The city of Salvador is further north up the coast from Rio and referred to in our travel book as the jewel of Brazil. It's the African soul of the country where descendants of African slaves preserved their culture more than anywhere else. After a 2 hour flight we arrived, but trouble... I'd picked up travellers tummy, but after an extended stay at the airport loos, we braved the taxi.
Mands booked our accommodation 9 months ago and had the confirmation form with address to hand for the taxi. No one seemed to know where the address was (Mands always does good research, so we knew it was in a good to stay area). The taxi office phoned the hostal and they explained how to get there, but then said they didn't have a booking for us. An argument later, they said to come through and they had another place to accommodate us. The conversation had got Mand's back up and we decided I should take over discussions when we arrived - or we may be out on the street and being Carnival, it would be near impossible to find anything else.
The taxi dropped us at a square already heaving with people. The hostal is right in the middle of the Afro carnival section! Someone from the hostal met us at the square and lead us through. No negotiating was required as they had cleared out a room and remade it for us, having realised their mistake.
Looking down from the first floor small bands were already making their way up the street in colourful others and with early revellers starting out. Further cobbled streets and overhead carnival decorations lit up against the piercing blue sky.
Our travel book went on to say that it you are going to be pick pocketed in Brazil, Salvador carnival is the number 1 spot. With this in our minds, we cautiously walked to the nearest bank machine a block away. The full amount for our accommodation was required up front. The bank wasn't working. During carnival every few blocks was a tourist help stand, so we got directions to the next bank. Trying to cut a long story short, most banks are closed in the area to protect visitors. We found a bank an hour later ,after a good urban adventure, in Cidade Baixa (lower city). The cash machine with per transaction withdrawal limits made us draw 3 times and each time dispensed cash in BOL 10 notes. We split up the money between pockets, shoes and underwater and safely made it back.
With my stomach, I couldn't eat or party that night, but we would watch some of the festivities from our window.
The Afro section celebrates Salvador's African roots. It spans a good 15 square blocks in the historic Pelourino or Pelõ area, Salvador's centre of tourism, activities and night life. Already present arts, crafts, music and tourist shops display their wares flowing onto the road. Further informal sellers display more items on the pavement. Ladies in more traditional Swiss rimmed puffed out dresses try o entice you into their shops.
We we walked around and found a place where Michael Jackson had a photo on the balcony when he was here with the now famous Oldum drumming band. I had to have a photo there too. A bead seller came over and told us about the Salvador ribbons we'd seen tied to a church a block away. He tied one on each of our wrists and gave us a full set, of course leading to a sales pitch. We did support him, but only bargaining down 300 percent for the necklace.
The streets were buzzing with people. We finally got to see some capoeira, the martial arts dancing. Band after band marched through and informal drinks sellers had their cooler boxes out - definitely cheaper than Rio.
We tried different food, some good, some less so. A great find was the queijo de coalho sellers (cheese of the coal) - Effectively a melted cheese kebab. A 10 cm cheese rectangle, on a kebab stick, dipped in origanum and slowly melted over coals in a portable bucked. At $R3 they were a treat. Acaraje is Salvador's staple street food, a dough ball sliced open with cheese, vegetables and whole small shrimps with some spicy sauce - Mands enjoyed this, me less so.
Isabel, São Paolo girl we stayed with in Rio, had told us about the Ghanji men being a not to miss event. It's thousands of men (only men) dressed in white cloths and head dress with blue beads and ribbons. They were formed as a peaceful movement and took on the name from Ghandi and their dress from a movie (we think it was the jungle book). Isabel said the men would line the streets and wash them with water. No washing this time, but they were in all their whites and blues forming a massive Trio of their own - quite a sight
One evening we did venture down to the start of the main trio routes. The trios are huge articulated trucks with enormous speakers and the band and singers performing on top of it. It's bigger than any truck you've ever seen. You can buy expensive tickets and be part of the cordoned off procession around it or, risk your life and be "popcorn" (that's what the Brazilians call it ) and jump up and down with any space left. Police patrol in groups of 6, always in a line - fights break out and they are there to break it up. We skipped getting in any of these.
We had 3 days of carnival and one post. For the last day, we headed to Barra beach for a good few hours of sun and then great sunset over the ocean, next to the light house. The melted cheese guys also made it to the beach, so had to have more of them with our cervezas.
Mands found us a great restaurant and we had more traditional moquenas (traditional stew) this time with Camerones (shrimps). The travel clinic travellers bug meds had worked great by this stage!
I must also mention the per kilo food, we would have this a few times in Brazil when we were tired of Saltados - you pick from a buffet and then have it weighed and is very cost effective. You may need a stronger stomach to keep up on these.
Before leaving, we were fond of a painting that we'd seen in one of the studios. The paintings here are not prints, but have displays of some really good artists. A bit of hard negotiating and we got our optimistic price we were aiming for. Miguel as he's now been named is a character in the painting chilling on his hammock - let's hope he makes it back to London in 1 piece in the post.
After a crazy few days in Salvador, we're looking forward to talks good beach time.
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