Yesterday’s walk through old town Salvador brought no real surprises but did bring a few questions. The whole area is dotted with churches – built in the old style of Portugal; they add texture and beauty to the decaying streets – but yesterday, Sunday morning, father’s day here in Brasil, we didn’t find one open – are they not functioning churches? Do people not live in the old town? At noon, we were able to go inside the Church of the ‘Ordem Terceira Secular de Sao Francisco’. This is a small, crumbling, gold-leaf-painted interior church with a three story (possibly) living quarters attached. I apologize, we had a tour guide offer to take us around and talk of the history, but John and Camillo opted to sit on a back pew and talk (likely) geophysics, while I walked the building with my camera, and I wasn’t able to find online info this morning. There is plenty of information but I only found Portuguese no English…. will hunt some more.
For me it was a delight to walk through the 3 floors; up narrow wooden 
stairwells, across wide planked wooden floors, viewing into side rooms and at artifacts, looking at the original Portuguese, hand painted tiled walls, admiring the crafted ceilings even on the highest floors. There was a large room on the third floor that had a huge table, surrounded by large chairs, telling me this space was for the Priests not for Nuns. A beauty of a room, light coming in tall thin windows, looking out over more church steeples. I loved it.
looking at my photos – the first two below had tile floors and was just off the main chapel. the next floor seems to also have tile floors. The floor in the large dinning rooms was parquet and only the upper – most floor was wood plank…..
go to the slideshow to see random photos of Salvador.
Way to go! You're getting back into your routine of quality photos and narrative descriptions of your life in Paradise. I like the new format! Cheers from the Amazon.
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