Sri Lanka...

It's been explained to me, by fellow tourists (mostly with The Oxford English accents) that Sri Lanka is the "sterilized India."  Whatever that means.  I've not been to India, so I couldn't say.  However, Sri Lanka is quite nice compared to a lot of other up-and-coming countries, as well as some already established countries.  I'm looking at you, Oxford Man.

And the wildlife was BONKERS!!!

I held some baby turtles.  

The Professor held the Big Mama!

We ran from one of these chunky fellows.

And spent a lot of time dodging these dudes...

...while we rode around in one of these Tuc-Tucs.

Then there was this gal...Ms. Water Buffalo.

The curd we had every morning from said water buffalo.  Note the palm honey.  

And finally, the Kingfisher.  Until now, the only one I've seen has been in bottle form.  Hiccup.

Spiders the Size of MY FACE

(Thanks to Organic Baby for the photo)

Trolling gawker today, I found this little article about venomous tarantulas in Sri Lanka.  Hopefully, The Professor won't want to seek-out these little guys.

Sleep Tight: Venomous Tarantula the Size of a Human Face Found in Sri Lanka

Neetzan Zimmerman

Just when you thought spiders couldn't possibly get any worse, along comes Poecilotheria rajaei.

The newly discovered tarantula is described as being the size of a human face, with "beautiful, ornate markings" on its legs which can span up to 8 inches across.

Though venomous, the so-called "tiger spider" is not known to be lethal to humans, which is a fairly small comfort to the people of Northern Sri Lanka, particularly patients at a local hospital, where at least one of these eight-legged freaks was found.

Though some arachnologists expressed doubt that a wholly new species had been discovered, British Tarantula Society journal editor Peter Kirk said the spider "has enough significant differences to separate it from the other species."

Ranil Nanayakkara, the scientist who first documented the face-sized spider's existence, did note that the Poecilotheria rajaei is hard to stumble across — though that might soon change.

"They prefer well-established old trees," he is quoted as saying, "but due to deforestation the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings."

End. Deforestation. NOW.