On Saturday André and I took Rachel and Mark down to the local beach. It was a lot busier than we had seen it before and people walking up and down the beach selling food. We had a bit of a swim and relax with drinks, I think Rachel and Mark really enjoyed as a change from some freezing cold conditions they said they experienced in Argentina. The weather was a lots nicer than the day before aswell.
That afternoon Edi and Valeria took us to Praia do Forte. A much larger and more tourist popular spot. It had heaps of restaurants, fancy shops, markets, a church and some street entertainment (but I would have to say that came from André more than anyone else!). We didn't have much time there (later on we needed to go meet some of André's family that he had never met before) but we tried some Acarajé (fried ball things with lots of different sauces including one very gooey one, chilli and little prawns) and Tapioca sombremesa's (tapioca cooked in a pancake shape and then folded with a coconut/condensed milk filling) both very deliciosa..mmm...gostosa... We also had a little time to check out the markets where André managed to bargain down a R$2 frige magnet for Mark! It took some time but he managed to get the price down to R$1.50, André thought Mark wanted to buy heaps, no, just one! André also did some capoiera for the capoieristos that were there playing music. Me and André loved it there and swore we would go back before leaving Bahia.
Next, we drove into the Salvador city to meet some cousins of André that he had never met before. We had some beer and snacks at a little bar with many people we didn't know but they were all very nice. Later on we got some expensive (but I am not sure why) pizza and went back to their house. The mum of the cousin (I get confused as to how they are all related and their names) also made some carne do sol (salty, slightly dried cooked meat, beef I think, really nice) and salads. Then out came the caçhaca...There was a drunk girl there (that André made a point of saying he wasn't related to) who keep dancing creú (brasilian funk dirty dancing) with her boobs almost popping out and trying to get Mark drunk. It was kinda funny, she said she was just baptising Mark and he managed to drink quite a lot without any side effects other than some major bloodshot eyes. But it got a little irritating after a while... Oh and I almost forgot they had a huge gorgeous blue Macaw as a pet and it had learnt how to bark like the little dog they have. I think those birds are really smart, everytime we got close it would 'bark' and it would scare the **** out of us! Was very loud and real sounding.
We got home late that night and crashed!
