In Agonda, up the river!

We've made it to our 'safe place' - Agonda!  It's been a very lazy time here, but I've had time to take some pics.
With some nice English folks, we met we went for the obligatory 'boat trip up the local river.'  A number of local guys will take you up the river in a push-boat (like punting down the Thames....well, sort of).
You get a chance to ride up a shallow and quiet river to check our local birds & wildlife that hang out along the river.  We did get to see a number of different birds along the route, pointed our & identified by the boatman.  Didn't get too many pics, as I would have needed a longer lens, but, for example, of the three different kinds of Kingfishers I did get a few shots, but clear ones only of one type.  There were even a couple of river otters playing along the banks.
I'm not sure how well these blog posts work on cellphones, even with a Google phone. I'd recommend a computer viewing.
Anyhoo, here are some pics!
 
Please click on the pics to embiggen!

Ah yes, the 'Romantic River Trip'

The inlet was a bit shallow this time of day.

Always work going on with maintaining fishing nets.

 Some of the ocean-going fishing boats on the river for storage & maintenance

Panaji - Part 2

Here are another set of pics from Panaji from the few days we stayed there.  This is a bit of a mix of images, as usual, mixing in the nice with the funky. I do like images of places and things with a bit of colour and texture to them, so there are a few 'rough' looking buildings that could use some TLC.  No disrespect meant to the residents.
Please click on the pic to embiggen!

Santa Clause still trying to make his way unseen into a home?

A Hindu temple in town. 

An abandoned jeep at a government building.

....and as a tease for the next blog (as we're hanging out in Agonda)......

Back!

Back to the hot!
Made it back to India after what felt like a long trip.  Well, it was,  I guess.  From leaving home to arriving at our hotel in Panaji,  36 hours.  But arrived and as expected, pretty jet lagged.  Got to the nice little hotel in the 'Latin quarter' (Portuguese colonial) of Panaji in central Goa around mid-afternoon,  got our room and promptly crashed & slept until the next morning.
This part of town is quite good for walking around in - old colonial style buildings, in equal share of well maintained and let-go a fair bit.  A bit hot, but we knew it would be.  The hotel had a little rooftop for breakfast and getting a bit of a look around the area.

As I said, the journey was a bit long - fair bit of time for waiting for the flights - but as usual the first views of our wonderful BC were great:

After a 14 hour flight to Delhi - fairly comfortable - we arrived and everything smelled of smoke.  Looking down the halls in the airport, the air was visibly 'creamy' - fogged up.  When we took off for Goa the best of the views down to Delhi were fairly thick with smog:

Coming into Panaji was clear except for a bit of heat haze (it's always in the 30's in the day).  The air around the hotel was fine, and, as I said, had shaded areas on the small rooftop.  A real mix of stuff was planted on the roof, from tomato plants, to mangoes to bonsaied trees, assorted different 'stuff.'

A good place to get the day started.

The front of our hotel, the Afonso Guest House:

Some buildings in the area:

There are a fair number more where these come from, but that's enough for now!