Correntina- Passing through here on the onibus and Rodoviaria
This was about one hour away from our final destination, and it was the point of the bus ride that the sun rose and I stayed awake.
We made it to Santa Maria da Vitoria, and then took another bus to Bom Jesus da Lapa, which is a neighboring city.
One of the main attractions of Bom Jesus da Lapa is the church carved into the grutas and hillside. There is a large tower that announces its presence.
This is the first mountainside church that I've seen!
The church looked like it could accommodate about 75-100 people, and the ceilings were higher than I expected.
The most unexpected part for me was the room of "promessas"- promises. People bring crutches, doll body parts, pictures of family, and other objects to hang in order to try and bring good health to someone.
The wheels of hanging doll body parts was intriguing and a bit daunting.
There were pathways in the back of the church to walk through more dense parts of the caverns.
The back portion also had model houses and tied bracelets (Senhora Bom Jesus- which are common for celebrating Carnval in Bahia).
Next, we climbed the mountain by the church.
The way up included some slick rocks and tiny crevices, but we made it up.
Some parts were nice and included stairs and shade.
There was a large crevice in the rocks and once again more of the bracelets.
I snapped a photo with my co-worker Amanda.
And then we took a group photo with Amanda, Raissa, and Isabel.
This was finally the view as we reached the top of the mountain.
This is one of my favorite sights in Bahia- a conglomeration of the colorful bracelets.
This is overlooking the Bom Jesus da lapa city.
Some moments of taking in the nature caught in action.
This was by far one of my favorite churches that I have ever been to! It was so unique in the promise rooms and structure.
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