Day 44 ~ Cochin, India

“Was this church built in 1508 AD or BC?”
~ Question asked by one of our fellow passengers.

I woke at 4 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. Guess I was excited about having a port to visit after four sea days. After breakfast, we spent some time on the balcony watching our sail in. There were lots of little fishing boats heading out as we were coming to port. Several of the fishermen smiled and waved at us, as curious about us and our lives as we are about theirs.

Those wispy-looking things along the shore reminded me of inverted funnel spiders’ webs. We later learned they are called Chinese fishing nets, because this method of angling was brought to these shores in the 14^th century by traders from the court of Kublai Khan. They are big cantilevered devices with huge stones used for a counterbalance. The nets are dropped into the water and depending on sheer luck, there may or may not be any fish when the nets are hoisted out. Later on tour, we saw them in action from the shore. The few fish gathered were snatched up by aggressive birds.

As expected, the air quality was extremely poor. The sun really had to fight its way through the miasma of smoke and humidity. You can barely make out the Costa cruise ship ahead of us as we sailed into port. I made good use of my health mask. 

Here we are ready to go ashore. We were advised to dress modestly so as not to offend our Indian hosts, so the DH and I are both wearing long pants and I’m in head to toe navy linen. It wrinkles like crazy, but is so appropriate for the climate. We were warned not to wear sandals because garbage seems to be tossed anywhere.

Joan spent her professional life as a buyer for a major chain of stores.How'd you like to haggle with her?

Passengers with tour tickets always meet in the Cabaret Lounge, waiting for our number to be called. This delightful woman is Joan, who has been our breakfast or lunch companion on numerous occasions. She says she always tries to stay out of trouble, but a little mischief is highly recommended.  

Our tour guide was Phillip, who told us he is a Christian. In fact, he says 55% of Cochin residents are Christian (which surprised me to pieces), but there are also Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, and according to Phillip, they all live together in peace. Kochi is the new official name of the place since the Indian government loves renaming towns, but a lot of signage still says Cochin. India is divided into 29 states, mostly by language. There are some1600 languages and dialects spoken on the sub-continent—23 of them deemed “official.”

Our conveyance was a “Party Bus” complete with flashing lights and a sound system for blaring Bollywood style music, but its chief appeal was an excellent air conditioner!

To say that traffic is insane is an understatement. The motorcyclists must all be Hindus who naturally have an indifference to death since they have another life just around the corner. I snapped this pic of three adults on a single motorcycle, but was told I might see whole families, kids and all, clinging to one. Phillip told us a clever gentleman was concerned about the safety of this practice, so he developed a car that would hold 4 adults comfortably for only $2000 US. Unfortunately, the price was so low, no one wanted to buy one because it would mean proclaiming to the world that they were poor and unable to afford more.

Our first stop was the Santa Cruz Basilica, built by the early Portuguese explorers who came to trade and later to spread Christianity. But actually, St. Thomas beat them to it. One of Jesus’ disciples traveled to India in the first century to spread the gospel and was martyred for his testimony here. Phillip credits the high literacy rate in Kerala, the state Cochin is in, to the Christian influence.

The outside of the basilica has a definite Portuguese style, but inside feels much more Indian in its ornamentation.

Our second sacred space on this tour was St. Francis Church, which started as a Catholic Church, then became Lutheran and now houses an Anglican congregation. The interior was fascinating for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it was the original burial place of Vasco da Gama, famous explorer who died here in1524. His remains were later removed and returned to Lisbon.

This fellow seemed determined to be in my photo, so I thought I'd make him famous by posting him on my blog!

The second interesting feature was the system of panga panels hanging from the ceiling. This early form of air condition was powered by pangawallas who stood outside pulling the ropes that made the panels sway back and forth for the benefit of the worshippers inside.  

Couldn’t resist the gnarly trunk of this big tree. Don’t know what kind it is, but it cast a blessed amount of shade.

There’s still so much to share about our day in Cochin, so I’m going to save the rest for tomorrow. I’ll leave you with one of those things that makes me go, “Hmmm.”  Is it just me or is there something a bit off about this signage?

PS. You never know what you’re going to see on tour. I snapped this pic for David Hall, our choir director back home. Looks like he’s moonlighting as an artist in Kochi!