A Chance Encounter with Dolphins.

We visited Panaji several times by bus and ferry. I was very keen to see the old Portuguese quarter with its fantastic architecture and buildings painted in lovely vibrant colours. Once there, I couldn't stop taking pictures. It was a quiet place, with narrow streets: quite a contrast from the rest of the noisy city.

Erik (my travelling companion) wanted to get some prescription spectacles made so we meandered through the shopping district, placed an order and then headed to the quayside to see when the next ferry was leaving. Whilst we waited we wandered a little further along the port. There was a boat there advertising Dolphin-spotting trips. A man was securing the mooring ropes, having just returned from a tour. As we watched him he asked us if he could help. As he enthused about his tours, we thought we had to give it a go.

Now, I love dolphins and I'll take every chance to see them if I can but we were told the chances of seeing Dolphins on this coast were quite remote. He wanted quite a lot of money for the trip, so we bartered with him and he agreed to take us on a short half hour tour instead. That's the thing here, you have a lot of bargaining power. So we shook hands on it.

Off we went....the sun was really hot despite the breeze so I slapped on some Factor 15. There was a gentle swell as we exited the mouth of the Mandovi river out to the open sea.

It took about ten minutes I suppose. Then all of a sudden the Captain pointed out a small pod in front of us. He was yelping and pointing frantically. We followed them. There must have been about 6. They leapt out of the water in sync. Grey-blue flashes. Wow! How exciting was that? I felt my heart flutter. I grabbed my camera but I just didn' t have a long enough lens. Bugger....typical. I took a load of shots anyway and of course was very disappointed when I got them back: little grey blobs on the horizon. We stayed out for at least another half hour chasing them, way past his agreed price. He was lovely though and as he lamented the fact that he hadn't had an encounter for several days, he took it on the chin like a real man. He was generously philosophical about it. The Goanese we met were all really kind people.

We turned back to harbour where we gave him his cash and a large tip as a gesture of good will. He invited us on a full day trip, but we got the feeling you just couldn't get any better so we politely declined. We had been very, very lucky.