Visting all the Gods on Sunday

Sorry its been awhile, email in Goa is as layed back as the place itself, it was not working for a few days, some cable broke underground then because of terrorist threats, you suddenly need your passport to email, which I didn't have and its a long long walk back to my place from here, but anyway, it seems up and running now and pretty fast, to tonight I'll return on my way to dinner on the balcony of the charming old Vasco de Gama club, and post some photos.

Even though I'm over jetlag, I still wake up early and go out and walk around, taking myself out for breakfast somwhere because the free ones at my hotel are not so great and the coffee more milk than anything else. I never get over how beautiful the buildings are and lush the foliage (fecund is a word used in India which seems to capture it better), dripping moss, banion spans and huge shiny leaves and often a wonderful strong flower smell coming from somwhere. There is a beautiful park alongside the river and a bricked river walk all the way from the center of town to my hotel which is nearly a mile out of town. I can take a bus but I like the exercize. I was up and out at 7am on Sunday, walked way up to the Hanuman temple on a hill over the historic part of town with the lovely freslhy painted buildings, (interesting to see a building that was yellow last year, for instance, purple this year. I heard the art students frmo the college get paid each december to repaint the buildings.) I paid my respects to Hanuman and to the Mahalaxmi temple, then to the huge Catholic cathedral that dominates the hill over the main town square. Hindus are cool about letting Jesus be in their pantheon (an avator maybe of Vishnu?) but it does not seem to work the other way around. There was a sign in the cathedral that non-Hindus were NOT to take communion adn that communion was NOT "prasad". Prasad is the offerings you buy outside of a Hindu temple, usually a strand of flowers, marigolds or jasmine, insense and balls of confestionary sugar, you give them to the temple priest bit a few rupees, who blesses them and gives them back to you. I eventually went on my way.

The opening was nice, some of the students came, others had gotten into graduate programs, the gallery owner and director took me to a great Goan place after, and had dinner last night with friends, but mostly I'm no my own, reading, painting,walking. This week I'll vist more of the various beach towns and some historic goan mansions in the inland towns, by bus or if my friend Hanuman is not teaching.

Its a good thing I'm not into all night parties or "raves" as they call them, the Indian gov cancelled all night beach parties betteen this week and a week after New Years. The papers said tourism is down about 50%or more, and the cancellign of the parties will probably hot help is the young crowd mostly comes for that. Me, I'm usually in bed watching tv by 10, I really like to be up early here.