Well, with the New Year celebrations over it’s almost back to normal in Candolim. Very strangely, the Goan government has put a curfew, until the local elections on Feb 4th, on alcohol sold after 11pm! (There are serious fines and licence withdrawal for breaking the law). However, there are more fundamental issues at stake for some - when we visit the beach one of our “friends” usually sniffs us out! Julie is very old (about 16 years or more!) She reminds us so much of how “Oscar” got – sight and hearing almost gone but still plodding on. She comes to us for her biscuits.
Doug’s got himself a part time job – ‘tea boy’ at the barbers shop! (something else to add to the CV!) Our barber boys are Muslim so they drink hot sweet milk. Doug and James drink hot sweet coffee. Basically, whatever you have comes hot and sweet!
We occasionally hire a scooter for a couple of days at a time. Our barber friend Asraf took this pic and sent it via Whatsapp. Since he got one of our (kindly donated) phones he’s now on Facebook and other social sites and his English has improved so much in just a few weeks. He’s so happy!
A few days ago our friend Julroy came up from South Goa to join us for the day. As we had a scooter, and Julroy had his fabulous Royal Enfield, we rode up north to Arambol. James, of course, took the invitation to be pillion on the back of Julroy’s bike! We had a lovely relaxed lunch in a beach shack.
Doug and Julroy on the very pretty Harmal Beach at Arambol
Julroy gets cold easily! Phew! 32 deg C.
Nice headland at Harmal Beach
This is the ‘bike park’ at the end of the street in Arambol. If there’s not enough room then you slide things about until there is! Notice the sign – we see very few Indian people smoking.
Another day another beach as we’ve said before. Goa has the most amazing beaches and the further north you go the quieter, and prettier they seem to get. The other day we took the scooter up to Morjim. This is Turtle Beach (for obvious reasons) looking towards the ‘busy’ end.
Turtle Beach looking the other way where the Chapora River joins the Arabian Sea.
Our reason to head towards Morjim was to meet up with friend Sherwin who now has a job managing a Yoga retreat. Sherwin’s chef, Ashwin, made us the most (THE most!) amazing mint/lime/lemon drink. The colour is very dark green and the taste is like nectar.
Here’s James with Sherwin and Ashwin. We met Sherwin while he was working on one of the Chapora River trip boats which we’ve booked to go on again soon. Hopefully Sherwin and Ashwin will be able to visit us one evening while we’re on the boat.
…… and a selfie - (James seems to be getting better with smiling and pressing the button at the same time!). James, Doug, Sherwin, Ashwin and ‘Babu’.
After a lovely catch up with Sherwin we popped down to nearby Ashwen Beach for an hour or so. We had a good mile-long walk along and back …..
….. and, fascinatingly, the beach was dotted with these starfish (about 3” dia). they seem to manage to cover themselves with a thin layer of sand. The breathing hole is clear of sand in the centre. It’s an optical illusion but the starfish sits in a recess, the same shape, and slightly bigger than itself. The starfish are white before they get covered in sand. (Unless someone knows different to all this?)
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