A woman climbs the steps of the Church of Srª da Imaculada Conceição, one of the most impressive religious monuments in Panjim.
blessed shoes
Shoes of participants in a traditional Hindu wedding taking place in the late afternoon in the vicinity of Anjuna.
The head
Young girl is carrying a bucket loaded over the sunset and in one of the central streets of Panjim, the Goan capital.
divine rocks
Sculpture of Shiva accompanied by a turtle during low tide on Vagator beach, near Anjuna.
bathing games
Children create stylish positions on the sandy beach of Goa, having great fun.
another goa
Boat passes by an old jetty on an inlet on the outskirts of Panjim, Goa.
A Hindu Wedding
Couple during a marriage ceremony in the vicinity of Anjuna, and according to the sacred and colorful precepts of the Hindu religion.
Sellers and bathing cows
Goan cloth sellers skirt cows in sacred repose on a sandy beach north of Anjuna.
colonial grandeur
The church of Nossa Srª da Conceição, highlighted in immaculate white against the strong blue color over the capital of Goa.
"Little Business"
Girls try to sell bright rags to customers at a beach restaurant, balanced on a very irregular slab of rock.
in a ceremonial trance
A participant in a wedding taking place in Anjuna sings a Hindu chant absorbed in the spirituality of her religion.
Lodging Republic
The peculiar facade of the old República hotel, in the Goan capital Panjim.
under the covers
Scarf and cloth sellers take a break from their tour of the beaches and pose for photography.
A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
Text: Marco C. Pereira
Images: Marco C. Pereira-Sara Wong
Winter remains harsh in the tuga homeland and generates a sudden desire to escape to another cozier side of the world.
Seventeen hours after take-off from a frigid Portela, we landed in sultry Mumbai. Blessed by the city's fluid traffic at this late hour, we quickly proceeded to Central Station.
The Long Rail Stretch between Bombay and Goa
There are several hours before the departure of the mandovi express but there is not a single room or business open at the station. With no alternative, we installed ourselves against the wall of a bordering platform, as abstracted as possible from the rats' incursions into the gloomy, oily depression in which the rails rested.
The composition starts shortly after sunrise. We celebrate the fact that the seats bounce like a blessing from Shiva. Once the luggage is accommodated, we land diagonally.
We only woke up hundreds of kilometers later, on the threshold of the state of Maharashtra and with that of Goa announcing itself.
"Old Goa, Anjuna, Panjim?" other passengers asked us to leave at the right station. We leave the train at the Old Goa station and, with darkness creeping in, we transfer in a white Ambassador to an inn named Punan, located on the Anjuna seafront.
Tropical Seaside and Anjuna Backpacker
That night, we still had a look at a rehearsal of rave parties in the vicinity. There was a full moon but the event lacked trance and the incessant approaches of sellers of everything ended up convincing us to return to the new rooms.
The first awakening in Goa is rewarded with an invigorating breakfast on an elevated terrace. We enjoy the meal with pleasure and tranquility. Not as much as we wanted.
Girls try to sell bright rags to customers at a beach restaurant, balanced on a very irregular slab of rock.
It is with surprise that we hear female voices coming from below: “Little business, sir, madam!” just a little business.” Intrigued, we peeked over the balcony and discovered two young saleswomen on the porous black slab. They carry open cloths above their heads.
Teenagers intensify the appeal. "Very good cloth, madam. Please tell me a good price!”. By that time, we were giving absolute priority to the inaugural dive in the Arabian Sea. The wish would not take long to come true.
Sculpture of Shiva accompanied by a turtle during low tide on Vagator beach, near Anjuna.
The rough sands of Goa and the Arabian Sea
After a long bath and a conviviality lying on the Anjuna beach, our appetite comes back to us. We bought pineapple kebabs and sweetened the morning even more. It is, again, short-lasting sunshine.
Indian cows, sacred like all, superb beach queens smell the sweet aroma of the fruit in the air.
In a flash, we have them with their snouts close to their faces, making up what was left of the snack. Its persistence becomes such that it forces us to rise from the fray.
Instigated by the battle won, those bathing cattle chase us as we run around, skewers at our fingertips.
We got far enough away to discourage them and took advantage of the swing to walk along the coast to the north. Also to those sides, more saleswomen and more cows would star in reproductions of the previous scenes.
Goan cloth sellers skirt cows in sacred repose on a sandy beach north of Anjuna.
Revenge is not intentional but, with proper authorization, we join a Hindu wedding so that, without any real warning or invitation, it summons us.
In a photographic way, we disturb him as much as we can.
Couple during a marriage ceremony in the vicinity of Anjuna, and according to the sacred and colorful precepts of the Hindu religion.
Secret Files. Mulder & Scully at an Unexpected Cinema in Goa
We had to wait for the dark night and for the retreat from the terrace of Punan guest house to feel an undisputed peace. This time, for a change, we're the ones to stop it.
