Then the largest church in Goa: Se Cathedral, which was built in the honour of St. Catherine who died the everyday death of being stoned to death.
Another view of Se Cathedral:
And then the oldest one: The Chapel of our lady of the Rosemary. This was built in 1510 A.D., when a gentleman called Albequerqe from Portugal first stepped onto the Indian soil... He had stood here watching his forces battle those of Adil Shah, the then ruler of Goa. Situated in Velha Goa (Old Goa), a city of more than 200,000 residents in 16th - 17th century, this is a much abandoned church with masses held only on the 8th of every month. It was interesting to read up on the hostory of Velha Goa in the Art Gallery at Bom Jesus. This also was the place I just did not wanna come back from. Green and gorgeous and mysterious... stunningly beautiful.
We walked up these 400 year old stone steps...
Greeted each other in silence..
Saw things like this iron gate that seemed to come right out of one of those Lewis Carol or Enid Blytons... stones and mist and iron bars... the spaces between providing a peek into the forbidden but that's all... or so I thought as I shook it to see if it will open and let me in feeling a mix of adventure and reproach at the locked mystery.
And then came onto this...
and stood there...
and stood there...
and there...
We met this cool sound artist here with all his gear and stuff. He was recording wind and bird sounds for a documentary for NatGeo. Swell chap... so we stood and yakked for a while and he gave us ideas on some more lesser visited nooks and corners of Goa... like this small island with quaint villas and houses we could ferry to and then just drive around in it. Finally Dad and I needed to pee and so we reluctantly made a move but not before I could personalise the whole bit with this:
We walked down...
Lets see what more is in store for us now...
Signing off...
Wanderlust regards!
