St. Mary's Island

The shoreline on St. Mary's Island. We came in on the tender on the other side of the island, where it was more sand/shells than rocks.
The vegetation on St. Mary's Island.
Their attire indicates that these young men are in training to be Hindu priests (not sure if priest is the right word).
Great view of St. Mary's Island from the boat.

Today we had a most deserved break from school work - we went to St. Mary's Island! We took a bus to the fishing town of Malpe (pronounced mall-pay) where we boarded a boat. I must tell you that the smell in Malpe was like nothing I have ever experienced. Nothing. And the flies. Oh my the flies.

Once we boarded our boat it was a 45 minute slow and scenic ride to St. Mary's Island. We pulled a rather large tender behind us; they were tethered to us by rope and the engine of our boat was really laboring under the large effort. Once on the island we strolled around at our leisure, mostly near the water. We were disheartened with how much litter there was in the area where we came ashore, but on the other side of the island it was a near pristine paradise. After our outing Dr. Howard treated us all to lunch at The Woodlands restaurant in Udupi. The food was so amazing!! I think we all ate too much but I simply couldn't leave it on the table. We split a breadbasket full of naan (there was butter naan, my fave), I had a lime juice (so good!!) and I had the tastiest butter palak masala. 13 of us had lunch, and there were many appetizers and juices. The Woodlands is a very nice restaurant. Our bill came to around 1300 rs, or about$26.