Friday, Mar 6th, Mysore, India

Greetings!

After breakfast this morning, we drove to Mysore where we will stay until Monday.  The family home which is hosting us is in the Kodagu district, within the Western Ghats of the southwestern state of Karnataka.  After its merger with neighboring Mysore district, it is about the size of Sonoma County, with a little more population.

We are staying in a home which has ancestry from the Kodavas (formerly referred to as Coorgs), land-owning agriculturalists with martial customs (a warrior community), whose dynasties ruled the area from 1600 to 1834.  Among other accomplishments, the group claims partial responsibility for the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, where we were recently. 

The crescent necklace on the woman in the picture is called a Kokkethathi, worn by married women.

Sorry, the palaces we went to had prohibitions on cameras today, but I'm told there will be no restrictions on tomorrow's locations.