A dead body and some very BIG spiders!

We had a taxi for a day and visited Old Goa in the morning and Shakari Spice Farm in the afternoon.

Bethan found the churches in Old Goa "spooky" probably because of the presence of St Francis Xavier in Bom Jesus. St Francis died near China in December 1552 and legend says that his servant emptied four sacks of quicklime into his coffin to consume his flesh. Despite the quicklime the body failed to rot and was returned to Goa. In 1556 the viceroy's physician examined the body and confirmed that all the vital organs were intact. St Francis was canonised in 1622. As you can see from the photo, the miraculous preservation did not last and he lies, in a severely dessicated state, in a glass coffin.

The Spice farm was very interesting although rendered, for Bethan, almost as spooky by the presence of the enormous banana spiders. She walked into one which ran down her leg but was fairly calm about the whole experience.