Carnaval. Wow. I have been in Salvador for over a week and had just begun to get used to the mass of people. There are 2 Carnavals of Salvador: The historic one located in Pelhourinho that has a band, usually with a full horn section and percussion, and dancers making their way along the cobble stone streets to a small center stage in which everyone dances around. The new Carnaval of Salvador is a huge mass of half naked people drinking and dancing. This revolves around the blocks of girls dancing and trailing after the semi- trucks carrying bands and HUGE speakers. Drunken people, samba music, and a beach often means a few naked Brazilians in the surf at 2 am as well.
I enjoyed Salvador and the Carnaval of Pelhourinho. However, after the first night of the new Carnaval, on the Barra parade route by our apartment, I had enough of the party scene (and the smell of urine). Also, Brazilians are much more agressive during Carnaval then they would normally be. Unfortunately, they LOVE blonde Gringos and having 2 of them in our group got us more attention than I preffered to have as well. So, we had to defend ourselves from unwanted caresses to our arms and hair. Never anything more offensive than that and a few comments here and there.
While I am at it I will tell of the day we went to Prai dos Artists for 5 minutes. Lucy, a blonde friend of mine from the UK, put her backpack (they call them rucksacks) down for a minute to strip down to her bikini. Neither of us saw the guy, but I noticed her rucksack was no longer with us. Unfortunately, she and the 1 armed "knight in shining armor" guy she recruited to help, did not locate anyone carrying the afforementioned rucksack. It had her wallet in it and we spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone and g-mail chat to the UK sorting out the finances of it all. Poor Lucy, all I lost was my towel.
The apartment we were staying at was incredible. I just happened to meet an American in Rio, when I arrived in January, that recommended me to a B&B. That B&B turned out to be the meticulously decorated 12th floor apartment of Yvon and Fonseca. They were so incredible to us and even made us bacon and eggs on our last morning with them. The smell of bacon frying in the kitchen really made me miss home. I thought of all my friends and family and what they might be doing that morning. Then I had a HUGE breakfast with all the works and had a manicure and peticure at the local salon for 10$. (Vern, 10$!!! Can you believe it?)
Also, I got it. That dreaded Travelers bug. Terrible. I spent about half of Carnaval doubled over in pain with a stomach ache and had to sit out a few nights. At least I had a really nice place to hang out and watch TV - While watching the parade route one night I saw the most interesting (and a little alarming) thing... a girl in a low cut shirt was dancing; The shameless camera man zoomed in on her cleavage and stayed there a good 30 seconds, (on national television!); Then, a few minutes after they had moved on there she was again - The crew had taken the footage of the girl and had put it into slow motion and spliced it back into the parade footage. So there she was, for all her family to see back home, jiggiling to the slow beat of the music. A different culture...
After a night bus I am in the small fishing village at the lowest coastal point of the state of Bahia. It is a half way point between Salvador and Rio and allows me to see more beaches in Bahia than just the ones in Salvador. There is a national park off shore that humpback whales come to once a year to give birth. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening today and I have to leave tomorrow! Oh well, I have to be thankful for what I have seen and not what I am missing out on. The beach here is very pretty and at the mouth of a river that somehow makes the water really warm. This was perfect for a sunset swim.
I am looking foreword to seeing all of you soon and will post more pictures of my last few days when I get back!
See you in a week,
Mags
