#613 Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

Salvador da Bahia is Brazil's capital of happiness due to many outdoor parties and street carnivals.

But it also was the Portuguese empire's first capital in Brazil.  The Pelourinho district, now protected as a UNESCO world heritage site, showcases Baroque architecture built during Portugal's golden age.

The historic district (upper town) and the lower town have been connected by an elevator since 1873.

Yours in exploring Salvador,
Mary

#611 Hitting the High Spots in Rio

As we sail into Rio de Janerio, the view from our cabin window becomes our itinerary.

Our first stop on land is Sugarloaf Mountain, elevation 1299 feet. 

View from Sugarloaf Mountain

 Later we visit Christ The Redeemer statue, elevation 2300 feet.

View from Christ the Redeemer Statue

But in our view, the real highlight is the world's 7th largest library, collection 9 million items.

View of the Brazilian National Library

Yours in finding the high spots,
Kelly

#460 Greeted in Ghana

The folks in Takoradi, Ghana greeted our arrival with native dancers.

Perhaps word of our earlier greeting in Manaus, Brazil preceeded us across the Atlantic.

Yours in comparative greetings,
Kelly

#459 Neighbors again

We've enjoyed fabulous neighbors through the years.  Now our worlds collide on Semester At Sea. 

Theresa and I started our computer programming careers on the same day - working for the Technical Services Division, Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, OK - and we lived a couple of blocks apart on Cherokee Avenue.   Little did we know that three decades later, Theresa, her husband Paul, and I would be sailing around the world together.  (See Theresa's blog.)

When the NCAA took us to Indianapolis, our next door neighbors welcomed us warmly to the Crossroads of America.  Dick and Dorane are Semester at Sea veterans and are the folks who first told us about the program back in 2003.

We are thrilled to be together again with all of our neighbors and officially celebrated our reunion with carne de sol and sardine pizza at Scarola's Restaurant in Manaus, Brazil.

 

And we continue to celebrate each day as we are all neighbors on the MV Explorer - fourth deck, port side.

Yours in loving the neighborhood,
Mary

#456 Architecture in the River Amazon villages

I'm still thinking about that Amazon village visit.  No, I don't mean the PowerPoint.

Walking several miles along the banks of the river where about 400 people live, we passed through clusters of small solidly built homes standing on stilts that placed their living spaces just above the wet season high water mark. Each home was unique.  Several caught my eye.

Some had large porches.

Some had no porches.

Some had side porches.

Some had front porches.

Some were brightly painted.

Some were partially painted.

Some were not painted at all.

One new home was rising as the older smaller home was dismantled.

One had all the bells and whistles with a TV antenna, gravity water system, and window air conditioner.

This roof has the same graceful curve as the upturned prow of the local wooden riverboats. I liked it a lot.

Did I mention the churches?

All these buildings are within a couple miles of this location:  -3.122102°, -59.873047°  

If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can click here to view in Google Earth .

Architectural history students up for a little field work in the Amazon?  Could these buildings be a thesis or dissertation topic? 

Yours in appreciating the Not So Big House,
Kelly

#455 Powerpoint in the Jungle

Can you expect to be surprised?

In anticipation of our visit to villages along the River Amazon, I expected to see surprising things.  But not PowerPoint.

Yes, the bulleted list is alive and well in the jungle.

But Edward Tufte would be proud of the school principal's image-laden introduction to her water-centric village.

Hardware: Acer laptop.  Software: Windows 7; PowerPoint 2010

Yours in avoiding death in the jungle by PowerPoint,
Kelly

#454 Paris in the Amazon

In November, we had the pleasure of standing under the Eiffel Tower and gazing up at the four steel legs supporting the structure.

This week, we had the pleasure of standing under the dome of the Opera House in Manaus, Brazil and looking up at a painting of that same Eiffel Tower view.

Yours in finding the best views,
Kelly

#453 UVA Library does good work!

Thank you UVA Library!

See how happy you've made Chris and me?

We're smiling because we're holding a copy of The End of Poverty in our hands!  Since Chris forgot to pack his copy, we requested a last-minute purchase.  And very speedily, you purchased, cataloged, marked, and mailed us this copy that makes us smile.  It was waiting for us when we arrived in Manaus, Brazil.

The faculty are also smiling because of the hundreds of purchases made prior to the voyage that fill the reserve shelves behind us.  And the 800 electronic reserves waiting for their students on the shipboard intranet.  Thank you, UVA Library!

Yours in performing magic by making DVDs appear in the middle of the Amazon jungle,
Mary

#452 Meeting of the Waters

At Manaus, the waters meet. It's visible from space.

The dark tannin-stained Rio Negro flows into the milk chocolate silt-laden Solimões/Amazon.  The waters meet, but don't mix.

Extreme differences in water temperature and acidity keep the two waters distinct for many miles downstream from their junction.

Yours in enjoying this meeting,
Kelly

#451 Librarians in the Amazon

If Mary is a magnet, libraries and librarians are steel.  


In Manaus, we're docked very near the grand public library.   

On the banks of the River Amazon, our village walking tour stopped at the school library.

And that same day, another member of our traveling party from Manaus approached Mary with this conversation starter: "You are a librarian?  I am the librarian for 3 decades at The Federal University of the Amazon!  My name is Maria and this is one of our library students."

Yours in traveling with the librarian magnet,
Kelly

#450 River Amazon villages

The millions of jungle acres surrounding urban Manaus, Brazil are home for many people. 

To better understand life away from the big city, we joined faculty and students from The Federal University of the Amazon to visit a string of villages along the south bank of the Amazon.

Clearly, we're not in Manaus anymore.

Up the boardwalk and down the shore we walked...

...to meet with administrators and children from the local school.

We saw beautiful vegetable gardens and their gardeners.

Check the high water marks on the trees.  In a few months time during the rainy season, the River Amazon (now far in the background) will rise to flood everything in this picture.

Nine hours later we reboarded our boat headed back to Manaus.

And I've not even mentioned the librarians, the jungle powerpoint, the architecture, the rubber trees, or the massive termites.

Yours in leaving more for later,
Kelly