Visiting the colonial cities of Salvador & Olinda

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Salvador - 14th to 16th April

We wake up at 7am feeling slightly debilitated from our partying the night before in Rio. We frantically pack and leave for the airport to catch our flight to Salvador. Given our previous check in experiences with GOL airlines we think we have given ourselves plenty of time to check in. How wrong could we be, there are about 20 check-in desks but every time we queue for a bit we get diverted to join another queue, this happens for about an hour until we only have 20 minutes before our flight leaves. All the attendants seem to be ignoring us until finally we make it to the front of the queue. Luckily it isn´t a big airport so we make it to our gate fairly quickly, then they change the gate number so we have to rush to this one. Got job we are fluent in Portuguese (not!) so we know what is happening!

Finally we take off and arrive at Salvador within 2 hours. We decide to save money by having a fast food lunch at the airport but we end up having the greasiest hugest burgers ever from Bob´s Burgers. They seem very popular in Brazil but I think everyone must be walking heart attacks waiting to happen once you have scoffed one of their burgers! We catch to the bus to the area we are staying in Salvador. Someone puts our luggage in the boot of the bus and we get on. Then the bus driver gets on the bus and shouts at us all in Portuguese, again not a clue about what he is saying! Someone translates for us as we leave and we realise the bus driver was telling everyone off for leaving their luggage unattended as it could be stolen. We have a very nervous and anxious journey wondering if our luggage is still there. Eventually Kate asks the driver to stop so that we can check the boot. I´m sweating profusely at this stage and feel a bit sick but luckily it is still there, we´ll be so much more careful next time.

We´re staying in the beach suburb of Barra in Salvador. We drive alongside several beaches and finally arrive at Barra where we catch a taxi to our hostel. Its a nice place with an English owner (no problems with the language there then!) and an added bonus we´ve got cable TV and the Warner Channel in our room, woo hoo! We have a nap in the afternoon as we are so tired and then wander out to buy some food for the evening. The owner is having a BBQ for all the guests. We have a fun time drinking and chatting to the other guests. Someone has bought a load of fresh lobsters and these are cooked. I don´t normally get the deal with lobsters but these were fantastic, covered with lime and some lemongrass, mmm. Finally I have to go to bed but Kate stays up awhile longer drinking some more!

Needless to say we have a little lie in the next morning and mong watching the Warner Channel! We wander down to a beachfront restaurant for lunch and have fun watching the surfers. We have some traditional food from this region called acaraje. Its a deep fried something in breadcrumbs and is covered with a coconut paste and served with shrimps. Its nice except the shrimps are still shelled - this is how they eat them. We walk along the beach front and have a chilled coconut. Then we spend a few hours sitting on the beach where a man keeps washing our feet with sea water to keep us cool. Its a very pleasant sensation. We also play in the waves. There is a sharp sand shelf where the waves break and I get dumped unceremoniously a few times. My bottom gets a few sand scrapings every now and again!

We´ve been told that there is a great folklore show in Salvador so we decide to head into town in the evening to see it. Its in the central area of Salvador called Pelourinho. We´ve been warned by plenty of people and the guide books that it can be a bit dangerous as its such a poor area. So we are none too pleased when our taxi driver suggests we get out before the main square as the traffic is bad. We refuse and arrive at the square to discover he has no change for our 50 Reais note so we have to wander around the shops for ages trying to get some money to pay him. We are harassed by a dodgy looking man who keeps trying to change our money. We ignore him and eventually someone chases him away! The area feels a bit sketchy even though its still quite early. We walk down to the theatre to find there are no shows on this evening, so by this time we are thoroughly fed up! We catch a taxi back to our suburb and decide to go to the cinema but they are only showing 2 films (one we have seen and the other is the mutant Ninja turtles), so no luck here either! We decide to walk around the shopping centre only to have the escalator break down on us! We are starting to get the message by now so decide to call it a night after grabbing some food locally!!

