May 2, 2023

Goa is a state on the southwestern coast of India.It is India’s smallest state and has the highest GDP per capita among all the Indian states, two and a half times has high as the country as a whole. The India National Commission on Population ranked it as having the best quality of life in India. This is our 4th visit to Goa but the tour will be new.

Here are some pictures of our arrival.

Our tour guide was Stanley. He wasn’t the most organized tour guide we had but he tried hard. Our tour was The Grand Old Houses of Goa. We traveled in a nice air conditioned vehicle to the south of Goa. We were early for our first of two tours, so we stopped and walked around some of the old houses that date back to the Portuguese. Goa was ruled by the Portuguese for 450 years and the influence is still here. The main businesses here now are mining and tourism. The landscape is totally different from Mumbai. There is lots of green space and large homes.

Our first actual house visit was the Today’s Grand Old Houses of Goa tour first took us to the Braganza House in Chandor. It is from the Portuguese era and is approximately 450 years old. We had a tour by a young man who represents the 15th generation living in this house.

We were asked not to take too many pictures of individual items as the family still lives in the home. This is for security reasons.

Our next stop was at the Palacio de Deao in Quepem. It is approximately 213 years old. The owner took us on.a tour but not in the private area of the home. After touring the house we had a lovely and tasty lunch overlooking the river. His wife cooked all of the food and we had a mangosteen drink that he makes himself.

A very hot day again. Monsoon season is from June – October each year and they do depend on that rain for their crops. No rain in sight during our time here. The no goodness for air conditioned vehicles, these homes had none.

Tomorrow we will tour Mangalore. This will be our third trip there and we will visit new places with the same group. We are all buying mangoes in these ports as they are in season and delicious. We might need to have a contest to see which ones we like best.