JAMAICA 1: GETTING THERE, PORT ROYAL, AND FORT CHARLES

 February 15, 2023

Many years ago my husband began doing research on his third great-grandfather, Captain George Cannon of the Isle of Man, who was a slave ship captain. One thing led to another, and soon he was deeply immersed in learning more about his ancestor's life and work. He posted some of his findings on his blog, and that created some fun connections with family members--known and previously unknown. 

Over the years we have made an effort to visit sites related to Captain Cannon, going first to his home in Peel, Isle of Man, in 2006. In 2014 we took a sobering trip to the Ghana coast where Captain Cannon picked up slaves. (See posts on Fort Amsterdam, Cape Coast Castle, Fort St. Anthony, Elmina Castle, and Fort William.)

For many years, Bob has wanted to visit the third point of the slave trade triangle, Jamaica. He had employed a researcher on the island to see what could be found, but he wanted to see the ports and shores with his own eyes. I had a long weekend in February with Lincoln's birthday and President's Day off, and it seemed like the time was right. 

In addition, during the Covid shutdown, Bob had been contacted by Chad Cannon, a distant cousin (I think a third cousin once removed?) who was also a descendant of Captain Cannon (Chad's great-great-grandfather was Bob's great-grandfather's brother), and Chad and his wife Sarah came out for a visit one weekend to get acquainted and discuss Bob and Chad's mutual roots. When Bob started planning this trip to Jamaica, he reached out to them to see if they might be interested in joining us. Sarah ended up not being able to get away from work, but Chad was a welcome addition to our trip.

So that's the background for our Jamaican Adventure.

Bob and I had a 1:00 AM flight out of LAX--brutal, but it meant we were able to spend a full day at work before driving to the airport, and that we would arrive at our destination in the morning.  It is our typical MO. 

The international terminal at LAX is a lot nicer than in used to be, and we usually plan to eat in the food court there when we arrive.

PORTUGAL: SADO ESTUARY, LDS TEMPLE, AND A LONG TRIP HOME

 July 3, 2022

On our last day in Portugal we met up again with Bernard, our friendly bird guide, in the Sado Estuary, an area of wetlands known for its many species of birds. 

We drove around for a while looking for birds. We saw a flock of flamingoes, but they were old hat at this point.

There wasn't anything too exciting, so we stopped at a small education center that Bernard told us children visit on school trips. 

The pathway up to the building was lined with fun bird sculptures.

PORTUGAL: EVORA, PART II - EVORA CATHEDRAL, ROMAN RUINS, A LOST CAR, AND DINNER AT TABERNA TIPICA

 July 2, 2022

As I noted in the last post, we realized that we hadn't really paid attention to where we had parked the car, and so we decided we had better retrace our steps before we went any farther. We knew the more places we went, the less likely we'd be able to remember how to get back to the starting place. By the time we had walked about two blocks and made two turns, we realized we had no idea where to go next. There were so many narrow, twisting alleys and staircases that looked the same. We also disagreed on the general direction to go to find the car. I was sure it was one direction, and Bob was convinced it was another. We had no real landmarks in mind. We were in serious trouble.

However, in our wanderings, we did come across several other sites on our list, starting with the mid-gothic Cathedral of Évora, the oldest and largest medieval cathedral in Portugal. Construction started in the 12th century and was completed in the 14th century, although significant changes and additions were made up until the early 1700s. This cathedral is one of the structures cited in the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation for Évora.

A few years ago I read the book The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris, which tells of the author's experience living in a Benedictine monastery for nine months. I think of her quiet, soul-searching prose every time we stroll down a cloister walkway, and somehow at the Évora Cathedral the laughter of running children made this particular experience that much more spiritual.

Off the cloister is a funeral chapel that contains the tomb of the cathedral's founder, Bishop King Peter, as well as the Archbishop of Évora who died in the 20th century. (However, I am not sure if I have these labeled correctly because there are also a few other tombs connected to the cloister.)

PORTUGAL: EVORA, PART I - ST. FRANCES CHURCH

 July 2, 2022

Évora, yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the last city on our list before returning to Lisbon, and there were a lot of things we wanted to see there. However, most of them were closed between 12:00 and 2:00 PM,  so after parking our car we took a crazy, zig-zagging 12-minute walk through streets, alleys, and staircases, guided by the GPS on our phone.

We arrived at the Igreja São Francisco, or the St. Francis Church, not quite sure how we had gotten there.

Built between 1475 and 1550, it is a huge Gothic church--although it doesn't look very Gothic on the outside, and the inside has Renaissance and Baroque styles as well. The vaulted nave is the largest of its kind in Portugal.

The main altar includes an impressive "wedding cake Jesus" crucifix.

PORTUGAL: SLEEPING IN FATIMA AND A TRIP TO ESTREMOZ

  July 1-2, 2022

After a long day of sightseeing, we were ready to dump our stuff at our hotel, grab a bite to eat, and go to bed. The only problem was that we couldn't find our hotel, the SDivine Fatima Hotel. Our GPS placed in in the center of a roundabout. We had to call the hotel twice for directions. We finally found it just off the roundabout on one of the many exits, but set back from the road with no visible signage.

We were still in the city of Fátima, and it was fun to see this azulejo depiction of the Visitation of Our Lady of the Rosary to the three shepherd children.

After unloading our luggage, we set out on foot to find something to eat. The only thing we found open was a butcher shop that made sandwiches and "toasts," or grilled sandwiches (kind of like paninis). The guy behind the counter spoke as much English as I spoke Portuguese, so we had a pretty funny pantomime exchange. He gave us some meat and cheese samples to try, and we pointed at what we wanted. When Bob asked for mayonnaise for his sandwich, the butcher was horrififed, basically refusing. The sandwiches were good, at least my toastsed one with melted cheese oozing out the sides was!

We also shared some very good sausage and olives.

The next day we got off to an early start because we planned to cover a significant distance.