Spicy!

 Today began much like any other day on holidays, with a buffet breakfast and a swim in the pool. Our days excursion was 50min away to a spice plantation. We were greeted with flowers and a herbal tea before meeting our tour guide. Even though the plantation is hundreds of hectares, we’re just shown a short 30min sampler tour of some select trees. We saw cacao, turmeric, pepper, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon to name a few amongst the many hundreds of trees along the pathway. The guide was upbeat and knowledgeable for our little group of 8, and she would scrunch up the leaves and let us guess the smell as we walked along. She’d point out where the fruit or but was and then talk us through how it is processed. The tour ended with a lavender spritz - which is just ice cold lavender water being poured down our backs! Refreshing for a hot hot day. She let me sample some cashew Feni which is the local alcohol made from the but - 40 something percent proof. Another guest said she hated it, but I thought it was just like a tequila, not too bad at all! We were then served some curries for lunch before the ride back to the hotel. The whole experience wasn’t too long but it was a perfect amount of time for us with a little one. The driver on the way home also taught us lots about how Goan people feel about politics, tourism, caste system, the job market etc and it was good to get this from a local. 

We had a swim in the pool in the afternoon and Ethan had a milkshake while Darcy got his holiday drink (a pina colada) and I had a beer. We enjoyed the sunset by the beach and watched a bottle of  champagne be opened by sabre again. We then walked to the fisherman’s wharf for dinner after such a success last night. We asked the server for recommendations and he nailed it! A fantastic fried fish, a spicy goan curry, and some garlic prawns, all very tasty with our cocktails. Another happy day today, all going splendidly!