Goa

I was desperate to get out of the city, so I made a somewhat spontaneous trip to the Goa region.  A former student (Erin, UI 2010 Anthropology) accompanied me.  Goa was a former Portuguese colony so it has a different colonial history than much of the rest of the country.  In fact, I was surprised to learn that the Portuguese did not leave Goa until more than 12 years after the British in 1961 (they were kicked out by the Indian army). While distinctly Indian cultural characteristics are here, the region has a much different feel to it than Karnataka (where I am living).  For instance, it celebrates Mardi Gras, and that is just one of 100 annual festivals celebrated with seafood and plenty of drink.  It was officially the "off season" which meant only half of the businesses were open, but almost no people... this and fresh air was exactly what I was looking for. Of course I found much more than that.  Other than the intense heat, over 30 degrees with near 100% humidity, the place seemed like a little slice of nirvana.  While it may look like a paradise, it is not entirely that.  Besides a brutal history of Portugiese colonization and Inquistions (i.e forced conversions), the region has a lot of environmental problems; the extractive industries openly flaunt environmental laws and the effects of climate change has had a severe impact on this place.  These effects are easily ascertained by an outsider.  This includes a disruption of the monsoon and dry season cycles that sustain food and spice production here.  We did visit a spice farm and stunted plants showed this effect.  

Besidses the grim details about what is happening to our fragile planet, this was just what I need though, a nice little break from the insanity of Bangalore.

This is my first glimpse of the Arabian Sea, I don't normally catch such moments on camera, but I had it with me on my initial exploratory walk.

People live in cute little huts right up along the beach side.  While this seems quaint, I couldn't help but to think of the poverty.

Dios es mi guia, the Catholic legacy is still very present on the local population.  Our driver, Mr. Paul was excellent.

I guess this is the largest Catholic cathedral in the whole of Asia.  Most of these seem the same to me, but this one was clearly unique.  I kept thinking "Inquisition."

The Portuguese Colonists seemed to like their Jesus the same way I like my T-bones... bloody and rare.  Can you imagine what some poor local Goan, who is used to worshiping a friendly looking elephant god, must have been thinking when brought before this sight by Inquisitors?

Mimicking my patron saint.

Erin poses so I can show that I am capable of appreciating international archeology while simultaneously making a keen camera shot.  I wonder if this is really what my anthropology colleagues really do all day, if so, their life is just one big field trip and I am in the wrong discipline.

Some other Hindu temple, I have to admit I'm tired of religious places (Christian and Hindu) here and want to go eat some good food and lay on the beach.  Like the rest of India, religion is everything here (land of a million gods).

Stairway to heaven?  Nope, just went up to another temple.

Another Hindu temple, I wish I could remember which one, they all start to run together after a while.  I just know they don't feed you at this one so I probably won't go back.

If you look closely at the top of the hill, there is a small Catholic church

Two girls were wanting to pose for me.

Goa has tried to preserve the statues of the colonists as they realize the value of them for tourist dollars.

One of the excusions involved a trip to a spice farm in the forest, it was really beautiful there and I was excited to learn about where all the wonderful flavors of India come from.  Of course the search of spice, to make European food more palatable, was one reason Europeans began scouring the globe.  

So crossing the street is easier in Goa, but walking the trails are littered with different hazards, including poisonous snakes.

This is a capsicum chili pepper, one of the strongest known in the world.  Police use this in their OC or "pepper spray," it is very irritating, but tiny amounts are delicious in lentils.

A palm-whiskey still. They do not have an ATF in India and even if they did, they'd be pretty easy to buy off. Had two shots with fellow American traveler, it smells horrible but goes down nice.  Buzz was immediate.

A spice plantation house.  The "farmer's wife" showed us some of the small plots of vegetables and spices, they looked stunted and she explained how strange the weather has become in recent years, with days of sunshine during the monsoons and pouring rains during what used to be the "dry season."  Humans have been interacting with the earth here for more than 4000 years and this seems to be a very punctuated change in that balance.  Climate change has disrupted the metabolism here and wreaked havoc on some indigenous sources of food. 

Walking in the spice farm and then WHAM! all of a sudden an elephant and her tender is there.  Tractors are still rare on Indian farms, this one is not for show and tell, she does some serious work here.

Inside the old fort.

These boats haul in a delicious catch

Kids net fishing around sunset

More Goa beach, with posh resort on the cape.

Just a street shot of the beach village we stayed at.  The man depicted gave me a ride down the street on the back of his bike for a few Rupies (I was dying of heat).

Old Goa

Street food!  These are battered and fried onions, with a delicious spicy chutney.

My favorite way to hydrate in India is the water of a coconut, it is also probably the cleanest water in India too.  Hindu temple in the background.

The beaches were beautiful in many places, but the amount of trash and litter would set most westerners aghast.  In the sea is the remains of a huge container ship that wrecked there 10 or more years ago.  It just sits in the serf and locals who are either brave or just desperate for cash swim out to pull off scrap metal.  The snapshot does not do justice to the size of the thing.

View south into harbor for old Portuguese fortress

Yeah, so I've totally gone "native."  Unfortunately it is back to slacks and button down shirts in the business oriented culture of Bangalore

Thank you to Erin for humoring me and taking the pictures, I'm glad to be pictured in my own blog now.  For those of you wondering, yes, I shaved my head but not because I joined a cult.  I feel much cooler and comfortable now.  A local Goan woman told me that my head reminded her of a coconut.  I wasn't sure to take offense and then she told me that bald men are thought to bring good luck, I liked that.  In other news, I have learned Metallica is coming to Bangalore in October, I can't wait!