Sri Lanka: Udawalawa National Park, Christmas 2016

After having an awesome time on the beach, we traveled by car to the Udawalawa National Park, which is a nature reserve in the middle of the country.  While the park has a lot of animals, we were most excited to see the elephants.

We were picked up from our hotel by a "Jeep" which was really a pickup truck with 6 elevated seats stuck in the back of the flatbed.  Sounds a little strange but it was actually a great way to see the animals.

From inside the Jeep.

There were tons of other birds and animals in the Nature Park.  Here are a few:

And back to the elephants because they are so amazing.  We even got to see a baby with it's mother.

My favorite picture of the entire trip.  Ripley and I looking at a little baby elephant and it's mother.

The gang from inside the Jeep.  I loved that even the driver got excited about seeing the elephants.

I think we could have looked at the elephants all day, but 4 hours in a Jeep with two little people deserves some fun at the hotel.  They had a pool but this swing next to a horse was way more fun!

 We had a few hours to kill so we went to a local temple that clearly doesn't see too many tourists.  I think people took more pictures of us than we took of the temple.

Sime primitive drawings in the rock.

A cool reclining Buddha encased in glass inside one of the temple's rooms caved into the rock face.

Paintings on the rock walls.

From the top of the temple looking down the mountain.

We had a very special Christmas dinner at our hotel, Nil Daya Mankada Safari Lodge, during which Ripley fell asleep.  He never does that!  It was a Christmas miracle!

The next morning we drove to a nearby Elephant Orphanage, called the Udawaldawa Elephant Orphanage, to see the baby elephants.  More baby elephants - hooray!

The elephants are let in four at a time to feed.

They are given bottles of milk, just like baby bottles.

Ripley loved it so much he couldn't take his eyes off the baby elephants.

 We then went back to the hotel to hang out.  We absolutely loved this hotel that was all concrete (done in a super cool way) and nature.  Very cool!

A playground made out of a fallen tree.

The hotel rooms.

The entryway.

The main courtyard with a turtle pond in the middle.

We love turtles!