Discover Goa

Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott held its annual overnight programme “Discover Goa” on 13th and 14th September where in all 23 members visited Bardez taluka, spent the night in Ilhas and next morning explored Mormugao taluka.

Visiting Santrem beach where members successfully angled fish thereby getting formalin free fish and the Our Lady of Rosary Church at Curca were real discovery for many members as these were places they were seeing for the first time.

The following members went to discover Goa: Irene Antao, Maria Mascarenhas, Basil Fernandes, Sebastiana Cardozo, Alzira Pereira and her husband Benny, Julio D’Silva, Cecilia D’Silva and Caesar D’Silva, Darwin Cardoso with his daughter Deborah and niece Daniella, Susie with her neighbours Ebony and Delilah, Anthony Pereira with his wife and daughter Juliet and Amanda respectively and Sita Antao with her son Shawneil.

John Douglas Coutinho with Domnic Mendes and Menino alias Minush Gomes joined the group for lunch on 13th September. They travelled in a car while the others were all in one mini-bus where there was a lot of singing and pulling each other’s legs.

The first halt was to visit the Our Lady of Rosary Church at Curca which was actually inaugurated on 29th June 1650 and whose feast is celebrated in the month of November popularly known as Rosachem fest as marigold garlands are offered to Our Lady.

Everybody was amazed with the lovely view from the hillock where the church is situated where one could clearly see how the khazan lands came to be formed and they were visible and the salt pans were very distinctly identifiable even though being monsoons no salt was being collected.

From there it was a long drive to the Anjuna beach where some photographs were taken specially on the magnificent rock that had by then turned so hot that an egg could be friend on it. From the beach one could see the Chapora fort.

The visit to Calangute beach had to be cancelled as the burning sun had drained the energy of some members and all preferred to go for lunch. Alzira Fernandes arranged for the group to have lunch at De Candolim Deck where members sat in the comfortable ambience to eat the delicious pulao, chicken and beef prepared by Alzira. Irene had brought kishmore that got over so fast that everybody was left craving for more.

After lunch the group visited Sauto Manor a heritage house that is now being used as an antique selling place. The group went around looking at the antiques and some even purchased a few clothes.

Next was a visit to the Sao Pedro church which incidentally is the church where the body of St Francis Xavier was first kept when it was brought to Goa and subsequently it was taken to the mausoleum in Bom Jesus Basilica at Old Goa.

The crossing the Mandovi river it was a visit to the Chorao Island where first the Narvem spring was visited which is actually in Mayem village. The cool mountain spring water was used by everybody to wash their face and head so that they could feel comfortable in the hot weather.
The night was spent at Viva Chorao – St Peter’s Paradise at Chorao where many of the participants truly relaxed in the eternity swimming pool and after a very sumptuous dinner all the 23 found place to spend the night in the six cottages they had. The owners of this place gave us a huge discount as they know John Douglas very well.

But before hitting the sack, the group visited a hillock where a statue of Christ the King looked so magnificent even though it was lit only by the moonlight. Incidentally, this land was taken over by some people and Antonio Fernandes who is the owner of Viva Chorao along with the priest waged a battle in the High Court to get back the land and today there is this beautiful statue there.

Next morning after a very lazy breakfast, 10 of the members went on a bird watching trip organized by the Forest Department at Chorao ferry point. They could spot a few birds including herons and two alligators in the river.

Then began the discovery of Mormugao taluka where the first place to be visited was the Japanese Garden at Sada where one could walk in total shade due to the thick plantations there. The children who wanted to burn off their energy walked down the narrow path to the beach and climbed it up later.

From Sada it was to the Baina beach where the adults were totally zapped to see the change it has undergone. The children tired after the walk at Japanese Garden preferred to remain in the vehicle while the adults walked around to gulp down a quick beer.

A very tantalizing and filling lunch was had at La Paz hotel where thanks to Sita Antao we got a discount and after filling the stomach it was to the Santrem beach where ramponkars were seen at work. While some relaxed, many of the participants tried their hands at angling and they succeeded in getting a quite a few fishes.

As the ramponkars were pulling in their nets, the participants waited to see what was the catch and finally bought the crabs that were caught and sold to them at a very cheap rate by the ramponkars in a gesture of Goenkar Goenkara pavlo.

While the trip started at around 9:30 am on 13th September it ended at 6 pm on 14th September when the mini bus returned to Chandor.