http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Brazil , Bahia , Salvador en-us Sun, 15 Nov 09 17:36:29 +0000 Sun, 15 Nov 09 17:36:29 +0000 So on Friday I went to this open market they have here called Feira de Sao Jaoquim. It's big with a section for fruits weavings meat Candomble stuff and random stuff. It stinks there. People men like to pee on the outsides of the portapotties.. Gross. They have this fair every day in the morning until afternoon. It's in the lower city. It has a pretty bad stigma since it's supposed to b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-451511.html To be honest I missed the afternoon part of it because I was on a family outing until 430p. And I was so tired after that I took a nap for one hour. Most of my friends went to check it out around 2p. By the time I got up everyone I knew went...and some people warned that it's not too good to go by myself since men are such creepers here and I don't want them bothering me nor do I want my cam http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-448207.html httpwww.nytimes.com20091013worldamericas13brazil.htmlr1I was looking through the new and saw a pic I recognized yup that's Salvador my temporary home.This community has been autonomous for the last 15 years taking care of their problems without police involvement etc.But yeah Carlinhos Brown went and got thehis community to work together to get infrastructure and build a music s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-444707.html Well Brazil is proving to be totally mad. first thing that makes me laugh is that they can not say my name properly to them ross is prounced like horse. so people call me senhor horse its hilarious.last week i started in joao pessoa supposedly famous for having the most rainforest of any brazilian town. not sure about that have never been to a town with so many donkeys place was crawling with th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-441152.html A wonderful end to a wonderful weekend It started with the Boat Tour then a nice jazz JAM at the Modern Art Museum on Sat after watching The City of Gods it's a good movie but not the type I like with Julisa and Allegra. Today I finally went to the beach with my family and we ate acaraje and I ate too much shrimp to induce my allergic reaction to crustaceans. I broke out in hives as I was http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-440296.html The majority of the pictures will be taken during the boat tour of All Saints Bay going to Itaparica Island and Frades Island. We rented a boat to take 55 students around the bay with music and drinks. Along the way I saw a school of fish jumping out of the water in and out and in and out a few times. I didn't take any pics of that though. There are nice beaches.We ate a good Bahian meal. Som http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-439768.html I had to register at the Federal Police for temporary residence since I'm staying more than 3 weeks here. Afterward I went to Catussaba beach. I look chubbier because I have my suit under my clothes.. and I've been eating.. I dont know.. hahaI also went to a birthday party of my mom's friend who was turning 80. A lot of cake haha.Then I went back to Shopping Barra hoping to snap some pictur http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-439744.html Pelourinhoor Pelor for short is the historic center of Salvador. The word Pelourinho derives from a word meaning whipping post. Salvador is currently the cultural center of Brazil because it is the oldest city in with deep connections to its colonial past and it was the first capital of Brazil from the 1618th century. Slaves used to be brought here to work on the sugar plantations but later http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-437162.html This weekend we had a dance class at school. It was very fun. We learned different ways of dancing in Bahia lots of feet movements. I also went to the beach on Friday. I haven't brought my camera there so next time I'll take pictures of the beach closest to my placePorto da Barra double r's are pronounced like h 30 minutes walk.I went to Leo's basketball game. His team played against a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-436266.html Hi My family took me out to eat pizza the other night and they do eat it with forks and spoons The waiter comes out and puts a slice of pizza on your plate and you commence slicing it up. It was a thin crust without tomato sauce. We had two types of pizza shrimp my brother likes shrimp and tends to order shrimp dishes and mozzarella. The shrimp pizza had cheese like cheeswiz cheese...hmm.. A http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-435119.html We get a fourday weekend because there is no school on Fridays usually and Monday is Brazil's Independence Day. I went to the beach for an hour and half on Friday and then it started to rain. And I took a nap for the rest of the day On Saturday I took the bus to Shopping Barra but I forgot my camera. It was my first time on the bus it costs 2.20 R 1US1.85R. I took a bus that had Shop http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-434635.html There is a limit for the amount of pictures in each post... http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-433951.html Us 55 UC students were packed onto a tour bus and one of our culture class's teachers Fred gave us a tour of the town. There were a few forts to protect Salvador All Saints' Bay from the Dutch raiding the sugar plantations around the bay. I only remember the first one is called St. Anthony. The other one is white.We visited a place of worship for Yemanj in an AfroBrazilian religion Candomb http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-433672.html This is my little familyMinha Me My mom Mary she has a lingerie store but I haven't seen it yet maybe tomorrow.Meu Pai My dad Roberto. I have no idea what he does. I do know that he is from the south. Meu Filho My brother Leo. He's a twelve year old student. He swims well he has won many medals. I'll take a pic of them later. But right now he's into basketball.The maid Zilita she's h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-433660.html Today we went to check out a Capoeira school around the neighborhood. They teach capoeira to kids and teenagers so they can learn and have something productive. Capoeira is AfroBrazilian defined as a game it's a mixture of dance fighting and thinking.Today was also the first day of culture class. I live in a bubble says the teacher. The EAP students live around the neighborhood of the schoo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-433113.html All is well over here in Brazil bar a couple of hiccups see below. Since the last entry weve mostly been around Salvador which weve been using as a base.Our first trip out of there was to Lencois a quaint little town about 6 hours west. Until twenty years ago it was a diamond mining town but when that source of cash dried up they turned it into a tourist destination as a base for exploring http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-433076.html I had my orientation and met my host family. I have a Mom Mary Dad Roberto and kid brother Leo. There is also a maid Zilita that comes by MondaySaturday. I haven't had the courage to ask to take their pictures yet so someday...maybe. I don't know what they do. My Portuguese isn't good enough to hold any type of conversation. My mom speaks English quite well though. I live 5 minutes awa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-432848.html My Brazilian study abroad program starts on the 28th of August and wants the students checked into the hotel by 8PM. I flew from SFO to Houston TX made the connection to get to So Paulo and got to Brazil the 28th of August. Originally I was supposed to arrive in Salvador my final destination by 1PM. Unfortunately there was fog in So Paulo that forced the shutdown of the airport after circl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-432842.html So I arrived in Salvador at almost midnight and grabbed a taxi to meet my new friend Gustavo a Chilean friend of Cleanto. Gustavo is doing his masters in environmental engineering in Salvador but coincidentally its actually in toxicology though not officially so we had a lot to talk about. He was really pleasantly surprised when I told him I had a doctorate in toxicology and was totally willi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-419565.html Sunburn and backpacks dont go well together. So it was with a grimace that I pulled on the backpack on Friday afternoon. Our bus wasn't until 7pm on Friday so we requested a later checkout time from the Pousada and spent our last day appreciating the delights of Arraial d'Ajuda. We bought shoes for Sinad treated ourselves to a nice fresh fish lunch and then got a final dip in the sea in befo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-414845.html