TWELVE -Mandovi river

One of the things that is rather annoying here, is that everybody (locals I mean) asked you how much you paid for something and then says you were vastly overcharged. This has left me with the impression that I have been ripped off left right and centre.
Well I probably have. I did manage to beat the shopkeeper down from 250 rupees to 130 rupees for the beach towels, but I think I was badly stitched up when I bought two big bags of cashoo nuts from the charming and friendly beach vendor, with his sad stories of not seeing wife and children for six months of the year, and he needed the first sale of the day to bring him good luck.
The trip to see the dolphins was probably another extortion but it was a lovely experience. Fairly nearby is the estuary of two rivers. On a calm sea, the dophins can be seen jumping, quite clearly.
The collection of brightly painted boats are, as they usually are, very attractive. The morning light was soft and silvery. We chugged out into the sea and although there were other boats, it was quiet and calm. The kind of bright light and misty, hazy horizon that the Impressionist may have liked to paint. Every so often the boatman pointed out the dolphins jumping. They moved about quickly, or maybe there were several small groups. Each group seemed to be three or four, small silvery grey dolphins. The boatman said they jumped and hit the fish with their tails, then eat the dead fish. Dont know if this is right, but the dolphins made a huffing noise as they jumped, which I though was them puffing out air.
The headland had the remains of the old Portuguese fort of Arambol, where there is now a local prison. In addition, there is a luxurious villa with terraced gardens and white grecian style urns and statues.
The boatman told us that the villa owner also owns the huge rusting freight or iron ore container ship, off our nearest beach, which was grounded in 2001, and which is said to cause the excessive erosion of the sands along the beach. Several beach shacks are so badly affected by erosion that they are resting on piled of sandbags, with wooden piles out front.

FIVE - Bus trials

I have not had much chance to do much blogging, but now have found a hotel where the computer is OK, except it keeps dropping the link!
We are still in Sinquerim, Candolim. This is the 'best' end of the long beach which goes as far north as Baga.
There is a bus that runs parallel with the beach - but inland from it. We went on the bus last evening, but the experience of London buses does not prepare you for this! Although there are allowed 12 passengers standing, it is a tiny bus, with doors at front and middle, so the conductor had to be very sharp and domineering to keep people from boarding, and the bus stopped for perhaps 30 seconds to allow the unfortunate passengers off and on.
The doors are kept open, so if you are near the opening, you might just likely fall off. The pace of progress is wild - and because you cannot see out if you are standing, we managed to get off too far past our destination, which was a side road in Calangute.
The purpose of the trip was to try and find a post office. As usual we had a lot of post cards for family but nowhere in this district is a post box. There is a rumour of a post office, which is apparently closed for the Hindu festival which is on at present.
Nobody had any idea of how we could post the cards, although you can buy stamps at local shops. Finally my idea worked, you walk into the poshest hotel, in this case Goan Heritage (5 star I guess) and just hand the cards to the bloke at the reception desk, simple. But the bus back here was even more of a nightmare as, being Friday, people were going off home or going to work, and forget all about 12 standing, it was more like 30. You just have to hang on and hope for the best - fun though.