We have come to North Paravur to visit our friend Nijeena who is a printmaker.
She has built the most amazing studio in her back garden where she runs SALT, Space for Art, Learning and Teaching…with workshops for artists and children.
She is the next artist to feature in the Shed gallery so Charlie was keen to talk to her about all her work.
In the late afternoon she said let’s go to watch the sunset at Cherai beach! I’d hadn’t realised we were so close! So we drove through the backwaters and just about made it before the sun went down!
Although we’ve stayed at Cherai beach a few times, we’ve always been further north on Vypin Island and not in the centre which comes to life at night with sparkling lights adorning all the buildings…or have they just not got round to taking down the Christmas decorations!
We ate dinner at an amazing restaurant called Tropical Trip Resto bar, a manmade tropical environment made out of concrete, but so realistic with a waterfall and stream running through the centre full of huge fish!
The following day we set off to have lunch with our poet friend Wilson in Kuzhur.
It’s right out in the sticks and Google maps kept changing the route! Maybe we did actually go round in circles!
It was so lovely to see him at his Temple of Poetry…it must be six years since we last visited, after the terrible floods in Kerala washed his house away. We were treated to best Thali ever, cooked by his friend Shiju who runs a catering business.
Since we last visited Wilson’s garden has flourished, his house now seems to be hidden in the middle of a banana grove and the tree I planted is huge!
We felt so relaxed, his place is an oasis of calm nestling in the Kerala countryside of paddy fields, palms and banana trees!
