hurrah! benolim beach, goa

we have had a litany of bad luck since arriving in India but at least we're still smiling about it. My proudest moment was seeing Janu leap over a pile of cow poo on the pavement without a second thought. That's my boy! He's also been splashing in the Arabian sea and absolutely loving all the motorbikes, tuk tuks, buses and crazy roads.

We get soaked regularly by monsoon curtains of rain.  Paw paw for breakfast, and curry for lunch. Janu is enjoying himself a lot and so far hasn't asked to go 'home' (whereever that is).

Janu and I wait for a break in the clouds and then run to the beach. Waves throw themselves in all directions. We make obstacle courses for the shiny black milipedes.  Feels like moving in half speed, with 99% humidity.

Vivid plants - pink cordylines, fluro bougainvilleas, red shoots atop spreading green. coconuts cluster, hibiscus, jasmine, ceramic pots overflowing.

Later, walking through spice plantations we can show Janu paw paw trees, bananas, the heavy fruits of nutmeg, beads of cardamom, pepper vines and fingers of vanilla.  An elephant we followed left huge footprints of mud. Janu asked: 'are Uncle Barry's feet as big as that'. He is convinced Barry (at 6 foot something) is the tallest person in the world.

we also tear along to Old Goa, where churches rivalling Rome used to house thousands. Janu thinks we're on a race track as the little van hurtles along winding roads. "Don't hold me!" he chastises, as without a seat beat he tumbles around in the back.   A new umbrella shelters me from sun and rain. Intesne heat, sticky sweat. Smiles. Deep breathes.

Rain sheets wake us at night, reaching to close a window.  Seedings finding soil and life in the shallow beds in the rise and fall of corrugated iron.  Hiding from the rain one day we snuck under a big upside down fishing boat, displacing the street dogs curled in the dry sand. We were drenched, black sand splattered up to our knees. One umbrella between 3 wouldn't do!

We found a football pitch on the main street: Janu shouts 'go on' to the players as they run past.  In mud, past dusk they keep on.  The pitch turns into a mudbath, and the players are all brown.  Ball stuck in little seas between kicks.  The deluge.  Janu jokingly asks: 'should we visit again in the wet season'.

(I think the rain is much more atmospheric to write about than the sun - of course it is sunny alot too!)