Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, as Sri Lanka’s premier Hospitality brand has been spearheading the process of taking Sri Lanka to the world over the recent past by organizing several high level international events. These have generated significant media publicity and awareness Internationally for Cinnamon as a brand and Sri Lanka as a destination. The latest venture of this vibrant Lifestyle brand is to host American Celebrity Photographer and TV personality Nigel Barker on a tour of Sri Lanka from the 15th to the 23rd of July.

Nigel is a celebrated reality TV show personality, noted fashion photographer, author, spokesperson, filmmaker, and former model. He is best known for his participation as a judge and photographer on the reality show “America’s Next Top Model”, and is now the host of reality show “The Face” alongside Naomi Campbell.

Nigel Barker was born in London. His father is of Irish and Portuguese descent while his mother Mrs. Gillian Barker is of Sri Lankan ancestry and was in fact a former Miss Sri Lanka!

Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts will be hosting the Barker family comprising of Nigel, his wife and two children, joined by Mrs. Gillian Barker on a seven day tour of Sri Lanka. They will be visiting Cinnamon Lodge Habarana, Cinnamon Citadel Kandy, Cinnamon Bey Beruwala and Cinnamon Wild Yala. Nigel Barker will also be endorsing Cinnamon’s Leopard Project by participating in the donation of a Steel Pen to a cattle farmer in Yala.

The Leopard Project was setup by Cinnamon to help eliminate the Man vs Wild conflict between the cattle farmers and Leopards in Yala. The project has been well received both locally and internationally and Cinnamon has been able to donate over 50 steel pens to the local farmers in order to protect their livestock.

Cinnamon will also organize a half day workshop with Nigel Barker on the 23rd of July, which will benefit the entire Fashion industry of Sri Lanka. The workshop will revolve around the themes of: The art of Fashion Photography, Modelling for Success, Building and Managing your Brand and the Inspirational Story of Nigel Barker.

On the eve of the 23rd Nigel will participate in a book signing event, where he will showcase and talk about his latest book “Models of Influence” while also interacting with those participating at the event.

President of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, Ajit Gunewardene commented “We are proud to be instrumental in bringing the international celebrity Nigel Barker to Sri Lanka. As a brand, Cinnamon is committed to promote contemporary Sri Lankan art and culture as well as organize high level international events with celebrities such as Nigel Barker to promote Sri Lanka to the world.

Having Nigel stay with us is an endorsement of our brand acceptance by global celebrities. We are confident that he will leave Sri Lanka with great memories after his experience with Cinnamon.”

Nigel Barker is a key influencer and his association with the Cinnamon brand resonates well for Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts as well as for Sri Lanka as a destination. Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts is confident that on his return he will recommend Sri Lanka as a must-visit destination.

Award winning Photographer Jon McCormack spent the weekend in Yala with the Cinnamon Nature Trails team.

Chitral Jayatileke who heads Cinnamon Nature Trails said that the team had a very good trip with Jon where they had been lucky enough to have 11 leopard sightings in a single weekend!

Chitral – “I was delighted to be introduced to Jon McCormack by National Geographic photographer Ami Vital.Jon with his IT expertise has spent much time in exotic areas rich with wildlife around the world and his passion to photograph leopards brought him to Sri Lanka.

My time with Jon was an extraordinary experience,  as Jon was more than a great wildlife photographer. His keen interest on Community assistance while being the co-founder of the “Kilgoris” project in  Kenya made us connect with ‘Project Leopard’ spearheaded by Cinnamon Nature Trails based at the Cinnamon Wild Hotel.

One of the highlights of my work is the luxury I have to spend time in the natural world with like-minded people and this weekend ranked among the best game drives at Yala studded with 11 leopard sightings to remember.”

Jon also posted about the trip on his blog www.jonmccormack.com and was kind enough to give us permission to use it on Cinnamon U as well.

Thank you Jon!

The Leopards of Yala

by Jon McCormack

“Block 1” of Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park has more leopards than any other place in the world. Over 60 leopards inhabit a mere 40 square miles – about 1 ½ cats per square mile. This amazing density comes from a perfect combination of habitat, water and prey. Since there are no other big cats in Sri Lanka the leopards get to hunt the abundant wild boar and deer by themselves. The hunting is easy because much of Yala is dense bush, a habitat that these stealthy cats love. Finally, there is an abundant water supply for both leopards and their prey. Interestingly, much if this water collects in irrigation ponds built by the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ruhuna before they moved on 1200 years ago.

This “leopard nirvana” is also a wildlife photographer’s paradise. I spent the weekend with the extraordinarily talented Chitral Jayatilake of Cinnamon Nature Trails and the leopard sightings we had were beyond belief. Well, to me they were beyond belief … I overheard Chitral on the phone telling a friend that the sightings were “OK, but nothing spectacular”. I guess it all depends on your perspective. In 15 years of traveling to Africa I’ve only seen 7 leopards – 3 of which were close enough to photograph. In one weekend in Yala I had 11 leopard sightings – 6 of which were photograph-able. If you love wildlife, Yala needs to go on your list.

Chitral also works with local farmers to help them manage the interaction between cats and cattle. Yala has so much game that leopards generally wont attack fully grown cattle, but they will attack calves. Cinnamon Nature Trail’s “Project Leopard” provides protective cages to farmers so they can protect calves during the danger period.

If you decide to go to Yala, I’d recommend staying at Cinnamon Wild. The accommodations are lovely and the naturalists are world class (don’t just take this from me, the BBC’s Natural History Unit uses them when they’re in town!)

A BRIEF (AND SAD) ELEPHANT MOMENT

As inspiring as the story of Sri Lanka’s leopards is, Sri Lanka’s elephant population fills me with despair. Normally 80% of make elephants have tusks. Startlingly only 6% or male elephants in Sri Lanka have tusks. This anomaly comes from elephant hunting. Tusks are genetic and during the 150 years of British rule so many tusked elephants were shot that the gene pool was catastrophically altered. Epically sad.