The first rain of the season

Daman had its first showers on Sunday afternoon, lasting over two hours.

When it stopped, the sun did come out again, to give Daman that clean-washed look and to release an earthy-scented vapor all evening.

Jampore beach in Big Daman was jam-packed with tourists and so was Devka beach in Small Daman.

San Joao (St. John’s feast) is on Wednesday, the 24th of June – looking forward to photographing the glut of ‘Val nacido’ (sprouted beans) in the bazaar – it looks as if there’s nothing else on display but ‘Val nacido!’ It’s the same scene on Good Friday – but it’s ‘Bred’ (green leafy veg) used for the devil’s recipe, ‘Aag sal de bred’ to tempt those fasting to pig out at lunch.

And ‘Val nacido’ is no newborn’s food either – you need a shard of ‘Papri’ (papad) as the only piece of cutlery, to scoop out a portion of the beans and garnishing of salted cubes of pork fat, and convey it into your mouth – you eat the ‘papri too – each time!’
The next logical step is a swill of liqour. Some spoilsports swig beer. A few rounds of this and then you’re ready for your first clumsy plump into a surf-n-sand roller.

Right – eat/drink, rinse and repeat! As easy as that!

By my calculations, high tide is around 5pm on San Joao and 9pm on San Pedro (29th June).

Oh, despite the 360 degree pollution (dirt, water/air pollution and corruption) in Daman, life is good in a secret place called, Damao.