Moving on from Trancoso, we rejoined with Paula and Lautaro in Salvador, further up in Bahía. It's Brazil's 3rd largest city (speaking of cities, I mistakenly wrote in an earlier post that Rio was the capital of Brazil, which it of course isn't: appo polly loggies) and very famous for all its cultural happenings and lively atmosphere, which we hope to soak up more of since we're now actually living in town. Up until today, we've been staying at a campsite a very complicated bus ride away from the center. No complaints though, the site was right by a beautiful beach and littered with coconut trees. We've also been joined by Alejandro, Paula's brother, and a friend of theirs, Damién, though he's moved on to an electronica festival now.
And my birthday was yesterday! It was probably one of the best ones I've ever had. When I woke up in our boiling tent, Nadja and Moni were gone, and not thinking anything of it, I went to use the internet. After an hour or so, they came by with a really colourful birthday "cake" made entirely out of fruit (yummm, so good) and unfortunately, sad, unlit candles. They had attempted to wake me up with it, and proceeded to run around the campsite looking for me when I wasn't in the tent, and when they finally found me the sparkley things (tomtebloss!) were spent. But I was so happy anyway, and was soon to become even happier when Lautaro and Alejandro treated us to improvised puppet theatre with puppets made out of plastic bags, forks and flowers. The rest of the day was pretty calm, and in the evening we went into the Pelourinho, which is the historical center of Salvador and where we are staying now. We watched some capoeira, listened to music in the street and attempted to dance samba and the 3 musketeers then ended the night by going to a gay club in another neighbourhood. It felt really good being in a place where the guys are completely uninterested in making a move, and wow, the girls... well, we're in Brazil.
