Location: Salvador (Pelourinha), Bahia and Pria De Forte
Temp: 27-30c mostly cloudy with outbreaks of sun and showers
Hostel: Albergue das Laranjerias (R$66 for two bed –toilet + breakfast)
Links: http://www.bahia-online.net/ http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sergiok/brasil/salvador.html
Salvador is all about constant thundering drumbeats; acrobatic capoeira dancers; huge stretches of white, brown and pebbled beaches; Africana-Brazilians wearing resplendent bright colours, skilful beach soccer players and head shaking, body swaying, smoke blowing reggae, afoxe and samba music. I’ve never seen so many dreadlocks or drums in my life! Everywhere you look someone is dancing to or making music, kicking a ball or trying to put a multicoloured “welcome to Bahia ribbon” on your wrist. The place is a live with positive energy. I know now why the majority of Brazilians I’ve met unanimously agree that it is the number one city to experience the world famous February carnival. Forget Rio, Salvador is wear it’s at for carnival if you want to get stuck in and take part.
To appreciate the city, its culture and its people you need to know a little about its history. According to legend the city was founded by an Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, in 1501. In 1549 it became Brazil’s first capital. Salvador remained the most important city for two centuries growing rich on exports of sugar cane, gold and diamonds, tobacco, imports of African slaves and cattle ranching in the inland (sertao) regions. It was also world famous for its sensuality and decadence-until 1763 when the sugar cane industry began to faulter and Rio usurped pole position. The city experienced economic problems in the 19th century but nowadays with growing petroleum, chemicals and –helped by a face lift of the beautiful historical centre-tourism. However, for all its development and progression it ostensibly suffers chronic social problems with homeless people, street crime and prostitution rife.
The adventure started in Salvador the minute we left the airport. I took the very reasonable airport bus (2 euro, one way) to get to the port area Pelourinha which is situated bang in the cultural-centre of the city. The bus ride was one of the best I ever took. It was one and a half hours in length and rich in spectacles. I gladly would have paid double the price and stayed on double as long. Before getting to Salvador I had never realises there was so many beaches. And I never, for once, thought the city was by and large so intrinsically based on an ocean lifestyle. You learn quickly how to adapt when travelling. And before I knew it I was swinging my hips and banging my fingers to a mysterious beat on the seat in front of me. The dogs couldn’t stop wagging their tails and even the young surf board carrying 12 year old beside me was humming an Ivete Sangalo tune as we cruzed along.
My estimate is that the beaches run for about 15 miles. I’ll have to check up a book to confirm it but either way I’d say I’m not too far off the mark. I’ve never seen such a long stretch of beaches in a city before. And all the people seem to be on them. Half the population seems to be skating, cycling, running, walking, catching buses or selling pop corn, sweet corn or coconuts in little palm tree kiosks beside the beach. The other half are playing soccer, pumping weights, body boarding, surfing and snorkelling on the beach. It’s amazing to take it in from the slow moving window of a bus. When I arrived it was about 6pm and the light was fading, the sun was beginning to hide behind an ominous looking grey pall of puffy clouds and a gentle wind had starred to stir, but despite the atypical weather elements it didn’t seem to stop the people coming out in their throngs and thongs. There were thousands of bikinis, sarongs, Bermudas and Havianas on show. And amazingly, like a dream come true, there was almost a soccer match on every beach we passed. One thing that struck me about these games was the variety of pitches and balls that were in use: asphalt, grass, sand and mud; tennis balls, melons, coconuts and real deal footballs. Very cool. More affirmations for why they dominate soccer. The place was banging and hop-bobbing-throbbing with fun. And I couldn’t stop dreaming I was out there. I could see myself with the Irish number three “Deco” jersey the boys from work gave me before I left. I’d be out there strutting my Irish stuff against the Brazilian artists. Big punt up the middle Big Jack style, a shout for Ireland, a few sliding tackles, dirty elbows and an eye gauge, a cross from Brutos at the by line, a knock down from Eusebius, and as sweet as a ripe coconut a left footed half-volley from yours truly into the top right hand corner of the net. Boom! Bang! Keeper covered in dust. Brazilian boys’ mouths open. Ref pointing to the half way line. Nice one. 1-0 to the Gringo! Put that in your straw pipe and smoke it J……….. No need to laugh……… I`m serious………… It’s going to happen one of these days. Mark my words.
