Today was our final morning in Colombo. Kyle and I have been rising early to get the most out of their mornings before breakfast and to enjoy the cooler temperatures.
This morning, Kyle, who is Catholic, really wanted to attend Mass to see what it's like in Sri Lanka. I'm not Catholic, but I agreed to go with him anyway with the stipulation that we could stop by the local Anglican cathedral afterwards.
St. Theresa's Church is a Redemptorist church in Colombo, about a 10-minute drive from the hotel. We set out early to attend the 6:15am weekday Mass and arrived a few minutes before the service was due to begin.
The church was light, airy, and open to the breezes and sounds of the early morning city waking up to the day. The walls were adorned with beautiful frescos, and stained-glass windows let in colored light from high above the sanctuary,
It was a weekday Mass, so it only took about 30 minutes. We were surprised at how many people had woken up so early to go to church at 6:15 on a weekday!
Sri Lanka is a pluralistic country, with large Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian populations, but Western Province, where Colombo is located, has the highest percentage of Christians in the country.
By pure coincidence (and we didn't find this out until later), Kyle actually has a friend from back in Boston who actually served as a priest in this church for a few years! What a small world!
After the service, we headed to the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour, the diocesan cathedral for the Anglican Church of Ceylon.
There wasn't a weekday service going on, but we wanted to visit anyway because of its unique architectural design.
The current building was built in 1973, and you can definitely tell! It's got a super cool retro-modernist sort of style. This is really unusual for Anglican churches, which generally tend to look more traditional. I really liked the design as it was so different from any cathedral I've ever seen before.
We stayed for a few minutes, admiring the unique architecture, but we didn't have a ton of time to spend. We had to get back to the hotel, pack, and get ready to move on from Colombo to our next stop.
Negombo is a beach resort town about an hour north of Colombo, and its where we will depart from on Sunday morning when our Rickshaw Run adventure officially launches! Before that, we have a few days of driving practice, basic mechanical briefing, and logistical stuff to take care of.
We arrived in Negombo just after noon, checked in, dropped off our bags, and took a walk down the road to the nearby Paloma, a very small family-run restaurant and bar.
The owner was super friendly. He took our orders and chatted to us while his wife prepared our lunch. He knew all about the Rickshaw Run and wished us luck on our upcoming adventure.
We were all in the mood for local food. Mom tried an egg and sambol sandwich, Kyle had the Sri Lankan vegetable curry, and I had a spicy Negombo red curry with prawns and mango chutney.
Mom was feeling tired and returned to the hotel to take a rest and cool off. I was tired too, especially because the heat of the afternoon was really draining my energy, but Kyle really wanted to see the ocean. He insisted that the two of us take a walk down to the nearby Negombo Beach. I reluctantly agreed.
It was a really hot day, and the bright equatorial sun made it feel even hotter. We didn't stay very long, but it was nice to watch the waves crashing against the golden sand and to see the fishermen off the coast in their traditional sailboats.
Returning to the hotel, we rested and tried to cool off. Kyle and I had a swim in the pool, then I sat down to work on our official team blog (TeamMamasBoys.com). There's just one electrical outlet in the room, so Kyle and I are having to share.
This evening was "Pre-Adventure Beers", the first official Rickshaw Run event!
We took a car to the Serendib Restaurant and Pub, which sat on the beach facing out to the sunset.
We got to know a few of the other teams who have arrived already, and everyone seems super nice. The very first team that we met was another family team called "Ho Ho Ho And Away We Go". Made of three adult siblings (Kyle and I joked that we could never, ever convince our sister to join us on something like this), they had named their team in honor of their late father who portrayed Santa Claus for many years. Their team had a fun Christmas theme, and we really enjoyed talking with them.
Not everyone is here yet; some teams won't be arriving until Saturday, just before the launch, but it's nice to get to know some of the other participants and to have a few friends who will be going on the Run!
Today we wore our matching team shirts! I had the design custom made, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Mom got the shirts printed before we met up in Sri Lanka, and they look so good.
Most teams seem to have made matching shirts, but I think we are the only purple team so far. We will also receive a matching flag to fly from our rickshaw closer to the launch.
In the evening, after we had all arrived back at the hotel, Kyle started to feel hungry, and asked us to go out for a late-night snack with him. Unfortunately, Mom was starting to feel a bit under the weather. She's had a cold for a few days, and it seems to be getting worse.
We took her to a pharmacy that was in walking distance to our hotel to get her some over the counter antibiotics, then took her back to the hotel to get some rest. Hopefully she'll be back on her feet before our big adventure begins.
Kyle and I then walked down the road to the Buhari Hotel.
Kyle ordered a chocolate and banana roti (a type of South Asian flatbread, or stuffed crepe), and I ordered one with ghee and egg.
We took the roti to go and shared them in our room before going to bed for the night.
Tomorrow is the first day of test driving, and we want to be ready for it. The next two days are going to be crazy as we get ready to officially launch off on our adventure across Sri Lanka!
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