NINE - Who you meet

Here the people are - on the whole - charming.
The host and hostess at the Guest House, Joseph and Lucia, are Catholics, and exemplary in their hospitality. The house is old, and at the back yard the sand starts, across which you have to trudge with your towel and swimsuit to the beach.
This is such a hot area, that I imagine it is rather like walking in the Sahara.
Other people, too numerous to mention, who we have met, of course include waiters, shopkeepers and helpful people on buses. Everybody replies, if spoken to. Unlike the Europeans here, who, just like in England, ignore you quite often.
Surprisingly, the holiday visitors all seem to come from Up North, from Manchester, Burnley, Wolverhampton, and from Yorkshire. These visitors are quite often very tanned, browned to a dull leather-like consistency, with none of the sheen and reflected light of a naturally dark skin. Some come year after year. Apparently huge parties of friends meet up every year at Christmas time.
In some of the bars the Christmas decorations are still hanging, and a sign is still up wishing us a Happy New Year.
The most hospitable people we have met so far were the hosts at the wedding in Old Goa.