy being together. We each become annoying and a pain in the butt at times but it blows over easily. We were having a good laugh yesterday with 2 Australian girls who have been traveling together about how good it feels to have a fight when you need to and get over it.

I have finally uploaded more pictures to flickr! The address is:http://www.flickr.com/photos/37516374@N02/ enjoy!