Salvador de Bahia
BRAZIL | Saturday, 26 July 2008 | Views [199]
Our tour of the northeast concluded with four days in Salvador de Bahia, a crazy, colorful city that was once the main port for the slave trade. The African influence has flourished and survived in Salvador, and many of the colonial buildings, while run down, are still very much in use. For a moment, the whole city looks like somewhere in Europe, and then you see the favelas (slums) and are reminded of the huge disparity between rich and poor in Brazil.
We staying in the neighborhood of Santo Antonio, which was a great locale as it was just a stone's throw from the Pelourinho. The Pelo formerly was the main locale for the slave auction (kind of creepy walking through the main auction square), but the Pelo now is overrun with tourists, vendors, artists and some colorful, if not slick, Bahians. There are also a ton of people trying to give you these cloth bracelets as "presents", but if you take one, then they will pester you to buy something else they are peddling. Ben and I, wise travellers that we have become, managed to avoid these "free" bracelets. I spent the first night resting with a head cold as Ben went out and explored the Pelo on a Tuesday night. Tuesday nights in Salvador are like mini Carnavals, with drinking, dancing and partying in the streets until early in the morning. You can buy beer right on the street, watch 5 different bands/drum corps and dance like a crazy man until dawn.
The next day we headed down to the Barra section of the city to see the last few remaining forts and lighthouses that were once part of the city's major defenses. It was a cloudy day, but after a huge all-you-can eat churrascaria lunch, we settled ourselves at the tiny beach in Barra which sits on the Bay of All Saints. For dinner, we tried acarajes, bean and shrimp fritters fried in palm oil. Think of it as Bahian fast food. These things were really tasty but not for a weak stomach. We continued the next day with moqueca, fish stew made with palm oil, coconut milk, peppers and cilantro while dining on the bay at the main market.
The highlight of Salvador was definitely meeting up with Rob Novoa, whom we had met through Amy and Taylor in Porto de Galinhas. Rob kindly took time away from finding cures for infectious diseases and introduced us to forro, a popular dance in the northeast. For you Southerners, forro is basically like a two-step, although Ben would like to argue that forro is actually three steps. After beers and bar food at a chill bar in Barra, we headed back to Santo Antonio to the forro bar, where trendy Bahians were all forro-ing to a live band. Definitely a cool evening.
Of all the places in Brazil, I'd say we had to be the most careful in Salvador (we saw a guy try to rob a tourist in front of his hotel), but the city's history, architecture, food and culture makes is worth the stop for any traveller. I'd like to think we saw a glimpse of the real Brazil, the good, the bad and ugly.
Tags: sightseeing, culture
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