An intriguing glare flickers in the air. It doesn't seem to have the party pattern rave it's not even time for it. We decided to investigate. We found an almost full modular amphitheater. Even though we're not big fans, we find ourselves following an old episode of the X-Files series, projected on a giant white sheet.
In the heart of Anjuna, under a hyperstarry firmament, sweating from the heat of the Goan summer, among haughty coconut trees and other attributes of Indian tropicalism, we accompanied the duo Mulder & Scully in “Ice”, an esoteric adventure set in the grandiose arctic setting of Alaska.
But we were at fault with the Portugality of Goa. In the middle of the next morning, we rented a motor scooter and moved to Panjim.
In the capital, we wander through alleys with names as familiar as some of ours, go up to Altinho and to the church of Nª Srª da Imaculada Conceição.
Ao Deus Dará, through the streets of the Capital Pangim
In the neighborhoods of Fontainhas and São Tomé, we speak to several inhabitants with lighter complexions, olive green eyes and other shades, previously uncommon in those parts of India that only the Portuguese historical presence can justify.
Young girl is carrying a bucket loaded over the sunset and in one of the central streets of Panjim, the Goan capital.
One or two older natives dare to exemplify their rusty mastery of our language and even express some nostalgia for the already distant colonial past. “What I can tell you is that we all had a good life together, a Mr. Lourenço assures us”.
The Indian government disagrees, fulfills its role and continues to rescue the territory from the former landlords. It recently announced the enactment of a law confiscating Portuguese property in Goa. The decision still needs to be talked about.
The city's enterprising souls prefer to profit from the cultural legacy. We found it on one of the cruise ships on the Mandovi River. In addition to the crew, a battalion of Indian men and dozens of women from saris.
“Malhão, Malhão” and Other Portuguese Successes, Rio Mandovi Up
We had barely settled in when the hosts start a show that includes interpretations of Anglophone, Indian folk songs. And also Portuguese.
All passengers – us much more than the rest – are surprised by an imitation of a folklore ranch with an Indo-Minho look. Amazement turns to apprehension and, soon, to dread when they summon us to a distorted "Malhão, Malhão".
Indian men, on the other hand, rejoice when their turn comes. After the live performances are over, the animators loudly shout some Bollywoodesque success. As soon as he recognizes him, the mob hurls itself from the tables onto the dance floor.
As if they were all born Shahrukh Khans or other Mumbai idols, they squirm, waving their arms and hands back and forth, up and down wildly. And they emulate, in a delicious onboard ecstasy, the choreographies that they spent their lives admiring.
The women in the group, these, just watch.
On another afternoon, we passed through Old Goa and examined the majestic ecclesiastical heritage left there by our nation of adventurers, discoverers and missionaries, in particular the Basilica of Bom Jesus where lies the body of St. Francis de Xavier, the Apostle of the East.
Departure in Distress for Cochin
When we realized that the train we had to take south was passing the local station in three hours, we went into distress mode.
We ran off to deliver the scooter and got a taxi that was waiting for us at the inn while we hurriedly stuff everything into our backpacks. We pay for the stay and let the driver of this new Ambassador know that he has to follow through.
The man insists on proving to us the quality of those classics. It almost flies into the interior of Goa. Along the way, we still brag about the music on his museum car radio. We ended up buying the tape from you.
Upon arrival, we see Netravati Express already gaining momentum. We still got him. Fifteen hours later, we were admitted to Cochin.
The prominent city of Goa already justified the title of “rome of the east” when, in the middle of the XNUMXth century, epidemics of malaria and cholera led to its abandonment. The New Goa (Pangim) for which it was exchanged became the administrative seat of Portuguese India but was annexed by the Indian Union of post-independence. In both, time and neglect are ailments that now make the Portuguese colonial legacy wither.
It was fortified in 1791 by the Portuguese who expelled the Arabs from the Quirimbas and seized their trade routes. It became the 2nd Portuguese outpost on the east coast of Africa and later the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. With the end of the slave trade at the turn of the XNUMXth century and the passage from the capital to Porto Amélia, Ibo Island found itself in the fascinating backwater in which it is located.
Guwahati is the largest city in the state of Assam and in North East India. It is also one of the fastest growing in the world. For Hindus and devout believers in Tantra, it will be no coincidence that Kamakhya, the mother goddess of creation, is worshiped there.
We arrived at the northern threshold of West Bengal. The subcontinent gives way to a vast alluvial plain filled with tea plantations, jungle, rivers that the monsoon overflows over endless rice fields and villages bursting at the seams. On the verge of the greatest of the mountain ranges and the mountainous kingdom of Bhutan, for obvious British colonial influence, India treats this stunning region by Dooars.
Gangtok it is the capital of Sikkim, an ancient kingdom in the Himalayas section of the Silk Road, which became an Indian province in 1975. The city is balanced on a slope, facing Kanchenjunga, the third highest elevation in the world that many natives believe shelters a paradise valley of Immortality. Their steep and strenuous Buddhist existence aims, there, or elsewhere, to achieve it.
