Cochin, India

March 24, 2024 - Our original Itinerary had us spending 5 days in India at 3 different ports, instead Cochin was our only stop in India and only for one day. A few more of our fellow passengers left our the ship today who decided not to go around Africa on the new itinerary.

The excursion we originally chose was “Kerala’s Life Changing Women’s Empowerment Project” but, unfortunately it was canceled due to operational issues at the site. So we decided to take the included tour, which was a tour of the Old City of Mattancherry which was the spice capital of the world.. Our tour started at 1:00 PM and the first stop was the oldest church in Cochin which was St. Francis, built in 1506, by the Portuguese as a Catholic Church. Later when the Dutch took over this area other churches in the area were destroyed and only this one remained standing. Today this church belongs to the Church of South India and as we walked into the church there were palms attached to many of the pews as today is Palm Sunday. Their choir was rehearsing “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” and we were able to sit for a few minutes and able to take some palms on our way out. Not a typical Palm Sunday for us, but at least we got a bit of a lenten experience.

We then walked a short distance to Fort Kochi fish market and witnessed how today they still use these cantilevered Chinese fishing nets, which are all operated by hand. We then walked along all the stalls selling this fresh fish, in the heat of the day. We then headed back to the bus and visited first the Mattancherry Palace, which was a gift to the King by the Portuguese people in the 16th century. The original carved ceilings and murals on the walls are all part of this museum now.

From this palace we walked a few blocks into the Jewish quarter, which is called “Jew Town” and visited the only remaining Synagogue. Today there are only 2 Jewish people living in this area. On our walk back to the bus there were some great shops, but unfortunately there was no time for shopping as our on board time was 4:00 PM. As we pulled up to the ship, there were 7 buses ready to take 141 passengers on a 6 day overland trip to the Taj Mahal and they will be joining us again when we reach Mauritius. We will now have 440 guests and 476 crew for the next 5 sea days!

Cantilevered Chinese Fishing Nets