Last Full Day in Goa

Last Full Day in Goa
Yes, it is our last day here in footloose fancy-free paradise, where every day is sunny and hot, but the beach is clean, the water is warm, and the breezes are cooling. We have been recharged here, relaxing and refreshing with our Woodstock colleagues...we are almost ready to return "home" to our softer beds and hot-water showers and quieter streets (the tourist paradise comes with taxis and buses and horns honking and vendors insistently calling), and the routine of school, and faster free internet connections. (My nifty Dell laptop's power tap failed in December, so I have been without a computer for this many weeks!)

We have also frankly been feeling the cost, now tapping into old savings to fund this part of the vacation. We moved a few days ago into a smaller place at Tansy's Guest House, to save money...it's still eighty bucks a night (at my Woodstock rate of exchange... for an American salary, that would only be 20 USdollars).

Yesterday we rented a motor scooter for the day, at a total cost of 40 bucks (again, only 10 USdollars). It was a surprisingly new Honda Activa, maximum speed about 60kph. This was mostly for Christopher's benefit, as his good friend Ben (also here in Goa) got to ride a scooter for his 15th birthday this week. I drove Barb and Cole to the beach, then took Chris for a ride -- then let him drive on a deserted beach road, and also practice in an empty parking lot. He was thrilled, and did reasonably well. But he was sorely disappointed when, in preparing for taking his reluctant mother for a ride, he miscalculated a slow turn in the parking lot, and ran over a large rock that caused him to tip over. Curses! So, Mom walked back to the beach, and Dad took the reins for a little while. And yet, And yet, he did get to drive a scooter!
We then went out to eat with Ben and family, as it's their last likely time in Goa -- after 7 years in Mussoorie, they plan to return to Tennessee this summer. We will all miss them.

Today, I had originally planned to take a public bus up to old Goa. But that would be counter to our trend here: relax and recharge with friends on the beach. So we resolved to spend the day recharging for the semester to come.