On Saturday André and I got a lift into Salvador to see Pelourinho again. We shopped around looking for Capoiera pants and instruments, visited some churches and had filé mignon for dinner! We also saw our little friend, a street kid we met last time we were there, he was really gorgeous with a mop of curly hair and freckles. He was great at juggling coconuts, it was good to see some were trying to make money by giving something to people rather than just asking for money. If a kid was asking for money André always insisted they do something for it, like Capoeira or break dancing tricks, sometimes it worked and made them smile.
One of the churches we visited (whilst trying to find the Senhor do Bomfim church, never succeeding as there are so many Churchs in the area and such little time) was amazing. We entered a large courtyard area that had many murals on the surrounding walls. They each depicted a different moral saying with an illustration to match, made out of blue and white painted and glazed tiles (a technique they borrowed from the Dutch). It was extremely old and restoration had started as some of the murals needed maintenance, we met a guy there who was making sketches of all the murals for their restoration of areas that were missing part of the picture. We moved onto to the main part of the church which was really impressive, gold on everything and heavily decorated!
That day we also made it down to the Mercado Modelo where there are a huge number of markets on two levels inside the old building that was used previously as the slave market. It was huge but we didn’t see much of the history behind the building, it was only until after we left that we realized we hadn’t gone underneath the markets where there are a series of dungeons. Next time! We met with Valéria and Edi at the Salvador Shopping centre but we were really tired so we didn’t really feel like more shopping!
On Sunday the clouds had gathered and it was a bit of a rainy wet day so we stayed inside for most of it. We had a huge lunch with prawns and all sorts of other yummy things Valéria had spent all day cooking. One of Edi’s work colleagues came over with his family for lunch which went late into the afternoon. They were supposed to come go karting with us later but as soon as we stepped outside it started raining heavily. We decided to go anyway but they headed of home. Edi has two go karts, one for his son and one for himself, and he said one is in the making for Valéria.
When we got there, the guys headed of to set up while I went with Valéria to find a phone. It was mother’s day so we walked around looking for a phone and we checked about 6 phones and all were out of order! We had walked all along the beach looking for one but never found one! We went back to meet the guys and André was racing around the track already! He had on the full outfit as well, coveralls, gloves, helmet, very sexy! Because it was still raining a bit the motor of the go kart wasn’t working the best so the mechanic ran behind the kart for it to start. André convinced me to have a go, I wasn’t fussed whether I had a go or not but I am glad I did! It was really fun, it had a lot of power and went really fast. You could even take the corners fast because is so wide and low to the ground. It was kinda scary and uncomfortable (my butt didn’t fit in the seat properly and I couldn’t see out of the helmet because it was raining and had to drive with the visor up!) but the adrenaline was racing!
That night André and me decided to share the single bed in the house that Rachel and Mark had used before us. Our little out house room was pretty damp and smelly so we shared the single bed upstairs and I woke to find André’s feet near my head, nice! We got up early and got another lift into Salvador for our third Pelourinho visit. This time we saw even more of the amazing city. We got dropped off a little further away so we could visit some of the old forts along the coast. Only it was really windy and Monday all the forts are closed for cleaning! It was an interesting walk though, we saw some very sickly dogs then some models doing a photo shoot in the same area! One poor dog was dragging its bum on the sand all the way to the shore and another dog looked like it was dying, curled up near the bus stop shaking with a huge hole in its head that was full of liquid. It was a really disturbing site to see but we moved on and took the bus into Pelourinho.
We had seen lots of skinny homeless dogs around but none as bad as this. We met one near Edi’s house and felt so sorry for it I ran back to the house to get some food for him. We sat down with him and patted him and he was looking at us the whole time with his big puppy eyes, I felt so bad but eventually we had to leave him. We thought he wouldn’t follow us because he was really weak and there seemed to be something wrong with his hips but he still tried! We ended up running away from him so he wouldn’t find where we lived. I started to get worried about this because the door to our little out house wasn’t closing properly and on top of the damp mattress I didn’t really want a smelly dog curled up next to me! And he was really smelly, but a sweet gentle creature.
Anyway enough of the sad stuff, we got into pelourinho again and found a nice little empty restaurant high up in a building with a nice little view over the city. We had fresh juice, prawns milanesa (crumbed, fried prawns) and desserts, one like a crème caramel and a coconut mousse. It was really delicious and cheap! After that we walked through the cobbled streets looked for where Olodum practice (famous street samba group), we didn’t find it but we stumbled upon a saint. I didn’t realize what was going on but André had stopped to talk to an old man at a window in the street. His name was Preto Velho (black old) and he was known as a saint for the apparent miracles that occurred when he would use his smoke and bless someone. André was really amazed by him because he hadn’t realized he was still alive, he showed us some old photos of himself and André had a brief conversation. Also, nearby we found a capoiera institute that one of the original masters had established. We had a look inside at all the photos and André bought some really nice capoiera clothing.
Afterwards we quickly raced down to the lower city to check out the dungeons in the Mercado Modelo before it closed. We finally found the way to get down by a small spiral staircase. We were the only ones down there and it was really hot and dark. Everything was made out of rough stone, with low ceilings and arches at regular intervals. The whole floor was covered in a good few inches of water and there were some new concrete slabs in place to create a path for visitors. It was a really sad place to be, imagining all the slaves stuffed in there in the heat having come by boat straight from Africa. There were a few little arches that lead to the sidewalk above that were heavily barred. Every now and then we would come across a statue of a saint, but we weren’t sure if they were recent additions or something older.
We surfaced after a bit of exploring and did a bit of last minute bargaining in the markets above. I got a Candomblé ornament of luck and some bracelets. I had been practicing my bargaining so I helped André out (at least I hoped I was helping) I just said ‘Oxi’ a lot (pronounced hoshee which is kinda like saying oh my god but doesn’t really mean anything). The guy explained the ornament to us; it was a largish silver chain with different silver fruit ornaments hanging of it and a black wooden fist with its fingers in an arrangement that meant lunch (although André said in Turkey it means the same as the ‘rude finger’!). He told us the hang it behind the door on sit in on the dining table for good luck. I just bought it because I thought it was pretty, but good luck is always a bonus!
