March 29, 2025 The Amazon River is by far the largest volume of water in the world. It encompasses more water than the Nile, the Yangtze and the Mississippi combined. As we begin our journey down the Amazon River did you ever wonder why it even exists or how it got its name? Let me… Read more

March 26, 2025 A comment from my good friend, Marty Shenkman, regarding my last blog regarding Recife, Brazil. “Fascinating. I had no knowledge of any of this history. It is tragic that so many hundreds of years after what you describe people continue to torment each other over differences of faith, nationality, etc. We don’t… Read more

March 24, 2025 In my last blog I shared the feeling of comfort that Chongae and I feel when we feel connected to the faith community. I am not naive to believe that there have not been times when people of faith have been less than kind to one another. There have been blatant acts… Read more

March 22, 2025 Salvador da Bahia is the fourth largest city in Brazil and one of the many ports we are visiting as we sail up the long east coast of Brazil after having left Rio de Janeiro. I’ve attached a map where you can see the locations of Maceio and Recife two other ports… Read more

March 20, 2025 After a hectic few days in Rio de Janeiro, it was nice to arrive at a laid-back beach resort. Some ports are designated “tender ports” because they are too shallow to accommodate cruise ships. This requires that the ship anchor offshore and you take a tender, a small vessel, the ones you… Read more

March 19, 2025 My friend, Rich Holman shared a comment on our first day in Rio de Janeiro and our trip to Sugar Loaf Mountain. Moonraker was a 1979 film so changes to Sugar Loaf but if you are a James Bond fan enjoy the clip below. Tom,There is a very famous scene in one… Read more

March 19, 2025 There are amazing sights that one would want to see in Rio de Janeiro including one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The only way to try and accomplish that task is to break your mission into two days. With traffic it can be a daunting task, imagine visiting the Empire… Read more

March 18, 2025 Brazil was discovered by accident. Did you ever hear of the explorer Pedro Fabrel? I don’t think Pedro was such a good explorer. On April 22, 1500, he began sailing for India and got just a little off course and ended up in Brazil! As was the custom in those days he… Read more

March 15, 2025 There is something noticeably different about Uraguay. The people walk with a deliberate, purposeful gait. Services feel very efficient and orderly. Buildings are well maintained and unlike other South American countries we have visited no graffiti to be found anywhere. Cars even seemed to be recently washed with older vehicles showing a… Read more

March 13, 2025 Being a pastor is not an easy job. CEO, CFO, Administrator, Facilities Manager, Supervisor, Visionary, Teacher, Counselor, Confident, and Cleanup Crew are all roles that a pastor finds himself wearing. And he is expected to prepare a good sermon, no, a great sermon every week. Week after week after week. By definition,… Read more