Swimming in the Indian Ocean

Day 9: Sunday May 4, 3:00 pm - Candolim Beach, Goa

Today was a really great day, minus the fact that we both got second-degree sunburns. Initially, we planned on taking a cab into Panjim to go to church, but we found out our laundry wasn’t going to be ready until Sunday night, and neither of us had any clean clothes. So we decided to spend the day in our swim suits and head to the beach.

What a gorgeous beach (minus all the beggars and the garbage). It was just miles of sand and water (brown water, but oh well). We picked out a good spot with chairs and an umbrella, ordered some drinks, and planted ourselves with a good view of the old ship. Apparently, this ship has been sitting here for 10 years. It’s stuck, and no one can move it, so they’re just dismantling it, piece by piece, and throwing all the pieces in the ocean. Um, gross.

Anyway, I put on some sunscreen, and settled in to get some beachy sun, while Andy went into the ocean for a swim. While we were camped out, lots of women selling all sorts of stuff – paintings, sarongs, jewelry, you name it – came by, trying to get us to buy stuff. We kept saying no. For two hours, just "No, no, no." Then, finally, I told one of them I would look at her sarongs. Some of them were pretty cool, and I just wanted to look.

Well…saying yes to one, meant that all of them came rushing over, trying to get me to buy from all of them. They all sat at my feet, spread out their wares, and tried to convince me to buy not one, but two sarongs. Or two anklets, or two paintings. For heaven's sakes.

I bought one sarong from one girl, and got chewed out from another girl, who said she had approached me first and I told her no. I sat there, looking at their stuff and bartering the prices with them, for a good 30 minutes. They just flocked to us, and would not leave me alone.

This is how Pointer found us when he came walking down the beach - me, surrounded by women selling things, and Andy, standing off to the distance taking pictures of the whole thing. Eventually Pointer joined the haggling, and I think he got so worn out from it, he had to order a beer.

When we decided to leave the beach and get ready for lunch, we realized just how sunburned we were. Uh, so much for the sunscreen! I didn't put it on very well, because I was burned pretty badly on my hairline, parts of my legs, and on my back. Andy, however, was completely burned on his entire front side. He was purple! I guess he forgot that being near the water makes his chances of burning pretty high. Well, that coupled with the malaria pills we're on make us more susceptible to sunburn. I have never seen such a bad sunburn, poor guy. He looks pretty white here, but a couple of hours later, he was just fried. My little lobster.

On our way back to the hotel, we ran into this guy, hanging out on the roof. How random is that? After lunch we just cruised around town a bit, and met Pointer back at Santana's house for some prawns and mashed potatoes. So far, Santana has served us the best food in Goa.