One of the delights of Sri Lanka is that this is really Mother Nature at her best. From the terraced rice paddies, the beautiful locations for canoeing, the tranquility of the trees and surroundings, all brought together with good people, great food, delightful locations

We departed Belahoya for our 5 hour drive to the south of Bentota Island. It was a very pleasant and scenic drive, stopping at Ratnapurna where the famous gems of Sri Lanka are mined. It was interesting to see the the mining at first hand after seeing it on a video in Kandy. We were shown the uncut gems, then the cut and finally the polished, I could have bought a topaz for $40, but you need to be careful unless you can identify a real gem as they can be fakes.