INDIA TRAVEL NET

The Land Where Pepper Grows. Spice Village is located in the Periyar wilderness, high in the western ghats of Kerala. For centuries, the area attracted voyagers and adventurers, mercenaries and empire builders, kings and merchant princes. Men and women drawn not only by the lure of spices, but by the romance and wild beauty of the land.

The Portuguese and the Jews of Cochin visited as traders, turning the natural bounties of the area into wealth. Pepper and cardamom, cinnamon and ginger, nutmeg, mace and anise the Periyar hills became nature's taste factory in the 14th century, as Cochin became nature's harbour, the port of lading for a spice-hungry world.

Later, the area came under the Kingdom of Travancore, and many of its plantations, orchards and hunting lodges date from that time.

The Raj too, left its mark on the Cardamom Hills. Early efforts at conservation came from its dedicated forest rangers, who loved the land and its people as their own.

Today, it's the rainforests, the animals and the vast silences that attract the modern visitor. On the road to Spice Village, it's easy to feel this centuries-old allure yourself. The earth boils in a fertile outpouring, every conceivable shade of green, flecked with the crimson and gold of mountain flowers. This is a world of forests patterned in dappled sunlight. Plantations of rubber, coffee and spice. Rolling highlands and crisp, cool air.

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