Pinnawalla elephant orphanage
Our guide offered us a choice of different activities related to elephants. There are both private and state providers. We chose a government provider, which in our eyes (based on what our driver told us about it) is as animal-friendly as possible with the elephants. In this orphanage there are only elephants that were taken in because of an injury. They have been treated and are being cared for.
We were able to observe the elephants there and to hose them down with water while they bathed. The elephants are very curious there and are no longer shy of people. The disadvantage of this is that unfortunately they can no longer be released into the wild.

We left this place with mixed feelings.On the one hand, it is good that injured elephants are taken in and treated. And it is also understandable to a certain extent that they need tourism to finance this place. On the other hand, especially when we were bathing the elephants, we had the feeling that they are already being trained very specifically and that there is a very strong intervention here. It is extremely difficult as an outsider to say how the animals are really doing here. With the current knowledge, we would probably not visit this facility again.
The Island Spice Grove
This place is like a very large enchanted garden with many different plants. Both spices, coffee and various roots which are used as natural medicine grow here.

We had a guide who led us through the property and gave us an overview of the plants and their natural active ingredients. On the one hand, it was interesting to see how the plants look, grow (like vanilla in the picture above) and how the active ingredients are harvested. On the other hand, we learned a lot about the natural active ingredients of these plants. For example, there is a tree which produces natural insulin and with which the locals make a kind of tea to treat diabetes. To what extent this works, however, we can not verify.
The tour through the garden was very interesting and informative. Afterwards we went to a store where the processed active ingredients were then sold in the form of oils, gels, etc. We bought a few things there and afterwards we are glad not to have left much money there. For example, when we opened the aloe vera gel, we didn't get to see a gel, just green water. So this product went straight into the garbage can. The rest of the products we have not yet tried, because these were partly intended as gifts for family.
In summary, I would say that a tour through this "spice garden" is very interesting and I would clearly recommend it. With the experience now, however, I would not buy any more items there.
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