From the Seaside to the Beautiful Port City of Kochi : A crab's life saved, a dance performance and more!

This morning my time at my seaside AirBNB finished and I traveled an hour north to the port city of Kochi (formerly Cochin). The route along the way was chock-full of Christian churches in Portuguese style architecture and seaside vignettes of fisherman and their daily activities.

One of the oodles of churches along the coast of Kerala. The Portuguese had a lot to do with that --starting as far back as the 1500's...

All along the way I saw fisherman at work.

I arrived at my hotel for three nights situated right in the harbor.

The views of the harbor are incredible with cruise liners,  industrial ships  as well as fishermen's boats traversing all day in front of the hotel.

A cruise liner across the way from the hotel

Some government buildings across the way as well

A 20 minute walk away from the hotel are many "chinese style" fishing nets. The nets raise and lower with weights and the fish get scooped up. This area is also filled with small shops of all kinds selling a multitude of touristy stuff.

I call this shop the "fish museum" because every type of fish and crustacean was on display-all caught in the adjacent sea. From hammerhead sharks to 6 types of prawns

As I was looking over the fish and inquiring about the methods used to catch each type, this young man brought a hog-tied live crab for me to admire. I bought him on the spot and released him back in the sea. Hopefully to enjoy a long life of freedom.

For 100 RS ($1.50) one crab's life was ransomed.  I watched as his bindings were cut and I then I had the joy of watching him scuttle back into the sea.

I watched this man who was fashioning creative fish and bird shaped hair combs out of animal horns --adeptly using his hands and foot (sorry didn't get that in the photo)

This evening I attended a Kerala classical dance performance called Kathakali. The audience had the option to come early to watch the makeup application. Makeup made of rice paste is applied to this young performer's face.

The first performance was a Keralan dance exclusively performed by women called Mohiniattam

The second performance was Kathakali dance- exclusively performed by men -even women are portrayed by men (see performer on right) 

This was the same young man who was having his makeup applied in earlier photos

On the way back to the hotel I snapped this photo of an old Portuguese building now revamped into a fancy hotel. Tomorrow I plan to visit some museums, historic spots and maybe take the ferry across the harbor...