We docked at Mindelo on the island of St. Vincent in the Cape Verde Islands. The people here speak Portuguese. We walked the mile and a half into the downtown area and just walked around with no place special in mind to visit. The region and people here appear to be quite poor. It makes one appreciate home.
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| This picture cost us $2 demanded by these two women |
We walked mostly in the area near the coastline and saw many street vendors selling fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and etc.
There was also a large market area with many vendors selling shoes, local art, scarves, watches and etc.
At the sea shore fishermen were unloading their catches of mostly small fish from small wooden boats.
We found a church which was very humble in appearance compared to the many we've seen in Europe. What made this fun was that we were there when a wedding was scheduled and we attended the marriage ceremony of an older couple with a very cute little boy and girl as ring bearers.
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| Church is white building on left |
Dad could understand most of the ceremony although the accent is much different than in Brazil. We are now going to be at sea for the next three days until we cross the Atlantic Ocean to Forteleza, Brazil.
Sun Nov 27
We had our group Sunday service this morning with singing and sharing of personal histories and testimonies. Following that Dad did a slide presentation of his mission pictures from Recife where we will be visiting for our second port in Brazil. We then watched a short film called "Brazil Doce Lar" (Brazil Sweet Home) that was made as a tribute to Evelyn Beck, the deceased wife of President Wayne Beck. President Beck was Dad's mission president and he and his family spent several years in Brazil on various assignments while raising their young family. It was a touching film and showed the great love and admiration that developed in each family member for the country and people of Brazil. The rest of the day we enjoyed the company of some of our group and relaxed and rested most of the rest of the day.
Mon Nov 28
We finished our second full day at sea. We continued to relax, read, swim and take part in some activities. Mom went to a paper flower making class and a hat decorating class. Both of us went to the Portuguese class and participated briefly in a dance class but returned to our cabin to practice the steps we learned so we didn't make too big of fools of ourselves in public. It was fun! Dinner was a formal night and then we went to the second really good evening show we have seen in the theater. Out of the songs and dances there were actually a couple that we recognized.
Tue Nov 29
On our last full day at sea as we crossed the Atlantic we crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere at about 3:00 PM this afternoon. A huge ceremony and celebration was organized to commemorate this event. King and "queen" Neptune led a procession to the "baptismal font" where it was filled with various combinations of champagne and wines to sprinkle on any guests that lined up. Nearly all passengers on the ship must have been there as all surrounding decks were filled with onlookers. It was quite a lot of fun. Other than that we did another day of reading, watching
movies, walking and swimming. Check the first post for this adventure for pictures of crossing the equator fun.
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