End of the Road

Heading into our third month in India, we were as happy as a dog with two tails. We loved our appartment, Flora's school, the food, the morning walks on the beaches, the people we had met, the restaurants and bars, the moped rides, the cows, the best granola breakfasts in the world at Little Ganesha, the nights out, the weed, the yoga and the food market on Saturdays. We also had Ella and Chrish's visit and Liverpool was making a mockery out of the "so called" competitiveness of the Premier League. Life felt pretty good and even Flora's persistent head lice and the disappointing, but predictable, nomination of Joe Biden ahead of the brilliant Bernie Sanders as the Democratic runner for the White House job, were not enough to curb our enthusiasm.
However, a dark cloud was growing over our heads, seriously threatening our state of grace. A new corona virus was killing people in China and despite the efforts of the Chinese government to contain the virus and the bad news, the virus was spreading fast. Saying this, Wuhan is miles away

from Goa, the Chinese had successfully contained SARS a few years before and therefore, life carried on as normal for us for a while.
During our third month in India, through one of Flora's little friend's birthday, we met Laurence (a guy that Pedro had been playing football with), Rose and their two kids Josie and Isaac. It really felt that Goa's community, mainly gravitating around River House school, was an unlimited source of lovely and interesting people. When we joined them for a Sunday lunch in Cabi de Rama, north of Agonda, we were amazed by the stunning views of the ocean and by Cola beach, where we spent the afternoon. An incredible place where the sea meets this lagoon perfect for kids to swim safely and the adults to play ball games, frisbee or just relax.

A week later it was Holi, a popular Hindu festival that represents the victory of good over evil. Also known as the festival of spring, the festival of colours or the festival of love, Holi was so much fun! Completely oblivious to the international spread of COVID-19, that by this time was already killing a lot of people in Europe, forcing countries like Italy and Spain into unprecendented lockdowns, we headed to a bar in one of the little coves in Colomb Beach. We arrived quite early and managed to observe and be part of the crescendo of people and festive mood going on, with people of all ages throwing colourful paint at each other, leaving us all almost unrecognisable, as the alcohol rose in our heads to the sound of the DJ's

tunes. It was magic and retrospectively represented the swan song of our wonderful stay in Goa.
During the last week of our stay, River House organised a visit day for parents to meet with the teachers and witness the extraordinary learning that the kids had done at school. We were both very proud of Flora for her great achievements and very happy with our decision to stop in Goa for a few months to give her the chance to enjoy a truly holistic and alternative school experience that would be hard to replicate in the UK or Portugal and completely impossible to do so in Qatar.
The cherry on top of the cake was sports day. In what would become Flora's last day at River House, that closed its doors the following day due to the increased number of COVID-19 cases in India, they

took the kids to the beautiful and deserted Galgibag beach, for a vast array of sporting activities, locking Flora's experience with a golden key. She won the sack race brilliantly and more importantly gained amazing memories and friendships for life.
The news about the spread of the virus all over the world became more devastating and scary. Our flight to Lisbon was cancelled as many countries closed their borders, only organising repatriation flights for their nationals. As the email from River House announcing the school closure arrived on Saturday, we seriously considered our options and after discussing it over the weekend, we woke up on Monday and decided to buy a four-leg flight to

Lisbon that same night. Despite the fact that the situation in India was still pretty calm compared to the high number of deaths in Europe, we decided we wanted to be at "home" when the shit would hit the fan, and by that time, it was already clear that it would only be a question of time for it to happen.
So, from 11am of Monday the 16th of March, we bought the flights, packed all our stuff, checked

out of our beautiful apartment, where the swimming pool and playground had also been closed that same day, had a couple of beers with some friends at Salida to say goodbye and left. It was all so fast and confusing. Alongside the fear of going through airports during a pandemic, we were really sad to leave Goa so suddenly. Our stay had been fantastic, almost perfect and we left knowing that we would be back at some point. Patnem beach and everything else we experienced there will always stay in our hearts.
The journey itself was tough. We started at 7pm with a two-hour taxi ride to Goa airport in Vasco da Gama, an internal flight to Mumbai followed by a snooze in the airport, another flight to Bahrain and another one to Heathrow where we arrived around

5pm. Our intention to get to Lisbon on the same day was frustrated by the ridiculous £500 price of the TAP flight. Therefore, we decided to buy another flight for the following morning from Gatwick, which meant we had to grab a cab and book an hotel near the airport to spend the night. On Wednesday the 18th we finally arrived in Lisbon around lunch time where we found a completely deserted city. Confinement and the emergency state were declared the following day.

Our beautiful adventure had finished in an unbelieveble and unpredictable way and another chapter of our lives was about to start with a mixture of excitement and uncertainty.