The picture above and the one immediately below were thankfully taken by a fellow BTCVolunteer that had a much more high tech camera that yours truly - and I'm forever thankful that they were captured, for they are my two most favorite pictures from the trip to Sri Lanka.
Both were taken at the Elephant Orphanage in Peradeniya. There was one specific elephant with a handler that you could pay to pet and get a picture taken. While MySister and I were close, the elephant sneezed. I didn't react - I was transfixed in a
Am I really in Sri Lanka, touching an elephant, is this real? trance; Too paralyzed to move. MySister, however, well you can see her reaction.
We saw more elepants there than a lifetime of American circuses. Add in the elephants we saw later that night on parade in Kandy and you have MySister saying, "I think we saw all the Elephants in all of Sri Lanka." Visiting the Elephant Orphanage was pretty awesome - we saw elephants being fed, elephants grazing about, and elephants washing themselves in a nearby river.
Random footnote: on the way back to Kandy from this excursion, we saw someone walking a porcupine on a leach.
