Up until my most recent visit to Goa, I returned back with fond fun filled memories of clean beaches, sea and sand, amazing food and parties. However, my recent visit to Goa was a completely different pleasantly surprising experience. All thanks to Soul Travelling!
Soul Travelling specializes in offbeat tourism. They have started off with their base in Goa and are doing a commendable job of revealing the true Goan flavours. They do this by way of short walk trails through unseen locations in commonly heard of places. The trails organized by Soul Travelling are highly interesting to offer amazing information about the locations, their history and culture too.
I took the Soul Travelling's A Nature Trail at Chorao Islands and became a fan of these style of excursions. The very next day I came back to them to join in for The Latin Quarter trail at Panjim.
The Latin Quarter Walk
Panjim has a rich history - right from the ancient days of tobacco trade to becoming the final administrative center of the Portuguese and now as the capital of Goa. Panjim is also well known for its Indo-Portuguese styled architecture. The Latin Quarter walk trail organized by Soul Travelling starts early morning at Panjim. It is a 2 hours 30 minutes walk duration through the entire trail.
Starting off at the India Post Panjim Head Post Office, we headed to the trail's most sought-after attraction - Fontainhas.
Fountainhas is also known as the Latin Quarter of Panjim. It is a locality flanked by houses with red tiled roofs, protruding balconies with intricate railings, ornate windows and doors. The narrow lanes are beautified by the bright contrasting colorful walls of the houses that liven up the mood of every passerby. The colorful neighborhood is excellent for clicking some amazing pictures.
Did you know that the Portuguese had a law that each house was required to renew the coat of paint every year? The Latin Quarter still practices this and thus offers its visitors a fresh look year after year.
The trail took us through a few chapels. Soul Travelling experts, Leroy and Raj shared interesting facts and stories from the history of these chapels. The Sao Tome Chapel, St. Sebastian Chapel, and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, all are historic buildings that have a centuries-old history.
The Jardim Garcia de Orta is a small municipal with the Ashoka Pillar (India's national emblem) in the center as its main attraction. The entire garden is all lit up and decorated during festivals and occasions, especially the Goa Carnival. It hosts a musical fest with food stalls and beautiful colorful masks all around offering an amazing festive and carnival experience.
Then, Leroy took us to savor the refreshing delicacies at a popular local bakery - Confeitaria 31 De Janeiro. It had a very colonial Portuguese ambiance. This beautiful bakery serves delicious traditional Goan desserts and savories such as pastries, quiches, biscuits, guava cheese, and everything is freshly made in a big oven.
We also visited a popular Goan supermarket called 'Global to Local' where one can shop for a variety of Indian spices, snacks, papads, pickles of different flavors, skin care products and intricately made handicraft products.
At the end of the trail, we returned back to the Panjim Head Post Office. To our pleasant surprise, Soul Travelling team handed us postcards and told us to post them to family and friends. Thanks to Soul Travelling, I got to visit the post office for the first time in the past 15 years and post a letter too! This experience brought back some wonderful memories of teenage years when posting letters to my near and dear ones was a frequent affair. We also got some beautiful goodies from Soul Travelling to take back home as fond memories to cherish and share with our family.
Besides getting to know the authentic Goan culture and traditions, these little gestures and experiences in Soul Travelling's concept trails make it an unforgettable memory.
Soul Travelling is perfect to connect for exploring some not known places, history and cultural of Goa. You can visit my website or check out my profile on Instagram for more wonderful pictures and content :)
