Sri Lanka has less fuel, which makes me realize what a fool I’ve been. I used to drive 5 km in a car to walk 5 km on a treadmill, which, in hindsight, was obscene. Now I just walk to a gym 5,000 steps away, killing two birds with one stone in that now I can also go birding. And lizarding. And also, sadly, garbaging. I walk along the storm drains of Colombo, which are their own ecosystem.

Colombo has a network of canals stretching north and south out of Colombo. From what I’ve heard and badly remembered, my grandfather used to load logs with elephants near Kalutara and float them up to, I assume, Moratuwa. I’ve looked on a map, and you can transit Colombo just on the inland waterways, though at some points you’re just going through gutters. This canal network still exists, though it’s only used by lizards for transport. For humans it’s drainage and, sadly, refuse.

I have taken pictures, but the water isn’t picturesque. I’m hiding the plastic waste and the stinky sludginess. If you look closely, you can see the problem, though I try not to. I mostly look for animals, of which there are plenty.

One of my favorite creatures is the kabaragoya, or water monitor. There are two types of monitor: the land monitor is not dangerous and supposedly edible, while the water monitor is dangerous if you ever mess with them. One got into my house once (long story) and I just left. I just sat on the other side of the road until they wandered out by themselves. These are magnificent creatures but not to be messed with.

Kabaragoyas love the gutter and are plentiful in the canal system. The canals are their highway, along with the crocodiles. I usually see one or the other every day, and the kabaragoyas directly cross my path.

Colombo is also a paradise for birders and birds, I get the order mixed up in my human supremacism. The city is the most urban part of Sri Lanka but it’s barely urbanized; if you go just off the main road you can be right back in the jungle. The land is fundamentally a wetland, and if we ever try to build too much, the whole place floods to bring the wet back again. Birds thrive in this environment, eating fish and whatever else they’re doing.

One of my favorite birds is the painted stork, with its beautiful pink paint job.

Or the purple coots (swamphens), with their beautiful blue feathers, that seem to flock together.

And the magnificent, regal pelican, which likes to perch on top of lampposts, surveying everything. You see them atop the highway, like kings of the road.

Colombo is a place where man has given little thought to nature, but where nature also gives little thought to man. No matter how much we urbanize, the jungle keeps jungling.

Bonus picture of a katussa for paying subscribers.