Break Time!

With the masons taking a short break for a family function, we’ve spent the past two days enjoying our surroundings. On Friday, we took an excursion to the mountains, stopping at two reservoirs to get a nice break from the hot weather!

The first lake we visited, Amaravathi, had a huge dam and hydroelectric plant attached—something we as engineers found really cool! The lake itself was breathtaking, with the mountains on all sides, and an occasional raincloud coming down from the valley. We even saw some lemurs, but were too slow to snap a photo—maybe next time!

Just downstream from Amaravathi, we tasted some fish caught right out of the lake, which was delicious (as almost everything is here!). We visited a tiger preserve, and though we didn’t see any tigers, we got to visit a crocodile farm. We then went to cool off at a popular waaterfall. We didn’t bring any swimsuits, but that didn’t stop Ken and Aftab from taking a plunge!

Finally, we went to Aliyar dam—our driver Suresh was able to get us in right at closing for a beautiful sunset. The lake behind the dam is the site of many Tamil movies, and we all agreed that it rightfully deserves its fame, as it was beautiful. After another delicious dinner in Coimbatore, we went home.

Today was a rest day, with the morning devoted to a little digging around the foundations and an afternoon at the river. Though we enjoyed the break, we’re excited to get back to work and finish the project in the next few days—stay tuned!