GOA INDIA BEACHES

The Chapora river demarcates the Bardesh subdivision, the home ground of several beaches: Chapora, Anjuna, Baga, Calangute, Candolim, Sinquerim and an inner beach, Quegdevelim, one of the few rocky beaches in Goa and also a shell collectors haven.

Off the Mandovi estuary, in the Tiswadi subdivision, there are little beaches which are both tranquil and well-connected.

Other beaches are: Caranzalem, Marvel, Dona Paula, Bambolim and Siridao, all in close proximity to Mormugao harbor. The Mormugao subdivision has a string of excellent beaches, like Bogmalo, Issorcim, Cola (a rich spawning ground for fish and crustaceans), Pale, Velsao, and Cansaulim. The Vasco da Gama beaches of Cumberthi and Baina are sadly, totally polluted and very nearly destroyed.

The Salcete subdivision accounts for Goa's widest and cleanest beaches. They are Gaudalim, Colva (Goa's largest beach), Benaulim, Mobor, Varca, Carmona, and Cavelossim, the latter now overcrowded with new hotels. Further south, are more beaches as primitive as those of the Pernem subdivision but much less frequently used by foreign tourists. Only adventurous campers dare there. Try them. The local gentry once owned exclusive shacks, which were used in the summer months.

There are also in the same subdivision of Canacona, the Palolem, Colamba, Talpona and Galgibaga beaches. That is where Goa ends. Across is the Karnatakan beach of Karwar and, somewhere in between, lost in the sea, the Goan island of Anjediva which the Portuguese epic poet Camoens once described as the "Island of Love" It is now a naval establishment and out of bounds for civilians without a special security clearance.