Christmas, Wagner and utter prawnography.

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04/12

Before I start discussing today's highly amusing adventures, I wanted to cover something I have only briefly touched on since I left home, Christmas. Christmas in S America is, I am finding, a very odd phenomenon - the concept of a hot Christmas makes me feel slightly uncomfortable and uncertain. Arriving in Salvador has further compounded this. Our hostel is really near a shopping centre, in the middle of it was a massive Santa's grotto - and I mean MASSIVE. There was one Santa, several very attractive brazilian elves, a huge Christmas tree, candy canes and SNOW. The irony of the snow is not lost on me, given that many of you haven't been able to leave the house for several days - but it's strange to think that many of the kids visiting the grotto will never see snow. I was showing some of your snow pictures to the staff here and they were amazed by the depth of it - noone dreams of a white Christmas here. Anyway - in short, Christmas is weird in heat - although I will let you know my true feelings when I am sat on the Copacabana with a cocktail in hand on Christmas day.

On another note, Wagner is haunting me in Brazil. His namesake (I think successfully) ran for governer in the Bahia region and all across the state people have painted 'Wagner governador 13' on their houses - it's scary to think of that man in charge!

Right, on to today's adventures and observations. Today's first mission was to head to the beach, and although there is a beach literally 5 minutes from the hostel, we were told that the best beach in Salvador was Praia do flamengo - abou a 45 minute bus ride away - also, it was a Sunday and the beaches are PACKED with footballers and local sunbathers (a lot of leather skin round here) so we were also told it would be a bit quieter out there too. I should point out at this point that we sat at the bus stop, which was on the beach front, for a fair amount of time, where we bore witness to the joys of the great brazilian tradition, the speedo.

I am not going to harp on about this for fear that some of you may be eating or pre or post meal when you're reading this, but needless to say I learnt and awful lot about certain brazilian men - more than I ever needed to (bulbous is the only word). Enough said - also, for information - I only saw 1 brazilian woman in a 1 piece swim suit - the bikini is queen here - frankly I felt overdressed in my tankini - lots of strings bikinis and thongs on show - the brazilians are happy showing off their bodies, no matter what they look like - which I think is awesome.

Ross, close your eyes, and Bec listen closely - that is not to say that there weren't some BUFF men 0on that beach, and that we didn't do a lot of perving. Particular mention goes to the lovely surfers and kitesurfers who Bec definitely would've appreciated - there were plenty of them too! There are also a lot of amazing tattoos here - body art is definitely a big part od Bahian culture, if not the whole of Brazsil - will report back with more from the Copacabana.

Another sport which I discovered the Brazilians take very seriously is the classic game bat and ball, there were loits of pairs absolutely slogging the ball at each other - jumping about in 35 degree heat - very impressive.

After a bus ride which started with Tasha hanging off the back of the bus (very scary times) we arrived at Praia do Flamenco. The beach was absolutely stunning, white sand, blue sea, not a cloud in the sky and incredible surf. On reflection we definitely should've taken the body boards from the hostel with us - but nevertheless it was fun to play in the sea. I am really glad that this was the first beach we went to - I was very excited to get my feet into the Atlantic. We had perfect blue skies and treated ourselves to a parasol and some deckchairs - just like we were in Skegness. There were also plenty of vendors selling stuff - Tasha had her first go at bartering and successfully got a sarong for 15 instead of 20 reals, very proud! The vendors never made us feel harassed at all - all in all we may have slightly overdone the sunshine - when we got back we were all slightly tender and red - we were stripy too, not from clothing but we think it must've been the wind - a very odd phenomenon.

So after a few hours we came back to the hostel and showered - got rid of the sand and salt in all the annoying crevices, made classic 'we brought the beach back with us' statements and we chilled out for a bit. We then put on a bit of make up (a first for the trip) and went out for dinner. Idiots abroad strikes again... why are we so inept!

We thought we would treat ourselves to dinner because we had been living off ham sandwiches for about a week in a bid to save money so we headed down to the restaurants and bars at the end of the road. The local Bahain team had won the match and the locals were going mad - car horns pipping and people shouting and screaming in the street - it was all very dramatic. Anyway, we decided on a restaurant called San Antonio because it wasn't just a bar so had less football people in it and we just about got ourselves a seat - the atmosphere and music were great. I'd managed to translate that the 'Festival de Camarao' was a menu for 19.90 reals and we thought sod it, we then at least won't have to order anything complex or test our portuguese too much, we'll just see what happens. ERROR. It wasn't until our 4th prawn plate that we realised that Camarao means shrimp, and that there were 12 more prawny plates coming out way. Now I like prawns, I might even consider them a firm favourite of mine - but even I was prawned out by half way through, and I did the best out of the three of us. If I can remember fully we were served:
1. Prawn soup
2. Prawn and pineapple in a fish sauce
3. Prawn and Halloumi kebabs
4. Prawn salad - mark 1.
5. Normal pull the head off prawns.
6. Prawn scone
7. Prawn croquette
8. Prawn and potatoes in sauce
9. A prawn findus-style crispy pancake
10. A prawnish pasty
11. Prawn salad - mark 2,

There were 16 plates in total and we/I managed these. The man was utterly flabbergasted when we asked for the bill before completing all 16 dishes - as if we had offended the prawny god on high with our lack of commitment to the cause - but we had definitely had enough and once again flopped in the hostel - this has become a worrying state of affairs.

Tomorrow to venture forth into the old town, Pelhourno - excitement to be pursued - until next time my lovelies - let me know how you're all getting on.

Rxxxx

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