Thursday, May 16, 2013
Day Trip to Cachoeira
Yesterday we took a road trip on our bus to the town of Cachoeira, about 90 miles outside of Salvador.
It was our first trip out into the countryside, rural Brazil so to speak (not including the Amazon in this category). The drive was beautiful; the landscape varied between thick clumps of tropical foliage and green rolling hills dotted with cows feeding placidly on the grass. All cattle in Brazil is grass-fed and so beef is really tasty compared to the corn-fed cows in the US (I had a McDonalds Quarter Pounder yesterday and it was the best burger I have ever eaten at a McDonalds).
We passed by many bamboo plantations and a paper mill that makes paper out of of bamboo. We also saw a grove of mangrove trees that naturally filter the water which had a lot of salt in it. The leaves of the trees are hence salty and are used by the local inhabitants in their cooking.
On the way we stopped at a town called Santa Amara and walked around for a while. We stopped at a newspaper publishing house which still uses a hand operated printing press, the oldest in Brazil and probably the only one in the world which is still operational. We next stopped at an 18th century church, Our Lady Saint Mary of Purification. Our visit happened to coincide with a mid- day Mass so we sat in the back row and listened to Mass in Portuguese. It was accompanied by a recording of acoustic guitar and even though we couldn't understand the words, it had a spiritual, uplifting quality to it.
We got back on the bus and about three hours after we left Salvador we arrived in Cachoeira. Cachoeira is a picturesque town built along the Paraiguacu River by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The town has a very European feel to it because of the architecture of the houses and churches and also the plazas and narrow cobblestone streets which our bus driver expertly navigated around. However there are distinctly Brazilian elements as well, such as the markets for fruits and vegetables as well as crafts and household supplies; the vendors on the street selling different types of goods, along with the small shops ranging from barber shops to bakeries. The northeastern part of Brazil was the center of the slave trade by the Portuguese so 90% of the population here is of African descent.
Many of the houses were also not well-preserved although there was some new construction that definitely looked out of place amongst the older colonial style of houses. One street was packed because a new shoe store had just opened and the store was offering a new car ( which we saw) as a prize to some lucky shopper.
We drove across the bridge over the River to the old farm house where we were to eat lunch. It was called Fazenda Santa Cruz (Fazenda means farm in Portuguese). The house was beautiful and sat atop a hill overlooking the river and the town. There were enormous mango trees in the yard and the ground was scattered with fallen mangoes. Such bounty! We later saw someone raking the fallen mangoes which were hopefully going to be used later on.
We sat on two long tables on a verandah which wrapped around the house. It rained briefly but cleared up soon and we enjoyed a delicious meal in idyllic surroundings. The main course was steak
which had doubtless come from one of those peaceful placid cows at some point. Needless to say it was scrumptious. There was a buffet with various side dishes and mango sorbet for dessert.
After lunch we stopped at a cigar factory to see how cigars are made. The factory was started by a German entrepreneur named Dannemann in the 19th century. Apparently these are some of the finest cigars in the world and some of you can look forward to receiving them as gifts in a few days!
The factory was a large room with about twenty women working on different stages of the process. We watched each stage starting with rolling the tobacco leaves,
followed by gluing the outer casing on and closing up one end and then testing the cigar to see if it was rolled the right degree of tightness.
The cigar factory was our last stop and we hopped back in the bus for our long drive back to Salvador.
It was our first trip out into the countryside, rural Brazil so to speak (not including the Amazon in this category). The drive was beautiful; the landscape varied between thick clumps of tropical foliage and green rolling hills dotted with cows feeding placidly on the grass. All cattle in Brazil is grass-fed and so beef is really tasty compared to the corn-fed cows in the US (I had a McDonalds Quarter Pounder yesterday and it was the best burger I have ever eaten at a McDonalds).
We passed by many bamboo plantations and a paper mill that makes paper out of of bamboo. We also saw a grove of mangrove trees that naturally filter the water which had a lot of salt in it. The leaves of the trees are hence salty and are used by the local inhabitants in their cooking.
