Cachoeira

2/9

For our last day in Bahia, we took a trip out of the city to Cachoeira (Cash o AIR a), a little town with a lively open market, lovely 16^th century architecture, and a rural economy. The market is open every other day, as most houses don’t have refrigeration, and features everything from Hello Kitty schoolbags, every kind of fruit you can imagine (we tasted some lovely jackfruit) to fresh fish, shrimp, chicken and all parts of beef (anybody need some hoof?)

Most people work on cooperative farms, growing food for their families and food to sell at the market. We visited a house and walked through the backyard garden – in a yard not bigger than many in Chesapeake, they were growing bananas, guavas, coffee, cacao, herbs, and running a small chocolate business in the front room. The chocolate was VERY rich and oh so good – you really didn’t have to eat it, just inhale the aroma! We observed that almost every house, no matter how poor, had a TV antenna. Our guide, Frederico, told us that a TV and a CD player (for popular music) were the first “must have” items for every family, even before furniture, clothing, or refrigeration.

We watched local tobacco being hand-rolled into the finest of cigars, and got to have a toke (sorry, 60s jargon!) on a hand-rolled cigarette made with fresh aromatic tobacco. It’s easy to see why our ancestors got hooked – it smelled as good as the chocolate!

We visited the chapel of the Sisters of the Good Death, a women’s group that originated over 200 years ago for the purpose of providing decent funerals for slaves, or negotiating their freedom. The group maintains a Catholic chapel, and also practices Candomble. The Sisters, once very powerful, are now down to 20 aged members, as there is no interest among the young people in joining a group which no longer has a primary purpose to serve. We met one of the youngest remaining members who, at 73, maintains the chapel and provides a link to history. We were told that after the TV series “Roots” became popular back in the 80s, many Hollywood actors and Martin Luther King’s daughter Barbara came to visit and donated to the Sisters, but they know the end of their service is coming soon.

Happy to report that all the students made it back to the ship in time for our departure - we had a welcome back barbeque on the pool deck, with a reggae band and a special treat – ice cream! There will be no living with us when we get home – we are getting soooo spoiled!