Pictures from the second week of sailing

The first shot is from the first day in Salvador, when the two groups arrived together and went for a city tour. Here they are posing by the lighthouse that protected the city in colonial days.

Below are shots of the second week of sailing on the Tocorime. Lots of smiles and great tans! The scenery was breathtaking and the crew gave the boys the experience of a lifetime.

Here is Mark chilling on the bow ropes with Jonny resting beside him after hauling up the anchor.

Together Again!

All three groups travelled safely to meet in Rio De Janeiro yesterday, one via the Tocorime and two flew in from Salvador. We got to know this city in the first few days of the trip and coming back to the same hostel almost feels like coming home!

You have received updates over the last week from Mark's group hiking and Danielle/Rob's group at the community service project, but Sandi/Gary and the boys sailing haven't had access to the internet to share tales of the sea...

They set sail in Paraty and enjoyed making their way back to Rio hitting many of the same landmarks as the previous group only in reverse order. There were grueling hikes on Ilha Grande, early mornings spent hoisting anchor and setting the sails, and lots of time to swim and make impressive jumps from the crow's nest into the ocean.

Sifting through hundreds of photos has been a wonderful opportunity for reflection this evening, but the process of uploading is quite slow right now. So, here is one shot of the group that just finished sailing and there are more to come tomorrow.

Missing Pictures!

The group without pictures has met up with the others in Rio and have a cord to upload!

Here are a few pics from our time on the ship sailing (2 weeks ago) as well as a group shot from our community service project (last week)... Notice Anthony's prized Nutella, some pics of the Tocorime to give you a sense of our home for the week, and great shots of the boys working on the ship and enjoying free time both on the ship and on shore.

Day Seven - Hiking Trip

Our final day in Chapada involved visits to two separate caves, both of them containing pools of water. The first pool was called Poco Encantado, or the Enchanted Pool. It was first discovered in 1945, and at the time it was believed to contain magical powers due to the blueish tinge of the water. The pool is almost 70 metres deep at the centre, but the water is so clear that you can see right to the bottom. The blue arc that you can see in the photo to the left is actually created by the sun's rays as they enter the cavern. Swimming is not permitted in this pool, but even to see the mystical sight of the transparent blue water in such a peaceful cavern was an amazing opportunity. All of us were intrigued by the beautiful reflections and surrounding rock formations. It reminded us of a scene you might expect to see in a movie.

Our second stop took us to the Poco Azul, or Blue Pool. This time we were permitted to swim, and we were even provided with masks and snorkels. Again, the water was incredibly clear, but this time we were able to see it from within. It's amazing the kind of effect that the reflection of light into such caverns can have on the colouring and clarity of the water.

After our swim we had lunch in the Poco Azul restaurant before heading back to Lencois. We are now relaxing at a Pousada just outside of town as we wait for our overnight bus back to Salvador. By tomorrow morning we will be joining up with Danielle Richer, Rob Giel and the rest of their group. I'm sure the boys look forward to seeing some of their other friends again.

Day Six - Hiking Trip

The Duke of Edinburgh's award portion of our trip ended with the completion of the hike on Saturday, but there was still plenty planned for our final two days in Chapada Diamantina. Yesterday we travelled about two hours from Mucuge to visit the Buracao Waterfall. A 3 km walk to get to the falls was well worth the effort. As you can see from the photo to the right, it was quite an incredible sight. We were able to climb down into the canyon a few hundred metres away from the spot you can see at the bottom left of this photo. We spent some time there jumping into the water from a 3-4 metre high platform, before swimming along a narrow channel to get within sight of the waterfall. The photo below shows Greg Vandemark and Wes Tiller jumping off this platform, but all of the guys made the same jump more than once.

Once in the main canyon and in sight of the falls, we were told that we could swim right over to the actual waterfall. From there our guide showed the boys how to climb up to a rock ledge from which you could shimmy out behind the waterfall. The boys were able to jump out through the falling water and back into the pool below. They say it stung a bit as they penetrated the falling water, but this was to be expected considering the fact that the water falls from a height of almost 75 metres. It was definitely an interesting experience for everyone. The photo below shows a number of the boys as they're making their way in behind the falls.

Day Five - Hiking Trip

Wake up this morning was at 7:00 a.m. We needed to get up and have breakfast so that we could be on our way at a decent time for the 18 km trek planned for the day.

We started the trek with almost an hour of uphill terrain as we made our way out of the Pati Valley. Once we were back on the plateau, the landscape was relatively flat and the hiking was much less strenuous. The photo to the left shows us just after we ascended out of the valley and started across the plateau toward the Cachoeirao, a 300 m height waterfall.

The photo to the right shows Mike Mildon, Jon Cannon, and Brennan de Langley as they ate their lunch from a lookout above the waterfall. Again, the views were incredible, but even more so when we walked around to the other side of the canyon after lunch. We had a perfect view of the waterfall from that side. It wasn´t a high volume waterfall, but the height was dizzying.

From there we retraced our steps back to the point where we first came up out of the Pati Valley. The designated meeting spot with the trucks was another 8 km in the opposite direction. Afternoon trekking was tough with the sun bearing down on us, but we were used to it by that point. We were also very much looking forward to the prospect of hot showers that evening. That opportunity alone drove us onward toward the trucks. The photo below shows us at the edge of a cliff marking the end of the plateau. From there we had a 30 minute descent along a swtch-back trail to more of a low-land region. It was only a short distance further to the trucks. Our pousada for the evening was in a small town called Mucuge. We had a great dinner at a local restaurant and enjoyed the comforts of much higher-end accommodations than those of the previous two nights.

The Festival of the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death!

A mouthful to say, the festival we attended today has quite an interesting history.

While slavery was still present in Brazil, an organization of black women was created called "The Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death." These women were essentially a secret society, fronting as a Catholic organization raising money for the church. Instead, they used funds to buy the freedom of their enslaved sons and brothers.

The African descendants in Brazil blended their religious beliefs with Catholic beliefs. In the heart of slavery, death was considered a blessing, as the people believed in reincarnation and saw death as freedom from life. The name "Sisterhood of Our Lady of Good Death" refers to Mary, to whom they prayed for the blessing of death.

The festival is celebrated by many Afro-Brazilians as well as feminist groups, as this secret society is considered the first women's movement in the country and commemorates the liberation of the slaves. Attending the festival were 30 women dressed in white thought of as "sisters" because they are descendants of the original group.

We were truly lucky to participate in today's events. A two-hour bus ride brought us inland to Cachoeira where the streets were full of music, food and art. We spent the day enjoying the festival and sampling some of the local delicacies.