Monday was a quiet night due to transit tiredness but with the cells recharged 24 hours later we were ready to take on the town. Tuesday night in Salvador is a big night. Very big. I’ve never known such an atmosphere surrounding a Tuesday night in any other part of the world I’ve visited or read about. I had previously reported that Monday night can be a big night in Sao Paulo. But while a Monday night in Sao Paulo is like a normal Thursday night with its fair share of life leading up to a weekend. Tuesday night in Salvador is like a full on action packed Saturday night. Let me explain. It starts in the square in the cultural centre of the city. At about 6pm a huge stage is set up for some of the local bands and about 50 stalls are set up surrounding the square mostly selling chilled cans of Skol or Bohemia beer, skewers of a wide variety of meats, sweet cakes, big and small, exotic smoothies with fruits you’ve never heard the name of and don’t want to try pronounce and capoeira and samba paraphernalia. In addition, there is a huge number of individuals, children mostly, constantly asking you if you want your shoes shined, want to buy some cashew nuts, want some grilled mozzarella cheese or want to buy a drum. One punter even offered me a big bottle of Teacher’s whiskey for 10 euros. Declined on that one but I took one little boy up on a shoe shine and another on the delectable, mouth watering, addictively chewy grilled cheese skewer. Sex for the stomach.
On the night the Brazilian famous “Olodum” samba band were playing at Largo de Tereza Batista on Rua Gregorio de Matos 53. It`s the main attraction. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them but luckily enough I got to hear some of them. Basically, by the time I arrived to see them the doors were closed. I’ll be going back in three weeks time so I don’t intend to make the same mistake again. Having said that we were very fortunate to see some of the countries most talented capoeria dancers in action.
Capoeira is a martial art that was devised by the Brazilian slaves in the eighteenth century. For centuries that slaves were not allowed to practice martial arts of any description so they cunningly devised an art of their owned that looked like an acrobatic dance but it used in the right manner in combat was lethal. The dance consists of between 4-10 people standing around in a semi-arc. One or two are playing precussion instruments and singing and one by one the performers get a chance to throw themselves around. The best way I can describe it is as a mix of astanga yoga, kung fu and gymnastics all rolled into one. Mostly, the participants spend 30 seconds on stage and then someone else comes in. Sometimes you will see two of the dancers joust together but most the performances I saw consisted of one person back flipping, bouncing on their hands in a hand stand position, cart wheeling into a double flip, high kicking or free flipping from the ground without the use of hands into the air. I had seen it once or twice in Ireland but it was nothing compared to the Bahia performers. Much more athletic, much more flamboyant and much much more technical. Amazing. Their skill and fitness blew me away. Brutos wants to give it a go next time we go back. He’s so serious about it he bought some of the caopeira pants. I hope he doesn’t break his neck when he gives it ago. He always injures himself when he tries to mimic professional athletics. I’ll try get a snap of it when it happens.
The third and last day in Salvador consisted of a two and a half hour bus ride, 80km north, to the highly recommended Pria de Forte. Pria de Forte is a beach resort with a ruined fortress and famous turtle sanctuary. When there I got an Indian hena-ink tattoo of a scorpion moving to a Chinese peace symbol on my bicep ( you can check it out in the photos), I got some acupuncture on my right ear and I took in an excellent massage. I also managed to cram in some of the Brazil v Paraguay copa de America qualifier and get a little sun.
I’m now back in Sao Paulo and with two other dogs from Ireland: the polymath-circumnavigator Chief O’Hara and the fearsome-merciless-man mountain, rip your head off with his bare hands (and worse dancer that I know!!!) Maddog McKeever. The hunting is about to get very interesting. Already one of them has found a bone. Amazing considering their only here two days!
I’ve managed to finally compress some of my photos from a variety of my recent trips. There up in the new Brazilian photo folder. Hope you enjoy them.
