Salvador

Hey

Still in Salvador da Bahia, where we´ve been for a good few weeeks now minus a weekend excursion to a place called Morro De Sao Paulo. I tell a lie, Im still in Salvador, Oran couldn´t stand the slow paced life, so went solo to trek in Lençois, a place reknown for its natural beauty. Willem joined him after returning from returning to his wife to be, Juliana (a good 13 hour bus ride away). Meanwhile, my lack of love or will to hike has kept me here in Salvador.. mainly the district of Pelourinho.


One of the many Jewellery people making his stuff and kids playing football

Before we got here, the things I always read and heard were as follows: It had the culture, was the African capital of Brazil, had the best Capoeira, Bahian (a massive state by the way, way bigger than england) food, Candomble ceremonies and the most street people. The closer we came the more true all these things seemed to become until now here I am bang in the middle of it.. and yes all of it is true, but polished to tourism perfection.

Where we´re staying, Pelourinho, takes no longer than 10 minutes to cover but it feels like its got all the culture of Bahia processed and condensed onto its cobbled streets. Don´t get me wrong, I´ve really enjoyed myself here.. but with the amount of tourists here its authenticity to Bahia can only be seen in bursts and glimpses.
African however, it certainly is, and they are proud of it. You only have to look at the people, listen to the music or eat the food to realise it. It´s an interesting difference to most of the places I´ve been.



Pelourinho on a particularly quiet night, kids climbing over the festive decorations

Capoiera for those who don´t know is a Brazillian martial art from the slave days which is a blend of gymnastics, dancing and fighting. As soon as i whipped out my camera, all the guys wanted to see themself on film. and so..


Capoeira, someone performing and some drummers etc


Capoeira in motion.. one of the less spectacular but more traditional displays

Bahian Food.. haven´t tried much of it but what I have has been pretty cool, perhaps tommorow I will go to a Bahian restaurant. Having said that, ive been on a mission to sample every snack and so far have got a good few under my belt.. Acaraje, Tapioca, Açai, Cheese on a Stick.. to name a few.


The corn man and my amiga an acaraje woman

Tourists have money, and are logically the best people to beg from.. Hence there are alot of people on the street of all ages. They´ve perfected the art of looking genuinely upset when you refuse, some even to the point of crying. Maybe its the same thing that attracts all the women, but Willem is getting twice his fair share of people asking him for money, and they seem to follow him that little bit longer. Having kids in the street has been suprisingly unshocking for me and it just becomes normal until you really spend some time to think about what is going on here. Its all too easy to dismiss people like this and not even acknowledge their human presence.. which several tourists do.


Walking on hands and the police will hit you

Candoble is a the mergance of several African religions brought over in the slave trade. I went twicee, the first time we all got ripped off paying R$ 35 each
each and the second time we just found an address and took a taxi. Cameras arent allowed so no pictures for you. But i can only describe it as a really long, kind of strange dance where people randomly fall into trances and (in the second one) smoke lots of cigars and then resorted to cigarettes when they run out. They believe in neither heaven nor hell, but since they had to disguise it as Christianity in the slavery days.. and forgot to pass it on to the generations that it was just a disguise.. alot of Christian saints and other people now have their place in the Candoble.


A random march I stumbled into and braid hair in the street, why not?


A Bahian Woman and a Group of Bahian Women in traditional dress, just chilling out


Since we arrived, Oran really got into bongo drumming taking a few classes a day. We both tried abit of Afro-Brazillian dancing which ill have to show you when i get back. Willem also did abit of drumming and took a lesson of capoeira (by the way Willem, the teacher is looking for you. He wants money)


One of the Capoeira instruments, the Berimbau and a Cheese on a Stick man

All these extra curriculum activies were sort of forgotten since Morro de Sao paulo. Morro de Sao Paulo is a part of an island, which all travellers who come to Salvador ritually go to. For us it was fun, but the heavy rain puts England to shame and sort of lessened the experience. However i did win R$ 20 in a poker game, which was nice.

On thursday we fly into Sao Paulo, to sample its famous night life before taking our flight out of brazil. We coulde´ve been hardcore and 30 Hour Bussed it but it was a bit long really.

Soo, until later.. keep posting comments and i miss you ALLLL

Zenna

p.s Big up my pups for cycling to Paris