A Dam in the Mountains

Munnar has this beautiful dam with a bridge across which surprises you when you drive around it. There is generation of electricity from it by taking water from the dam through iron pipes down the steep hills.

Munnar Spice- Pepper

A Pepper Creeper

On the way to Munnar, one would find many creepers entwined around trees. The creeper above is pepper (piper nigrum), which is used all over the world as a spice and as a carminative. The creeper also looks very beautiful with its heart shaped leaves which resemble the betel leaves.

The Architecture of a Hill Station

In the hills, houses are modest and often part of small settlements. Because of heavy rains and high gradient, there could also be the danger of land slides. All around the Munnar Hills, one would find small villages. From a distance, these really look beautiful.

Your Cup of Hot Chocolate

The Cocoa Plant

The image above is that of a Cocoa plant, (Theobroma Cacao) with the cocoa fruit sprouting out of the trunk. Inside the pod, the cocoa comes in white beans. The tree is an understory and often grows under rubber trees. The flowers come in the trunk in clusters. Whether it is hot chocolate or chocolate ice cream, the world is always hungry for chocolates.

Munnar has the plantations of Cocoa all over, so that it produces all the three family drinks: tea, coffee and chocolate.

The Spice Mountains - Munnar

The Coffee Blossoms

Munnar is the goldmine of plantations. You name it and Munnar has it: tea, coffee, chocolate, cardamom, nutmeg, pepper and rubber.

The image above is that of a coffee plant. The blossoms resemble varieties of tulip or jasmine. the beans are shiny and cherry like, though hard. In this season, I could not find any beans.

Exfoliation in Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a tall tree of the Myrtle family, and is widely found in tea gardens amidst tea plants. Its bark is smooth in greenish gray colour. But when the outer bark dies out, there is exfoliation, and the new bark appears smooth and shiny.

In the photo above one could see the new barks coming out. In tea estates, with these trees around, production of eucalyptus oil is an inevitable byproduct.

The Lone Jacaranda

The jacaranda tree in full bloom is a sight of rare beauty. The violet-blue flowers cover the complete tree. In case of the jacaranda tree above, near Devikulam, most of the flowers have wilted.

However, a few of the blossoms still remain so that the tree could be noticed by the road side. Very thoughtful of some one who had planted this tree.