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Published: February 23rd 2007
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It seems that I've been trying to write this blog for ever, I did get quite far previously but the computer I was using crashed before I could save it. I should have realised that a pc, so old it was running windows millennium edition was likely to be unstable.
Probably the first thing to say is my Rough Guide was right: a downpour can happen in Salvador at any time. There seems to be two types of weather here: hot and sunny or warm but really wet. It hasn't been too bad, most of the days have been dry most of the time. Today is the first day where its been wet virtually all day.
So what have I been doing for the last week, the short answer is partying. Ok, I didn't party as hard as some people, I met one Australian guy who walked in to the hostel about 10am the next morning with no recollection of the night before! The latest I got to bed was 5am on the last night of Carnaval. I spent most of the evenings hanging out and partying with a cool group of Canadian girls called Alyssa, Shannon and Sherry.
Pelourinho
This is the historic centre, where my Hostel was located. Its come to live today, as a lot of the shops, museums and restaurants that were boarded up for Carnaval have re-opened. A lot of the time I seemed to be acting as their protector. It was quite funny how confused some of the Brazilian men looked wondering what I was doing with all three of them. It got even funnier at one point, when they each said to one guy that they were married to me.
I have to say a lot of the Brazilian men have lived up to their reputation, they make the most sleazy British men look gentlemanly by comparison. One man tried to "ambush kiss" Alyssa, which is where the man puts his arms around the woman, so she can't escape and then tries to kiss her. He only stopped when we dragged him off. I've heard stories from other people of men trying to kiss girls through the window of a taxi, whilst it was moving!
There seems to be two main areas to Carnaval. The first is centered around Pelourinho and the old town, where I'm staying. Here its quite civilised, lots of families and fairly gentle brass bands. The other is centered along the suburb of Barra and the seafront. The second is more lively but far more edgy. On one night,
Derelict building with Grafiti
This is an example of the condition in the buildings in the Cidade Baixa, which is just down the hill from Pelourinho.
If you look closely you can see the black clouds in the background, which sure enough it meant it was going to rain. I had some kids trying to pick pocket me - they didn't get my wallet but got my phrase book though!
Oh and fatboy slim was here as well - I'm sure he's turning up everywhere in Brazil - I think he has also played Rio. Here, he was on one of the floats. For each float there is a bloco - basically a fenced off area, which moves with the float and you get to dance with the float. I've heard stories that the fatboy slim one cost 300 reais, about 75 pounds! Not surprisingly it was full of white people...
On Monday, I decided to escape Salvador and head about 100km north to Praia do Forte, where there is a sea turtle sanctuary. I wanted to go because I felt I had missed out on turtles on Fernando de Noronha because I couldn't dive. Its quite a slightly odd place, its got one main street full of shops, restaurants and hotels and nothing else really. Everything there is tourist orientated and very clean and new. However, the sea turtle sanctuary was fantastic, theres lots of pools with sea turtles and fish in.
I've had a
Lacerda Elevator
This was built in 1930 and connects the Pelourinho with Cidade Baixa (new town). During Carnaval it was free to ride. Today it cost me the grand sum of 5 centivos (about 1p!). slight change of plan regarding my next destination, I'm now going to Rio tomorrow. Sherry, Shannon and Alyssa were going back there and they said I should go. I thought since the only reason I wasn't going originally was because I didn't want to risk going on my own, I should go.
Technically I'm still going to Sao Paulo, but I'm then flying back to Rio. I'm not only going to have to change planes in Sao Paulo but change airports as well. I suppose I deserve all I get for changing my flights the day before flying.
I spent most of the morning queuing at the airline Tam office to get my flights sorted. While I was in the queue I met some Americans who had to get their flights sorted because they were all meant to be flying at 4pm, except one of their group had managed to get flights for 4am instead.
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