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| Ganga |
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| Tree climbing presentation. |
On our last day of Goa we scooted up to Ponda to visit a spice farm. I had a bit of a breakdown on the scooter. I was terrified. This was nothing like the backroads we had traveled on the day before. In order to get to Ponda, we had to go through Margao, which is a larger sized town, during rush hour traffic. There are no streetlights in these areas...only rondos...and there were bikes, motorcycles, and trucks coming at us from all directions. But, we made it.
At the farm we took a tour, learned about different spices, and had a traditional Goan lunch. We also learned how to climb trees just like the farmers do to harvest the spices and we saw our first elephant! We got to touch Ganga and her skin felt like course leather with sparse, long whiskers all over her trunk. It kind of seemed like what you would imagine our skin would be if it were magnified and you were a tiny organism.
In the evening we had dinner with a couple we met from our hotel. We met when I was sitting in the lobby on my laptop and the woman sat down next to me and requested a photo. I was apparently as much of an oddity to her as she was to me. They were from Punjab, far north, and were there for their honeymoon. They have an arranged marriage and have only known each other for six months. Yet, they seemed very content with this life changing decision that had been made for them by others. We talked about relationships, food, cultural differences...they were aghast to learn that we eat meat every day as they are pure vegetarians and in awe that we know how to snowboard. Sadly, I can't remember their names and the photo that the hotel clerk attempted to take was unsuccessful.
All during the meal I had a running nose and was sneezing. The foreign germs have got me.
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