Random Notes about Brazil II, 2/7-2/9

On Saturday, our last day in port, we took a day trip to the country to a small town near Cacheira. There were amazing open air markets with fresh veggies, fruit, eggs, meat, fish, tobacco. One of the students got a sample of the tobacco and suddenly everyone had to have a toke. You’d think it was chocolate or something. Tasted jack fruit (sort of mellony-mango) but I don’t care for it. There’s a nut in the middle that you’re not supposed to eat for some vaguely threatening reason that I forget. I don’t like it when fruit is scary. A young boy gave me a small radish that had been nibbled, and a purple flower.

Sign on a wall: FORA BUSH translates into GO AWAY BUSH. Everyone with a camera was jostling for a photo (see ours on flickr).

Our group was treated to a delicious lunch in a restaurant in Cacheira, an abundance of food! And then a tour of the Dannemann tobacco factory! See photos on flickr. ‘Factory’ is perhaps not the right word; It’s about a dozen women in a large room rolling cigars. Our guide compared the quality of Brazilian cigars to Cuban cigars, but some of these guides get a bit hyperbolic.

When we arrived back at the ship there was a young man wearing an enormous sombrero (see flickr) he had just bought for about $60 who was not allowed to board with it! He was trying to make back the money he spent by charging for people to take photos of him. I wonder if he really had to leave the sombrero. He probably did; there aren’t many rules that get circumvented around here! Hopefully the young man perked up when he saw it was BBQ night, which is even better than Taco day. There was a big party on the pool deck: a big grill with pork, chicken, and salmon; corn on the cob; ice cream sundaes. And a four-man mariachi band! They were great! It was a perfect warm night to be outside, especially after the heat of the day (something like 97 degrees every day). We had to say goodbye to Javier Escobar, our interport lecturer who has been with us since Puerto Rico. Javier lives in Salvador now but did his masters and PhD at UVA. The students loved him for his energy and friendliness, and he was ever so helpful to all of us as we navigated our first ‘real’ port.

We were to be on the ship by 9pm, with departure time set at 11pm. I was mortified to have my name called over the P.A. as someone who had not checked in! There can be serious consequences for such a transgression, but they are mostly reserved for people who actually do not make it back to the ship by 9pm. I was on the ship; somehow I neglected to swipe my ID with the security crew as I boarded. I narrowly escaped ‘dock time’ which would have meant not being able to get off the ship right away in our next port. I’m telling you, they are quite serious about rules!

I love Brazil! But we have barely scratched the surface.

Random Notes about Brazil I, 2/7-2/9

Margie and I met up with David, the ship’s doctor, and Avi, the videographer, for dinner in the Pellourhino. We walked by men peeing in the streets to the elevator. We were looking for a restaurant recommended by others, but of course got lost. A policeman asked us if we needed help, and we wound up with a military escort right to the door of the restaurant. As we walked there it appeared that Carnival was still going on; someone forgot to tell these folks! Bands playing, samba schools sambaing, large paper mache heads bopping by. We ate several local dishes: the best was moqueca, an Indian/African dish of shrimp steamed in coconut milk and palm oil with tomatoes, peppers and coriander. Delicious!

The motto on the Brazilian flag is ‘Order and Progress’. Luiz Da Silva (AKA ‘Lula’) is the head of state and is serving his second term. Voting is compulsory! If you don’t vote, you can’t do things like get a passport. There is something to this compulsory voting. The predominant religion is Catholic, but many (something like 15%) follow Candemble, a tradition that is African in origin. Spirits, called Orixa (ore-EE-sha), choose and inhabit devotees and provide the moral grounding for life. There are seven different spirits representing parts of the natural world. If your orixa doesn’t like water, you don’t ever go in the ocean.  We had hoped to go to an actual ceremony, but it fell through at the last minute. Instead, the next night we went to see Bale Folcorico da Bahai, an amazing folk dance company that conveys Candemble and other parts of Brazilian culture through dance. There were 3 or 4 drummers, 2 singers, and about a dozen male and female dancers. The first dancers came out dressed in white, flowing and beautiful (the congregation?) followed by the colorful Candemble spirits that were passionate, wild, somewhat intimidating. Their faces were obscured as they bellowed and threw their bodies around violently and brandished big knives. One Orixa ate fire and put his bare hand on coals. Yikes! The second part was more of a celebration of the martial art of Capoeira, with the male dancers performing gymnastic improbabilities, fearlessly defying gravity as they hurled themselves around the stage.