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Sunday, February 2nd – Colva Beach to Benaulim Beach, 17,190 km
It is a cloudy morning though it looks like it might burn off. Our crummy room doesn’t have hot water this morning so my shower is very short. Frank doesn’t much like our place. His bed was rather lumpy and he did not sleep well. He suggests that instead of looking for another dump in this run down tourist town, we should move onto Benaulim Beach, away from the noise and commercialism of Colva. I agree, but I want breakfast first. We find a place by the beach with a patio that serves coffee and breakfast.
We pass by at Longuinhos before we go to say goodbye to anyone we might see from last night, but I suppose they are doing something else or still in bed. We ride on the service roads to get there, first riding into Margao to check out the covered market, which we have been told is very good. It is so close, only 7 km away, that is a way to pass part of the day.
Margo is the main commercial town of south Goa. It is pleasant enough with several Portuguese-styled buildings, but it’s got very little to offer a traveler in the way of sights. We poke around the market for an hour, buy fruit and sandwich supplies and then make our way through a maze of side roads to get to Benaulim Beach. By now the cloud cover has burned off and the sunshine is warm enough to make the shade inviting.
Benaulim is quiet compared to Colva. There are two sets of cottages at the end of the road, L’Amour Beach Resort and O Palmar Cottages, and beyond them there is Pedro’s Bar and Restaurant, right at the edge of the beach. The cottages are the same price at both resorts but L’Amour looks nicer and the staff are very friendly. The cottages with two beds are only 80 rupees per night (very affordable) and they have ceiling fans and full bathrooms. They seemed to be lined up to catch the cool sea breezes and Pedro’s is only 50 m away.
Pedro’s Bar and Restaurant seems to have the whole beach to itself. It isn’t that large, perhaps thirty chairs not counting the bar stools. Pedro tends the bar. He’s a Portuguese/ Indian mix, an attractive man made more attractive by his smile. He lives at the back of the restaurant with his wife and one daughter. I’d guess he’s about 40.
There are maybe a dozen others in the bar when we arrive, which is now mid-afternoon. Most are guests of the two sets of cottages, but there is at least one couple from the village of Benaulim about a kilometre from the beach. The bar has a very nice atmosphere, relaxed and quiet. There is no music blaring like there is in many bars in Colva. The patrons are a bit older too, more my age than Frank’s, but he seem to enjoy it much better than the ones in Colva. We have all the time in the world to hang around noisy establishments when we get home he tells me.
Eventually we move out to the patio, in the broken shade of a palm tree, to watch the fishermen pull onto the beach with their catch. It is a modest catch. Pedro leaves his wife Isabella in charge of the bar while he goes to pick out the best fish before they haul their catch off to market in Margao. He returns to the bar and Isabella goes of the restaurant to wait for them to unload the purchase.
We stay for dinner to enjoy the fresh catch. There are no other options unless we ride to the village a few minutes away, but it proves to be a delicious option. I have a pomfret stuffed with something spicy and Frank has the prawns in a curried coconut milk sauce.
The sunsets are incredible here. We watch today’s with rum and coconut drink, and then sit out on the sand after dark to watch the waves. We stay very still to see if the scampering white crabs will eventually emerge while we are there. They don’t.
PHOTO 1: Goan Catholic church
PHOTO 2: traffic in Margao
PHOTO 3: Margao's covered market
PHOTO 4: the way to Benaulim Beach
PHOTO 5: Pedro's Bar & Restaurant
PHOTO 6: sunset at Benaulim Beach
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