March 30, 2025

SALVADOR, BRAZIL - Capital of northeastern state of Bahia

Lots of us Residences out exploring this port town of Salvador. From L to R - Angela & Steve ( midlife cruising bloggers), PattiJo, Darrell, Scott, Paulie ( chef from Long Island) Marty ( friend of Darrell's visiting) Bob & Sarah, Callie ( friend of Scott's visiting, JR ( don't think I know what it stands for ?) and Cherrie. Statues were outside the Carnival Museum. Museum had free entry and had a great view of port and lots of prior years Carnival customs.

The old town of this Port sits up on a hilltop plateau, that is accessed by either a funicular or one of 4 elevators, pictured below.

Once atop, there were several squares with a variety of colorful colonial Portuguese buildings, cobblestone streets, and baroque churches. Sao Francisco Church had stunning gold gilt woodwork. Lots of colorful street art and local artisans too!

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Saw a poster of Michael Jackson in one of the balcony windows and also noticed  alot of people wearing Olodum t-shirts - so had to look up significance. He shot the video THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT US here in 1995. Olodum means God of Gods or greatest God and is the name of the Afro Brazilian music group from Bahia, Brazil who played with him in the video. Their music is a blend of Brazilian samba, Jamaican reggae and African percussion. The video was also filmed in the Rio Favelas that we saw the week before.

PORT DEARAU, FIJI - Naidiri Village

By Patricia Patrick • December 4, 2025
Today we went to see the coastal Naidiri Village that has recently won the Top Prize in global restoration, for their ocean reef project. The reef restoration was borne out of necessity to solve their dwindling food/ main protein source for the village, of fish. It was started by 2 of the villages rugby players and today is run by the local teenagers (mostly boys) in the village. It was great seeing how empowered and proud they were of their amazing efforts.

LAUTOKA, FIJI

By Patricia Patrick • December 1, 2025
The port agent offered several trips to areas around Lautoka . We chose the trip to Serenity Island Resort which included van and boat transfers and lunch. It was a really nice day enjoying the sun, reef, pool, turtles and amenities!

RIVER TUBING DOWN THE NAVUA, SUVA, FIJI

By Patricia Patrick • December 1, 2025
I organized a group tour for a fun day experience. We had a great day despite the rain that decided to join in. We started with a 45 minute van ride out through the city, into the countryside. Then we got in long boats and went up river to a waterfall, some swam or cheered on the guides to cliff dive. Then back in the boats to visit Sabata Village where 50 family members live as a community existing totally off the land, along the river. Next was a quick boat ride to our BBQ lunch spot. After lunch we got to tube down the river, through light rapids, for just about an hour. We ganged our tubes together with the guide - we had a chain of 14 in my group and the guides totally blew us away singing hymns for a good chunk of the journey. It was truly moving in that place with the rain drizzling and all of us linked together. Loved it!