Monday, May 31, 2010

Rainy Day Drive



There has been so much rain here lately that I'm starting to feel depressed.  However, today we took a drive and I remembered the beauty of the place I live, and I cheered up a little.  There are many Imperios, or Spirit Houses, on this island.  The Azoreans have many religious festivities that include the Spirit Houses.  One of the biggest days was yesterday, where they gathered in front of these Spirit Houses and handed out bread and homemade wine.  (I understand this is Holy Spirit bread, because it has been blessed by a Priest).  Actually, we snapped a pic from the car yesterday as we were driving home from church.  Check it out, below.  It's not a very good photo but you can kind of see the covered-wagons where they hand out the bread.  (That pink building is another Imperio, or Spirit House.  The "Casa do Povo" is like a community center- almost every village has both). 
This spirit house (below) is right on the ocean; the ocean is behind it, but you can't tell from the picture.  Every village has at least one spirit house.  Some towns have many more.  They are all painted differently, from red/yellows/blues, to pink and white, to just plain black and white.  There's supposed to be something like 65-75 Spirit Houses on this tiny island!  I'm going to photograph all of them before we leave- I have 6 so far!  Lol. 

We drove up into some hills just because we had never been there before.  This poor lone cow had apparently escaped his pasture and didn't know where to go!  He was just standing there in the middle of the road.  Cows are a very common sight here- just like the Spirit Houses.  ;)
**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

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