And the end ~~

This is it! The last post of pictures from our adventure.

These are all from our time in Goa. Goa is an Indian state on the west coast of India, and from our understanding, it's a hopping place to be from November through February, and particularly during the holiday season.

But we have to say, we loved it in the off season. This next picture perfectly expresses the pace of life here {and shows the well-fed cat that lived at one of the beach-front restaurants... not a bad life!}:
The slower pace, lush, tropical forests, and quiet streets were a welcome relief to the hectic pace of the city. And while many businesses had "closed for monsoon" signs on their doors, there were enough places open to satisfy our needs.

The funny thing about Goa? It was once a Portuguese Colony, so we went from Muslim Hyderabad to Catholic Goa... not your typical India, but we loved it none the less. So our first adventure was a trip to Old Goa and its historic churches::




There were so many dogs throughout India, and by this point in our adventure, we made it a sport to photograph the sleeping dog. Here's one example: but in Goa, a scene like that soon became one like this: There were many moments when C and I would be doing our own thing and we'd be approached by someone who wanted to take their picture with us. This family took quite a few with their own camera, and then at the very end we realized we should take one of our own!

Throughout the whole trip, every morning I'd wake up and read the local paper. It was a lot of fun to see what they focused on both in the typical news section and in their version of the celebrity gossip section. But what really made me smile were their weather reports, they would refer to rain showers as "cloud bursts", and in Goa it literally felt like a cloud burst. The rain showers were short, but intense. Then the sun would come out, the streets would dry up, and everything was back to normal. All of the rain made for a really lush paradise. There were ferns and mosses growing on every surface. Check out the bench here:: And this scene that we found while wondering around empty streets on one of the many quite back rounds that we wondered down.

And finally, the cows, there were many many cows. Chincoteague has its horses, Goa has its cows::

Next up, some of the treasures we picked up along the way, and then, back to business as usual around here!