On the way we stopped at a town called Santa Amara and walked around for a while. We stopped at a newspaper publishing house which still uses a hand operated printing press, the oldest in Brazil and probably the only one in the world which is still operational. We next stopped at an 18th century church, Our Lady Saint Mary of Purification. Our visit happened to coincide with a mid- day Mass so we sat in the back row and listened to Mass in Portuguese. It was accompanied by a recording of acoustic guitar and even though we couldn't understand the words, it had a spiritual, uplifting quality to it.
We got back on the bus and about three hours after we left Salvador we arrived in Cachoeira. Cachoeira is a picturesque town built along the Paraiguacu River by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The town has a very European feel to it because of the architecture of the houses and churches and also the plazas and narrow cobblestone streets which our bus driver expertly navigated around. However there are distinctly Brazilian elements as well, such as the markets for fruits and vegetables as well as crafts and household supplies; the vendors on the street selling different types of goods, along with the small shops ranging from barber shops to bakeries. The northeastern part of Brazil was the center of the slave trade by the Portuguese so 90% of the population here is of African descent.
Many of the houses were also not well-preserved although there was some new construction that definitely looked out of place amongst the older colonial style of houses. One street was packed because a new shoe store had just opened and the store was offering a new car ( which we saw) as a prize to some lucky shopper.
We drove across the bridge over the River to the old farm house where we were to eat lunch. It was called Fazenda Santa Cruz (Fazenda means farm in Portuguese). The house was beautiful and sat atop a hill overlooking the river and the town. There were enormous mango trees in the yard and the ground was scattered with fallen mangoes. Such bounty! We later saw someone raking the fallen mangoes which were hopefully going to be used later on.
We sat on two long tables on a verandah which wrapped around the house. It rained briefly but cleared up soon and we enjoyed a delicious meal in idyllic surroundings. The main course was steak
which had doubtless come from one of those peaceful placid cows at some point. Needless to say it was scrumptious. There was a buffet with various side dishes and mango sorbet for dessert.
After lunch we stopped at a cigar factory to see how cigars are made. The factory was started by a German entrepreneur named Dannemann in the 19th century. Apparently these are some of the finest cigars in the world and some of you can look forward to receiving them as gifts in a few days!
The factory was a large room with about twenty women working on different stages of the process. We watched each stage starting with rolling the tobacco leaves,
followed by gluing the outer casing on and closing up one end and then testing the cigar to see if it was rolled the right degree of tightness.
The cigar factory was our last stop and we hopped back in the bus for our long drive back to Salvador.
Condomble
Yesterday we had a visit to Salvador's largest Condomble center. Condomble is the Brazilian form of Santeria and Voodoo. It's an animist religion created out of traditional African religious ceremonies and brought to Brazil by imported slaves. The center we visited, Jle Axe Opo Afonja, is dedicated and ruled by Xango, one of the main Condomble Orixas. The Orixas are the gods of Candomble, and each has a particular character and form, and a special attribute that helps people who pray to them. Xango is a warrior god, owner of thunder and fire, and represents masculine power.
Condomble is a matriarchal religion. There are several reasons for this, the first being that animism holds that gender doesn't shape us or our bodies, and we all have many spirits and the possibility to hold many others, both male and female. Condomble is quite gay friendly, in fact. The other reason for the matriarchal structure of Condomble has to do with the particular history of slavery in Brazil. Male slaves worked almost exclusively in the fields and were heavily policed. The work was difficult and dangerous and life expectancies were low. Female saves worked mainly in and around the houses. Some of them were educated. The women were able to congregate and were able to preserve the oral traditions of Western Africa. The "Mother" of each center is chosen by the Orixas and runs the church independently of other centers. There are a number of "Daughters of the Orixas" who act like priests, preparing the ceremonies, teaching the children, making the traditional all-white garments, communicating with the ancestors, and receiving the sprits of the Orixas in their bodies through a kind of possession. The Mother of the congregation we visited was named Mao Stella, and she is probably Brazil's most famous Mother. She is an Anthropologist and public figure who is a member of Brazil's Academy of Arts and Literature. We were shown around by a Daughter named Dare, who was about 40 and wore the all-white dress and headscarf.
The center itself was created 110 years ago when its Mother raised enough money to buy a large piece of land outside the city. This was only 15 years after slavery was abolished in Brazil and many former slaves had no place to live, no work, and were in terrible poverty. Condomble was illegal, and the land was bought under the guise of providing cooperative farming opportunities for former slaves. They erected a cross, which still stands, and practiced their religion in secret by continuing the practice of syncretism, which links Orixas to Saints and makes them on some ways interchangeable. This kept Condomble underground and secret.
