Day 31: Joao Pessoa Part 2

Day 31: Joao Pessoa Part 2

On Sunday we went to church and it was awesome. It was a really nice chapel in the middle of nowhere. There were very few members, but you could really feel the love of the people. I love seeing the Church is the same no matter where you are. Our bus driver was even interested in going to sacrament meeting, which was really fun.

After church we went to the most eastern point of South America and stood at the point and took pictures. It was really pretty. Of course, we were all in our church clothes, and looked even more like tourists.

After we went to the historic part of the city, and saw some really nice old buildings, that were now used for government purposes.

Later we went to some catholic churches. I was really proud of myself because I said “wow this looks really rococo” and later when talking to the tour guide he said that it was a great example of the rococo style in Brazil.

The second church we went to was very different; it was in a baroque style, which is the dominant style of catholic churches in this part of the country.  Anyway, the interesting this about this church was that it mostly built by slaves, even the art work was done by slaves, which isn’t very common. It was a gorgeous church. We later took a tour of the surrounding areas, and a small museum housing local art

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That same night we drove to Natal, which means Christmas in English.

So in Joao Pessoa, we had lost our reservations. When we got to Natal, we were really excited because the hotel looked gorgeous from the outside. Vanessa went off the bus to check our reservations. She told us that they too had lost our reservations and we could either sleep on the bus or go home. Of course, we all believed her; which says a lot about Brazilians.  She was joking, but it was very believable.

It was a really nice hotel. Some of us ate dinner at the hotel and went swimming in 2 pools and in the ocean. Surprisingly, the ocean water was a lot warmer than the pools, it was FANTASTIC.