August of 2006 brought our first South American singing tour as we traveled to Brazil to visit Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.  This was also our first extended tour with our director, James Early; it couldn't have been better!  Everything about the trip was wonderful; the locale, the people, the music, the food, etc.  While in Salvador we sang a joint concert at a lovely large Baptist church.  The church choir and JVOI sang a couple of combined numbers which was great fun.  A few nights later we sang a joint concert with the Youth Choir from the Salvador School of Performing arts.  They were great and they had beautiful traditional outfits...made our all black motif look a bit somber!  Leaving Salvador we moved to Rio for  our last three days.  We sang our last concert with the choir from the Baptist Seminar in Rio; another memorable event.  This was quite possibly our best tour yet!