We spend the next morning blogging and then catch a taxi to another theatre where they are showing some folklore, we reserve a place for the evening. We walk to the central market and have a look around. Salvador does feel a bit dangerous but I´m not sure if this is us being paranoid from being told it is bad. We catch an elevator to the higher part of the city (Pelourinho) and walk around admiring the colonial buildings. It is a beautiful area with its cobblestone streets and colourful buildings and churches. We stop at a posh hotel and sit on their terrace as the sun goes down. We are the only people there so its very nice as we sit relaxing with a few beers and some food.

We eventually find that the theatre we were trying to go to the evening before is actually open this evening. We decide to go here instead of back to the other one where we had reserved seats. We feel a bit bad as there are 2 other girls from our hotel going and hope they don´t worry when we don´t turn up. Strangely enough 2 other people from our hotel turn up so we watch the show with them. Its actually very good show with lots of dancing and locals in great costume. There is some Candomble (which is part of the African religion - involves people dancing around in a trance like state as they are entered by spirits), a fire eater and lots of Capoeira (an form of martial art - lots of people doing gymnastic type stuff on stage). We really enjoy it and are glad that we finally got to see it.

Olinda - 17th to 19th April

We have an early morning transfer to the airport for our flight to Recife. Today we are glad we left early as the traffic is horrendous. We are stuck it in for ages and finally realise why, there is a huge procession of people demonstrating against something! We catch the tail end of it and by-pass them with enough time to make our flight.

When we land in Recife we decide to blow our budget and book a trip to an island called Fernando de Noronha. This will be Kate´s birthday treat. We´ve been told by loads of Brazilians that this is the place to go and is the most beautiful island. We keep changing our minds about going as it is very expensive, but can´t resist booking it in the end! We use a company called Luck who are great as they have a VIP lounge where we can watch TV and use the internet whilst they are sorting our tickets.

Finally with everything booked we catch a taxi to the neighbouring town of Olinda. We have vague reservations but on the way our taxi driver tells us he knows a nicer Pousada so we let him take us there. Its is actually a fantastic place set in an old converted townhouse, on about 5 floors. We have a huge room with 4 doors that open out. We´re on the 4th floor with amazing views over the town of Recife. They also do a humongous breakfast but they are a strange combination of things with a set cold custard and porridge and a strange fish dish!

We spend the afternoon wandering the cobbled streets of Olinda. Its is a beautiful town and is so quiet, we are definitely travelling in off season. There is hardly anyone staying at our Pousada and very few tourists in the town. Olinda is an old colonial town that has pretty much been fully restored. Its the best example we have seen of a colonial town and we enjoy walking the streets looking at the colourful buildings. Its set on a hillside so a walk around reveals lots of different views.

In the evening we go to a lovely restaurant with views over the town. We´re the only people eating here but we have a nice confit of duck for dinner! As we are walking back to the hotel we come across a band practising so we buy a few beers and sit on the streets listening to them play - they are pretty bad but all the locals are here watching them too!

We wake up in the morning to torrential rain and we can´t see the view very well at all. After breakfast it settles down a bit so we decide to venture out. However it pours on and off all day and we get very wet! We spend the day walking around town again and visiting some of the craft shops, where I can buy a few birthday presents for Kate! We take refuge in a creperie for awhile and then explore some more. In the evening we have a great dinner of a prawn coconut stew in a pumpkin (is anyone starting to think that this is a culinary tour of South America yet??).

The next day it has stopped raining so we can actually take a few decent pictures of the town! We are very excited as today is the day we fly to Kate´s island. We are also slightly anxious as to what the weather will be like on Fernando de Noronha. We are travelling in the wet season so it can be very changeable. We catch a taxi to the airport to get our flight to Noronha.

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Comments

[Ade]

Postcard arrived
Hiya, Your postcard finally arrived. Thanks! Only took about two months ;-) I was watching the film 'Motorcycle diaries' at the weekend and thought of you two. Not planning any revolutions are you? All the best

[Mum & Dad Aburrow]

Salvador sounds a pretty scarey place, pleased you weren't there for a long stay and what a shame you had rain in Olinda, but nice to be getting quieter without too many tourists !!!! You do seem to be sampling lots of different dishes !!!!