A 500 year old body, Three Temples & a Spice Farm

Yesterday I did manage to get my booty off the beach chaise and take a cultural tour with my driver, Ganesh (yes, named for the God). We started in Old Goa, settled by the Portuguese in the 1500's. Apparently it was the "Rome of the East" and St. Francis Xavier's body is there in a huge old church that is a World Heritage Monument. I didn't catch the whole story, but basically his body hasn't decayed in 500 years....yeah it gets better. The only part that has fallen off is one toe and it was kept and worshiped too.

From there we headed through three Temples that were all magnificient to see up close and personal, but that I couldn't enter due to my short shorts. Oops. Even though it's the beach state, normal Indian rules apply ladies! We went on to the Spice Farm which was exquisite. On this tropical spiceland they have vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, bay leaves, lemon-grass, wine, and more -- they even create mace from a spice grown here (who knew). We saw a monkey man swing from trees to trees and a huge banana spider that made me miss my Tobey!

The World Heritage Monument.

For this dude's body (sorry - Saint's body)
That's it in those little windows.
500 year old body.
No biggie.

Sorry to put this up, but really? A little graphic
intensive I think?

Beautiful ceremony of lighting
candles for their Saint. It is nice to see the
variety of religion here.

Shri Manguesh, devoted to Lord Shiva.

Ganesh nicknamed me Khushi for this trip as he said
I was always laughing (Khushi = happy in Hindi)
You can't see it, but I'm laughing here because he just
told me I was bad luck (since we couldn't enter any of
the temples).
I said to him, "ok fine, I'll just look reeeeeally good
outside of them then." He laughed too, but I don't
think he got it.

Beautiful temple.

SPICE FARM! Vanilla tree/plant?

If you look closely, there's a man in those trees.

We stopped at Panjim (Panaji - just another thing where
it's always differently spelled, but same city) which is
the capital city of Goa. And all I wanted was to hit
up this bookstore. I'm now carrying 7 books with me.
Too much, too much, too much.

Finally we ended at Fort Aguada. It's a Portuguese fort constructed in 1612 to guard against the Dutch and the Marathas. It's at the shore of the Mandovi River and what I found interesting is that there was a freshwater spring within the fort which provided water supply to ships as they came by. This is how the fort got its name "Aguada" meaning Water. There was also a huge lighthouse, the oldest of its kind in Asia. "Built in 1612, it was once the grandstand of 79 cannons, a moat around the fort also protected it."

The fort as the sun began to set.

Tomorrow I'm off to Anjuna Beach to check out a white sand beach and the famous Anjuna Flea Market. Again, leaving my solitude for crazier beaches, a backpacker dorm room, and eventually a train to Mumbai.

But before I head off, I wanted to end with the pictures of a couple of ladies who don't have such an easy life on the beaches of Candolim.

Vanesha. Keep in mind it's 31 degrees today
and she does this all day long.

Ahh Kerala, my masseuse and fresh juice extraordinaire.
Looking beautiful in her orange sari.

16 year old Nikita.
I keep bugging her everyday about going to
University as she's finished 8th class.
Maybe one day she will!

Hopeful pyaar to all of you.