The unpredictability of rivers in the wettest region on Earth never deterred the Khasi and the Jaintia. Faced with the abundance of trees elastic fig tree in their valleys, these ethnic groups got used to molding their branches and strains. From their time-lost tradition, they have bequeathed hundreds of dazzling root bridges to future generations.
150 km of solitude north of the matriarch São Tomé, the island of Príncipe rises from the deep Atlantic against an abrupt and volcanic mountain-covered jungle setting. Long enclosed in its sweeping tropical nature and a contained but moving Luso-colonial past, this small African island still houses more stories to tell than visitors to listen to.
With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
The conflict with Pakistan and the threat of terrorism made filming in Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh a drama. In Ooty, we see how this former British colonial station took the lead.
In 1565, the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar succumbed to enemy attacks. 45 years before, he had already been the victim of the Portugueseization of his name by two Portuguese adventurers who revealed him to the West.
Situated in the state of Assam, south of the great Brahmaputra river, PN Kaziranga occupies a vast area of alluvial swamp. Two-thirds of the rhinocerus unicornis around the world, there are around 100 tigers, 1200 elephants and many other animals. Pressured by human proximity and the inevitable poaching, this precious park has not been able to protect itself from the hyperbolic floods of the monsoons and from some controversies.
Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
In the rainforest of Xilitla, the restless mind of poet Edward James has twinned an eccentric home garden. Today, Xilitla is lauded as an Eden of the Surreal.
With summer and warm weather, the Russian city of Suzdal relaxes from its ancient religious orthodoxy. The old town is also famous for having the best cucumbers in the nation. When July arrives, it turns the newly harvested into a real festival.
Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Traveling through the lands of Aragon and Valencia, we come across towers and detached battlements of houses that fill the slopes. Mile after kilometer, these visions prove to be as anachronistic as they are fascinating.
It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
The final target is the Tibetan Everest Base Camp. On this first route, starting from Lhasa, we pass by the sacred lake of Yamdrok (4.441m) and the glacier of the Karo gorge (5.020m). In Gyantse, we surrender to the Tibetan-Buddhist splendor of the old citadel.
Traveling through New Mexico, we were dazzled by the two versions of Taos, that of the indigenous adobe hamlet of Taos Pueblo, one of the towns of the USA inhabited for longer and continuously. And that of Taos city that the Spanish conquerors bequeathed to the Mexico: Mexico gave in to United States and that a creative community of native descendants and migrated artists enhance and continue to praise.
Around the capital Merida, for every old hacienda henequenera there's at least one cenote. As happened with the semi-recovered Hacienda Mucuyché, together, they form some of the most sublime places in southeastern Mexico.
Portuguese navigators could not imagine the imbroglio reserved for the Formosa they baptized. Nearly 500 years later, even though it is uncertain of its future, Taiwan still prospers. Somewhere between independence and integration in greater China.
Located high in the northeast of the Gulf of Bothnia, Oulu is one of Finland's oldest cities and its northern capital. A mere 220km from the Arctic Circle, even in the coldest months it offers a prodigious outdoor life.
In 1993, frustrated by the Portuguese government's disregard for his work “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”, Saramago moved with his wife Pilar del Río to Lanzarote. Back on this somewhat extraterrestrial Canary Island, we visited his home. And the refuge from the portuguese censorship that haunted the writer.
Guadeloupe is shaped like a moth. A trip around this Antille is enough to understand why the population is governed by the motto Pas Ni Problem and raises the minimum of waves, despite the many setbacks.
Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
More or less prominent ruptures in the earth's crust, volcanoes can prove to be as exuberant as they are capricious. Some of its eruptions are gentle, others prove annihilating.
Most visitors value Iceland's volcanic scenery for its beauty. Icelanders also draw from them heat and energy crucial to the life they lead to the Arctic gates.
Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
In the shadow of neighboring Bora Bora's near-global fame, Maupiti is remote, sparsely inhabited and even less developed. Its inhabitants feel abandoned but those who visit it are grateful for the abandonment.
At the first glimmers of light, the sight of the white mantle that had covered the village during the night dazzles us. With one of the toughest walks on the Annapurna Circuit ahead of us, we postponed the match as much as possible. Annoyed, we left Upper Pisang towards Escort when the last snow faded.
A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
At 1.2 km, the oldest and longest wooden bridge in the world allows the Burmese of Amarapura to experience Lake Taungthaman. But 160 years after its construction, U Bein is in its twilight.
The unmistakable flavor of Argentine beef is well known. But this wealth is more vulnerable than you think. The threat of foot-and-mouth disease, in particular, keeps authorities and growers afloat.
Eurides Fátima de Barros was born in the interior of the Miranda region. 38 years ago, he settled in a small business on the side of BR262 that crosses the Pantanal and gained an affinity with the alligators that lived on his doorstep. Disgusted that once upon a time the creatures were being slaughtered there, she began to take care of them. Now known as Maria dos Jacarés, she named each of the animals after a soccer player or coach. It also makes sure they recognize your calls.
In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.