Today the city hems in the land, and in fact, the center has lost almost half of it to squatters who went in overnight and built favela homes. The land has been planted with trees and plants imported from Africa, and serves as a kind of African cultural centers. There is a school that teaches 400 students in both Portuguese and Yoruba. Many families live at the center and practice communal living. Each Orixa has her or his own 'house' or shrine or place of worship.
We walked for a while around this place, with acres of forest, hemmed in by poor neighborhoods on all sides. It was beautiful and peaceful. There was lovely art and bright-colored plaster walls. And then there were the bones and carcasses. Yes, giant balls of bones, chicken-feet, patches of animal fur, feathers, skulls, and horns, tied in large clumsy clumps and hung from the rafters of an open-sided veranda. They looked dark and alarming, and they were such a contrast to the lovely warm community around us. But when we asked about these dark displays, the story behind them was completely benign. In fact, animals are sacrificed for Condomble rituals, but for the purpose of communal eating. Part of the ceremony is to bind people together by sharing a meal. The bones and skulls and feet and fur are the symbolic representation of being bound together into a community.
We were asked not to take photos so I can't post any.
Condomble is a matriarchal religion. There are several reasons for this, the first being that animism holds that gender doesn't shape us or our bodies, and we all have many spirits and the possibility to hold many others, both male and female. Condomble is quite gay friendly, in fact. The other reason for the matriarchal structure of Condomble has to do with the particular history of slavery in Brazil. Male slaves worked almost exclusively in the fields and were heavily policed. The work was difficult and dangerous and life expectancies were low. Female saves worked mainly in and around the houses. Some of them were educated. The women were able to congregate and were able to preserve the oral traditions of Western Africa. The "Mother" of each center is chosen by the Orixas and runs the church independently of other centers. There are a number of "Daughters of the Orixas" who act like priests, preparing the ceremonies, teaching the children, making the traditional all-white garments, communicating with the ancestors, and receiving the sprits of the Orixas in their bodies through a kind of possession. The Mother of the congregation we visited was named Mao Stella, and she is probably Brazil's most famous Mother. She is an Anthropologist and public figure who is a member of Brazil's Academy of Arts and Literature. We were shown around by a Daughter named Dare, who was about 40 and wore the all-white dress and headscarf.
The center itself was created 110 years ago when its Mother raised enough money to buy a large piece of land outside the city. This was only 15 years after slavery was abolished in Brazil and many former slaves had no place to live, no work, and were in terrible poverty. Condomble was illegal, and the land was bought under the guise of providing cooperative farming opportunities for former slaves. They erected a cross, which still stands, and practiced their religion in secret by continuing the practice of syncretism, which links Orixas to Saints and makes them on some ways interchangeable. This kept Condomble underground and secret.
Today the city hems in the land, and in fact, the center has lost almost half of it to squatters who went in overnight and built favela homes. The land has been planted with trees and plants imported from Africa, and serves as a kind of African cultural centers. There is a school that teaches 400 students in both Portuguese and Yoruba. Many families live at the center and practice communal living. Each Orixa has her or his own 'house' or shrine or place of worship.
We walked for a while around this place, with acres of forest, hemmed in by poor neighborhoods on all sides. It was beautiful and peaceful. There was lovely art and bright-colored plaster walls. And then there were the bones and carcasses. Yes, giant balls of bones, chicken-feet, patches of animal fur, feathers, skulls, and horns, tied in large clumsy clumps and hung from the rafters of an open-sided veranda. They looked dark and alarming, and they were such a contrast to the lovely warm community around us. But when we asked about these dark displays, the story behind them was completely benign. In fact, animals are sacrificed for Condomble rituals, but for the purpose of communal eating. Part of the ceremony is to bind people together by sharing a meal. The bones and skulls and feet and fur are the symbolic representation of being bound together into a community.
We were asked not to take photos so I can't post any.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Relaxing in hammocks
Kayleigh and Sam enjoying the hammocks at the Eco lodge after a long day out on the water.
Cooking experience in Manaus
We sat at this long table after we were done cooking, to sample all the delicious food that had been prepared.
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