salvador

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Ive still attached a few more photos of our time in Itapirica and Sacatar that are pretty nice... taken on the morning of departure (Owen's birthday) and of the celebrations the night before.

Now in Salvador.... Salvador is divided into a lower city and an upper city.. both connected by a massive elevator (which was in a photo in a previous blog) and several cable carts along the cliff face out of the central zone. right next to where we stayed we had a brand new cable car to test out which is VERY handy!.. and saves the legs from walking down (and especially back up again!) the 100m or so drop (with a great unsuspecting bar with a decking having perfect views for sunset!). The lower city has been advised in all guide books to avoid after sunset.. so we did exactly that and checked out the upper city of Pelourinho and surroundings which is FAR more tourist oriented as well as far prettier with views back out to Ilha de Itaparica across the Atlantic Ocean.

We stayed in Salvador for a night and headed out to wander more cobblestone streets (at this point all the towns we have visited have tended to look pretty similar.. with cobblestone streets, colourful and tiled facades and very similiar architecture.. and MANY churches!.. so if i stumble across something remarkably different just picture them all like this!) and the sights which included..

Museu Afro-Brasileiro - a museum that houses both ethnic stuff and a basement of Archaeological findings in the city. Sao Francisco church which was a little bit wierd ...having life size replicas of saints and people of interest to the chuch each with their own arched platform to stand in, but all bearing scars, presumably representations of how they may have died...one had a (real!) human skull sitting by his feet... a little bit earie and if not taken too seriously it coule be seen as a little humourous if not just plain wierd!


Sao Joaquim markets about 3km out of town was one we were advised to check out by Mitch and Taylor at Sacatar, as it has aisles of things for voodoo practice....they had little voodoo cushion dolls, ceremonial type looking masks and all types of things in jars and bottles that we suspected may have assisted in the ingredients to some wishful thinkers.. a little bit creepy! There was also the typical aisles where the fish and meat feature.. massive chunks of animal bits for sale and for proof that your buying cow.. they still have the head for inspection at the front of the stall!.. absolutley gross!.. needless to say the smell was horrible and really quite expected late afternoon on a 30+ degree day with no refridgeration! .. other than that.. it was just a normal market, with lots of trinkets and pottery and heaps of fruits and vegies!.. but definetly not a market where tourists frequent i'd say as we were the only REAL white people there! and very different from the main central markets that have HEAPS of textiles and hammocks and token BRAZIL shirts and bikinis..

Pelourinho in the upper city is the night spot for Salvador.... the streets are only for pedestrian usage and there is a pretty heavy secuity/police presence around so you feel far more safer at night. Reggae has a massive scene here (and everywhere else in Brasil really) and there are many bars with reggae music blaring from the speakers and into the streets with the ever present dreadlocked bob marley t shirt wearing guys hanging round... and of course plenty of samba too.. trick to finding a party though is to head into a cafe or bar and poke your head behind the counter and generally beyond the kitchen..as many tend to have backyard courtyards where a stage set up is present and instead of eating, people are hip swinging to the tunes. Any wall that is not a house or business facade pretty much is guaranteed to have steet art and is evidence to a (mostly) talented population.

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Photos

predrinks at the local
birthday dinner predrinks.. with Mitch in the background and Taylor making more friends.. a great night!

sharing the cake
these guys that work nightshift at the marina put on a bit of show with guitar and a few brazilian tunes and loved the offer of cake afterwards!

Front of our house at Sacatar
not sure if i mentioned it earlier, but this entire place was ours for the few days!