We are *so* chilled :)

We have spent the last 5 nights in Goa - 3 nights in the capital (Panaji) and 2 nights at the beach (Benaulim/Colva). We stayed right on the beach at Furtado's Beach House - we watched the waves morning, noon and night :) We arrived at the beach at about 2 in the afternoon after a visit to a spice farm near Ponda - that was pretty amazing AND we saw our first elephant :) They have a small section of the plantation that has a huge range of plants, so we saw everything - bananas, betelnut, coconut, tumeric, cloves, cinnamon, a curry (?) tree (where curry leaves come from), coffee, pepper (one vine does green, red, white and black - it all depends on when you pick it and what you do to it to dry it out) and the vanilla bean orchid. The cashew apple tree was not in season, so we only saw the tree and the place where they make the fenny (which is the distilled apple part). The guide was very informative, we learned a ton! And we saw a monster spider (I have a photo :)

The drive into the beach is pretty horrid (roads were fine :) - it is total tourist hell, like P-town or Southend on Sea (depending on your country of origin :) There is a ton of building going on, it was great to get to the place we had chosen and to find it a bit on the rustic side, very nice though, but not at all posh. When we got the bikes unloaded we immediately changed into swimsuits and shorts and headed for a nice long walk on the beach :) Ah, bliss. The water was so beautiful and we saw lots of cool things (a field of small clams pushing themselves up out of the sand as the wave approached) and we saved a lot of silly starfish that got themselves washed up (small ones, just a few inches across) and one very silly fish that had been washed ashore and even when we got him back in the water he kept swimming for the beach until I threw him farther out :) We walked for about an hour and then turned around a came back for dinner. (sunset pics coming :) For some reason we were very tired and we had an early night. The next morning we took it easy, had lots of coffee and a decent breakfast and set out down the beach the other way (in South Goa, where we were, the beaches are long stretches of sand, in North Goa the beaches are in little coves). We walked for another hour and then wanted to get out of the heat of the midday sun, so we stopped at one of the many beach shacks and had our favorite drink (fresh lime and soda :) and watched the waves. When we got back we had a swim in the ocean (bliss!) and then a cooling shower (no hot water, but you didn't need it :) and got some dinner and then packed up - we wanted an early start this morning as it is very hot. After we were packed and it was dark, we walked along the beach for awhile and then went to one of the beach shacks we had seen earlier that had a sign for a sitar and dance evening - it was great! And it was great to walk on the beach in the dark and see all the sand crabs scurry back and forth between their holes and the surf :) I woke up early this morning and went out to see if I could catch the fishermen...and I did! Of course I was not awake enough to remember my camera, but oh well. There were about 20 guys pulling the nets onto the beach and they used voice commands (that we a lot like singing) to get the group hauling together. When the undertow would pull the nets back in they would ease up until the next wave broke and they got a big push from the water. On the ride out this morning the roads of Goa were tightly enclosed with palm trees - it was cold, we had all the zips done up an there was a lot of moisture in the air. Once we hit Karnataka though, the roads opened up and it was rice paddy central :)

Some more random thoughts :)

* The bats are Indian Pipperstrelles (according to a book) There are also supposed to be some bats here that have a wingspan of 120cms!!! and it says they look like umbrellas hanging from the trees. We have not seen them....(thank goodness :)

* I have been thinking Baldwins for several days :) Not only are there a ton of birds here (egrets are everywhere) but Rotary is alive and well on the south west Indian coast! I must have seen signs for at least 10 different Rotary clubs, most of them today. And thanks to Page I knew all the spices the guy asked us to identify on the tour :)

* The food here is amazing. We try all sorts of new things whenever we find them on the menu. In Panaji we went to one of the Portuguese restaurants - the food was great and made for a change. We have discovered uttapams, which is a rice flour pancake. You can get them plain, but its better if they dump all sorts of yummy things onto it as it's cooking - my fave is the tomato and onion :) We have had fab somosas, dahl, channa masala, paneer tikka masala and some amazing veg curries.

All for now, my time at the cafe is expiring!!!! and we need to get dinner :)

Oh...can you believe that on the first time I wore my bathing suit it died? I must have had one too many laps in the gym pool :) No matter, I had my sports top and I wore that as a bikini...so the new tattoo has seen the light of day and the world (on the Goa beach) has seen it, too :)

Bye for now!