Sunday – January 19, 2025
The featured image today is one that we saw everywhere as we drove on the excursion in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. This is not the kind of cabling I’m used to seeing having recently processed spacecraft cables for the NASA-funded TRACERS mission. From what I understand, local residents frequently help themselves to power, cable TV, internet – anything on a wire that is near their dwelling. When it comes time to move, they just cut the wires and leave them hanging. How would you like to try and debug this mess?
The sunrise video today was altered by the changes in heading the ship took as we arrived in the Salvador area. You’ll see the sun begin to rise in the center, then shift to the left side and finally shift off the left. Sorry about that but the Captain doesn’t consult me to be sure the sunrise video is centered. I’m hoping Monday’s will be better.
There were many of us making excursions in Salvador. One of the photos shows some of the busses that were used. We chose an excursion that included stops at a famous Catholic Church – Basilica Santuario do Senhor do Bonfim (Church of Bonfim for short) – and an iconic lighthouse at the tip of Salvador – Barra Lighthouse. You’ll find photos of both and a video at the lighthouse of dancers. Also included in the photos are things we saw along the way to both locations.
The church was in the process of celebrating the last day of an annual festival that begins on the second Thursday following January 6th. You can get the details from Google. The festival did include fireworks during the daytime – nothing fancy – just bangers. This church has a reputation for healing and has a room within named the “Miracle Room”. People purchase wristbands they attach to a fence surrounding the church (see photo). They come in many colors and look quite interesting when so many are attached. A priest and assistants were holding a ceremony outside the entrance to the church – I was able to get a photo by holding the camera high above me and watching the viewfinder screen. At the church were many vendors (mostly for the wristbands). A cotton candy vendor caught my eye so I included a photo of him.
After the church we traveled through a tunnel as we drove in the hills. On the other side was a soccer stadium and near it a lagoon named Tororo Dike Lagoon. In the lagoon were 8 sculptures depicting womanhood. Those sculptures are the Orixis sculptures of Tororo Dike. Use Google again to get more info about them,
Our next stop was the Barra Lighthouse. A tourist offered to take a photo of the 3 of us – came out OK with the lighthouse in the background but would have been better if Jan was more visible. In the square in front of the lighthouse were teenagers dancing like the performers we would see later on ship. Their moves were martial arts-like. One of the rules is that you can’t touch. There is a short video showing that dancing.
Coming back to the ship we noticed that additional work had been done on a mural being painted near our ship. I included a photo showing how it looked as we made our way back on board. We stopped for a refreshment at the buffet (hadn’t had breakfast or lunch). Then back to our cabin where we were able to see the mural artists at work (short video).
As we left Salvador I was able to get final looks at the Church of Bonfim, Barra Lighthouse, tugboat workers and the contrast between the affluent and the poor (buildings on a hillside).
Included are several photos of selections from this evenings dinner choices.
The dance presentation was called Encantos Da Bahia. Photos are thanks to Kelsey who was busy snapping her iPhone during the dancing. The dances performed were similar to what we saw near the lighthouse but with much more choreography and fanfare. Some of the backgrounds for the dance were of places we visited during the day.
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