Salvador & Olinda

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We rolled into Recife and headed straight to the lovely neighbouring city of Olinda. Olinda has a small but superb historic centre (at times small is just what you need). It’s one of South Americas most charming and well restored gems. We enjoyed the beautiful centre full of churches, cobble stone colonial architectured streets and plazas, all magnificently restored. Olinda also boasts a vibrant artesian culture, is chilled out and full of nice little cafes and posadas. It’s a great place to come and relax for a couple of days and isn’t overrun with tourists either.
We left Olinda for Recife to catch an overnight bus to a city that we had heard so much about, for good and for bad. We arrived in Salvador da Bahia, found our hostel and had another great breakfast. Salvador is known as Brasil’s capital of Afro culture. The vast majority of residents are from African descent as Salvador served as an important port for the Portuguese slave trade. Rumours of constant parties and from those in the know, this is the place to come for carnaval. It also has another, not so nice reputation - if you’re going to get mugged in Brasil, then this is the place where it will probably happen. Intrigued, we were happy to be here!
Our first day was spent sorting out a flight to Rio as it was cheaper than the bus and would save us a day travelling. We ended up relaxing in the hostel and not really getting up to much other than talking to others staying there. It was good to do so as we had been staying in a lot of hotel style places where other guests were hard to come by. We spent our first evening sitting outside a bar listening to the live music over a quite beer.
As we were here on a Sunday we were told not to go into the old town because there would be nobody around and the risk of muggings increase. So we decided to go to one of Salvador’s famous beaches. After following the bus directions of the hostel we ended up outside of Salvador! Returning we actually got the right bus and the driver kindly dropped us off at our intended beach. I was initially looking for a surf shop to hire out a board but with the amount of people around I couldn’t see no further than a few metres. I know what the population of Salvador does on a weekend!! We went down to the beach and settled. It was an impressive sight, a classic sweeping wide beach, golden soft sand, a light breeze and as far as I could see umbrella after umbrella. Salvador’s population laid, sat and played under beautiful skies while a vast majority saw fit to frequent the bar/shacks at the side of the beach. We socked up the atmosphere and ate prawns prepared by the make shift stall behind us on the sand. We left the beach and bussed it back into the centre and Salvador’s affluent area. Modern and wealthy we had a look in a local mall. Inside you really could be anywhere! We made it back to our hostel and enjoyed the rest of the evening with the others staying there.
We finally managed to have a look around Salvadors famous historic centre, the Pelo. We found it to be a good mix of Sao Luis and Olinda but on a larger scale and with a different flavour. The Pelo is full of fine colonial architecture, narrow cobbled streets, wide plazas, picturesque churches all interweaved with charming staircases. Some of the Pelo is gracefully restored but this is still an ongoing project. The grandeur of the classic Portuguese tiled buildings stand next to their similar cousins who are wearing a more sarajravo style.
We used time to explore the Pelourinho, the place where which served as the slave market, which is now a normal market. Underground it still houses the haunting remains of where the slaves were kept. We also took the time to travel out to Iglesia Bonfim. A church which is renowned for miricles. People would come to this place of worship looking for a miracle to cure heath problems. Apparently body parts are kept and displayed which devotees claim were cured. Unfortunately we didn’t see any but the church was well worth the visit. We then went to Salvador’s fort where we enjoyed more acai from a local cafe next to the beach and then enjoyed what has become somewhat of a South American passion of mine, sunset.
Trying out haircuts in these countries has also become a tradition so I didn’t want to pass on the chance back in the Pelo. He must have been the friendliest hairdresser in the world and not a moustache for me in sight!!! We also ran into a shop keeper we had met earlier and hung around talking to him for a while. Brasilians are extremely friendly and helpful but with limited Portuguese it’s a job to hold a lengthily conversation. Something Brasilians are obviously very aware of but that doesn’t stop them! We concentrated and listened for ages, answered a few questions and even when he knew we didn’t understand, he’d just carry on talking about what we didn’t understand! Good job we had time on our hands!!
For our last day in Salvador we went back to Jaguaibe, the beach we had visited on Sunday. With less people around I tracked a surf shop down and got myself a lesson! I didn’t do too badly, getting up on the board a few times and actually ‘riding’ a few waves! With having more of the beach to ourselves we were able to see just how big it is and appreciate how many people were here on Sunday!
We stayed in Salvador longer than we had planned. It was for a very good reason mind - a chance to try Salvador’s street party! Basically carnival is in February and after a break of around a month rehearsals start again....So carnival is really a year round event with the main larger fiestas happening in February. What we saw did show us that you don’t have to come in February but at the same time gives you a taste of something worth coming back to experience.
We joined in with a full street party in full swing. Drumming and dancing filled the streets and plaza’s of the Pelo as we flitted between the various groups in the different locations. Street side snacks and makeshift bars served the partying crowds while indoor venues hosted more intimate performances. After snapping for a while I zipped away my camera into my trousers and we joined others from our hostel and hung around watching carnival goers pass by.
At this point Salvador’s pick pocketing capital status lived up to its name! Gangs of young boys trawl the streets looking out for victim’s. They decided that our group were worthy targets and whilst one tried to sell us drinks, his friends were hovering around the back of the group sneaking into our pockets. Now ‘sneaking’ isn’t really the word, I think they need a few lessons from the Peruvians. Leaving anything of value in the hostel my pockets were empty with any little money in my shoes. But I would feel their hands jabbing into my pockets, patting my pockets and then jabbing them again. Hardly expert. After we told them to get lost they still hung around, it was almost too funny, brains it seems, were lacking. We finished off in style in a live samba club and rumba’d the night away until it was time for our early morning flight.

Salvador has been a great city to visit and says a lot about Brasil. I really like this place and the country. Salvador has served up a few surprises as well. Nowhere near as dangerous as we had been led to believe and also nowhere near as black. In fact Salvador has the same colour mix as the rest of what we have seen in Brasil. The underpinning African cultures that we were told existed and were common place were not. But Salvador has its own agenda, its own atmosphere and its own purpose. Great beaches, great modern city - old city, a never ending party and on the whole a never ending line of friendly, happy people. I’m coming back for carnival!!
Full Olinda Photos on Flickr
Full Salvador Photos on Flickr

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