Old Goa and the beach :)

OMG! It was my worst night ever... I never felt so hot... the fan was working, but still...i was sweating and sweating all freakin night... there were probably 40 ºC during night...

Check out was at 9 am. The Afonso's kindly let us leave our backpacks on the backyard and so that's what we did, so we could go wander around a litle more around. As there was no place for breakfast, we just bought some bananas on the street on the way to the fruit/veggies market.

It was a long walk but really cool...the city was full of life....! And people...and...motorcycles...and..people...and cars...and people...  :) Finally we got into the market and it was crowded! friuts and vegetables everywhere...and people...! It was almost impossible to get in...we wanted to buy some fruit for more breakfast, but we had a hard time comunicating...On the way out, we were buying Mangoes to some vendor, and suddendly an old man came to us talking in English saying that we should choose another kind of mangoes, the sweetest ones :)

He heard us talking portuguese and began to talk in portuguese too! That was great! .

..Another person speaking our language...We talked a litle bit, got our "mal curadas" mangoes and left to a corner to eat them :) They were sooooooooo good and juicy! A great breakfast! By the way...let me tell you guys...IT'S REALLY HARD TO FIND A GARBAGE CAN IN GOA!! ...we walked miles  to find one, with the mango pits in our pockets :p ...sticky pockets we got...

We walked all the way to the Bus terminal, as we wanted to visit Old Goa, 15 min away from Panaji. We crossed the Footbridge to the other side of the river and we're a litle lost trying to find what it was supposed to be a huge Bus Terminal. After almost an hour (we were really lost!!!) we found a crowded terminal with dozens of old and colorful buses... (how could we miss that???)

With some help we got in the right bus to Old Goa. It took us 20 min on a bumpy road and it cost 7 Rps.

Old Goa, 9km east of Panaji on the bank of the Mandovi River, was once the capital of the Indian Portuguese territories.

Mangoes

There is not much left of the old city. What remains are the interesting 16th and 17th centuries churches and cathedrals. Old Goa was granted World Heritage Status by UNESCO. Many Indian Christian pilgrims come here to see the tomb of St Francis Xavier, the famous 16th century missionary whose body was laid to rest in the Basilica of Bom Jesus.

 

Old Goa was founded as a port town by the Vijayanagar and Bahmani kings. It later became the second capital of Adil Shah, the ruler of Bijapur. At that time, it was surrounded by a wall and a moat and contained the Shah’s palace, mosques, and some temples.

St Francis Xavier

Nothing remains of these structures except part of the gateway to the palace.

In the 16th century, Old Goa became the capital of the Portuguese territories in India and grew to a population of about 200,000 despite the epidemic in 1543. Its streets were compared to Lisbon, and it was as large as London or Paris at one time.

Old Goa was virtually abandoned after malaria and cholera epidemics killed many people in the city in the 17th century. The population went from 20,000 in 1700 to 1,500 in 1775.

A truck...typical one

The viceroy moved to the former palace of Adil Shah (the present Secretariat) in Panaji. In 1835, after the government forced the repression of religious orders, much of the city was deserted. The capital of Goa was officially moved to Panaji in 1843. By the end of the 19th century, its population consisted of mainly priests and nuns.

It's really a mystical place. We wandered around and went back to Panaji on a bus just in time for lunch. We had lunch at Viva Panjim, a great restaurant with Goan food. The waiters we're really kind and wanted to know everything about us. Of course they asked for Cristiano Ronaldo!!! as usual...haah..The owner spoke portuguese and was friends with the owner of the Afonso's. We had a very good meal and it was cheap also. A good choice around Panaji.

We went to get our backpacks and took an autorickshaw to Anjuna.

We were supposed to take the Rickshaw just to the bus station, but then we found out that it would only cost us 300 rps and it was a fun way to travel! 45 min later, a flat tire, and a great conversation with the driver, we arrived to ANJUNA!!

Our first impression wasn't good... just a road...with cows.. and some empty bars.. it was like "the end of the party style" ...We went to look for accomodation and ended up in Villa Anjuna, where we stayed in a room by the pool for 1800 rps non AC. The staff was nice and it seemed a great place. Even though the room was a little smelly :)

We left the room and started a long walk to where the action was. After 20 min walking thru a dirt road we arrived to Anjuna Beach, where there were many bars with lots of people:) and cows ....oh boy....lot of cows! After all, we were in India...

Went straight for a dive in the very warm waters....ahhh... it felt so good! (The ocean in POrtugal is freeeeeezing, you know.

.) The waves were giant and we had a great time there.

After that we just sat in one of the bars (Janet & John's) and relaxed, enjoying the view and have some drinks. As we had to buy a sarong, we went to one of the stalls, where we met this Indian girl and heard all about her life story...after a long time discussing the price, we got out of the stall with 2 sarongs, some pants...and some things...etc etc.."Thank you for business..." ..hahahaha...interesting experience though..

We left the beach and went back to Villa Njuna for some relaxation on the pool and then went out for dinner right next door - Sea Queen restaurant - where they were playing Die Hard 4 ....Good food, cheap and crowded.

Night life here was reduced to Zooris, a bar with a great view where people meet and have fun. Paradiso, the disco, only opens 3 days a week because i't the start of the low season. We had some drinks

The tiredness soon got over us and we went to sleep.

.. not before bumping into some cows that were lying on the road....the only road...Thank God we had a flash light :)