Goa, India: Majorda Beach, Goa Velha, Spice Plantation, etc. (Carlos)

Full disclosure: 

Carlos voulait aller à Goa en partie à cause de son faible pour tout ce qui est culture lusophone... Nous y sommes restés 16 jours, pour rattraper les travaux d'école, et un petit peu pour la plage aussi. Il ne reste pas grande chose de la culture portugaise, en dehors de la religion d'une partie de la population, et les noms de famille. J'ai rencontré une seule personne qui parlât la langue (famille  éduquée), mais lui aussi a préféré changer à l'anglais.

Carlos quiso ir a Goa porque siente una debilidad por la cultura lusófona... Otra prioridad: escuela para las niñas, y en 3er lugar, playa. Lamentablemente, la cultura luso brilla por su ausencia, fuera de la religión y de los apellidos. Encontré a una sola persona que pudiera comunicar en portugués, y hasta él prefería hablar inglés (¡pero no hindi!)

Carlos wanted to visit Goa, due to his weakness for all things Portuguese... We also needed a base for the girls to catch up with their schooling, and go to the beach a little bit. We discovered, however, that the luso culture is mostly gone, aside from the catholic religion of part of the population (very much alive - all Goan houses have a sort of altar with saints, Jesus, Mary, etc), family and some city names, and a few churches. I only met one person who spoke some Portuguese, and claimed that his parents did too, but then he still preferred English. 

Another (small) reason to go: we really liked the Bourne movies, the 2nd of which takes place partly in Goa. For those who saw the movie, I drove over the bridge several times!...

Pas contente à cause d'un torticolis. Mauvais départ pour Goa!

View from our apartment on Majorda Beach; typical Goan landscape

 Trip to Old Goa (Goa Velha)

Señor, ten piedad de nosotros… El auto del chofer (señor Godinho, católico). Notre voiture. Our car - with special protection. 

Basilica do Bom Jesus. St-François-Xavier est enterré dans cette église. Ici nous avons vu une femme (hindoue) remplir un thermos avec l’eau du bénitier, nous supposons pour la boire. Il faisait très chaud… 

Ci-git St. François-Xavier. Tumba de San Francisco Javier

Medieval lawn care. Cortando el pasto con hoces pequeñitas… 

Sé Catedral. The old Cathedral. La vieille cathédrale. 

Entrance to a portuguese palace, today in ruins. Vieux palais portugais.  

Church of St. Cajetan, in restoration, modelled after St. Peter in Rome. Glorious woodwork. Iglesia de San Cayetano.

Somebody actually lives in the palace next to the church. Probably more than one person. And obviously parks here. I know because a guy, in typical Indian manner, honked at me right in front of the church, for the effrontery of not moving aside fast enough for him. 

Quelqu'un m'a klaxonné sur le parvis de l'église, pour avoir eu l'effronterie de ne pas me tasser assez rapidement à son goût. Probablement un bon catholique! 

Entrada monumental de Goa antigua (arco de los virreyes). Se vé al bisnieto de Vasco da Gama. 

Celebrando el retorno de la independencia portuguesa (de los españoles, en 1640). Indépendence portugaise de l'Espagne en 1640. 

Visite à une plantation d’épices. Spice plantation. 

Allspice. Tout-épice.

Anis

Repas splendide après la visite guidée. Naturellement, assez épicé. Autour de nous, la plupart des touristes (indiens), mangeaient avec la main. Comida excepcional después de la visita - picante!

Coucher de soleil, vu de notre appart

School day. Journée d’école. Dia de escuela...

BEACH. Most people go to Goa for the beach. OK, we did go there, but not every day. It’s not your typical Western beach or ambiance, at least not in low season, when we were there. The water is wonderful, green and warm. Very long stretches of tropical beach, with lush vegetation, coconut and palm trees. But…, the vast majority of people at the beach do not actually go into the water, and if they do, it is mostly fully clothed. Otherwise, you see groups of young males, just standing there, watching (unkind people might say ogling) the rare women on the beach. Needless to say, most Western women choose to go into the water with a T-shirt. We only saw lots of people during a long weekend (Gandhi’s anniversary) that coincided with a Hindu festival and the end of the Hajj. Suddenly we had hundreds of people, mostly families, at the beach. It’s a pretty sight to see all those colourful saris going into the sea. But clearly it is not a normal part of Indian life. Local Goans never “go to the beach”, as our driver informed us. We had some young Indian tourists in our building for a few days (the only other people we saw in the building during our 16 days there), but they were upper middle-class kids from northern India. And they went into the swimming pool fully clothed. And then right into the elevator, with the results to be expected. 

Chemin

No comment.

Ah, las vacas indias... El dios que las encarna decide ir a la playa. Por qué no?

Éliane pense qu’elle veut peut-être étudier l’entomologie ou tout au moins les petits animaux. Éliane quiere ser bichóloga.

Restaurant Pentagon, probably the culinary highlight of our stay in Goa, directly across the street from our building. Most meals cost for the four of us about 1000 to 1200 rupees (expensive for Indian standards), but delicious! Chicken and aubergine dishes to die for... 

Un drink que nous avons découvert en Inde: jus de lime frais. El mejor drink aperitivo que descubrimos (fuera del lassi): jugo de lima fresco