Salvador de Bahia

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So shock horror, within the first first month I am pathetically behind in writing this blog. Finding time to summarise what you've been doing, whilst you've not been doing anything hugely significant is difficult. It has taken a bout of deadly man-flu to make time, and I shall endeavor to not completely bore the arse off my few readers...



Ines was working for the most part during my week in Salvador, which gave me plenty of opportunity to be flat out lazy. My second full day in Brazil, she was working in the morning, so I weighed up my options and decided instead to eat breakfast and lounge on the balcony, watching the sea. Very energetic that sea, made me tired. When Ines arrived, we took a bus to Pelourinho (Pelo).



Some Salvador background..... Salvador is one of the oldest New World cities in the America's and is Brazil's third biggest city behind Rio and Sao Paulo. It was a major area for sugar production, although is probably better known for the large part it played in the slave trade (us Europeans suck). Due to the vast amount of slaves that were brought over and the subsequent abolition of the slave trade in part, it is one of the poorer areas of Brazil. That said, the varying levels of wealth between people is astonishing. Some neighbourhoods have higher human development indexes than the well governed Scandinavian countries, whilst other neighbourhoods score pathetically low. Salvador is home to a vast number of favelas. Despite all of this, the city (and state) has a reputation of being laid back and the party central of Brazil, its Carnival is the biggest street festival in the world, (yes, bigger than Rio's) and it has an amazing and interesting mix of African, Native and Portuguese cultures.



Anyways, we arrived in Pelo, which is the centre of culture and located in the Upper City, the Upper City being the wealthy part. of Salvador The Lower City by comparison, is incredibly poor and considered too dangerous to walk to for tourists so Ines and I took the Lacerda Elevator around 85m down to the lower city. I observed a bullet hole in the glass above the exit to the lift, before we crossed a road and had a wander around Mercado Modelo, a market housed in a building which was originally home to the first slave market. Strange to imagine how people were so ridiculous in history, but then again discrimination and ill-prosecution does continue in so many ways today.



We leant over a closed off staircase to the basement on the building, where the slaves were kept after suffering a wretch journey across the Atlantic, after being stolen from their countries and families. We could see fetid pools of water and feel the warm stench rising up. If it is that bad now, whilst being renovated, without anyone down there, I cannot begin to imagine what the conditions would have been like during it's use. Nor would I want to.



To turn this on its head a little bit, I will add that that information, is what I have been informed, other sources claim the market was merely a customs house and that it is purely legend that slaves were kept in the basement. In either case, from a touristic point of view, the market was interesting, sold lots of authentic African merchandise and the people there were very friendly.



On leaving the market there is not really much else you can safely see. The Lower City is absolutely stuffed with stunning colonial buildings, but almost all of them are falling into a state of dilapidation, if they haven't already. Ines suggested that perhaps this is because the government would prefer to build new buildings, once these have decayed to the point of self destruction, instead of paying the probably higher costs of renovation. It's a mistake on their part if it's true, they are beautiful.



We travelled back up the elevator to the Upper City and walked towards the centre of Pelo, a Unesco Heritage Area, stopping at a a sculpture of a fallen cross, representing the regret for the demolition of a church, done for the notion of progress. This place is Ines's favourite place in Salvador and quickly became mine too. During my week in Salvador, I visited Pelo on four occasions and spent numerous hours at this superb viewpoint over the Lower City. A combination of the scale of the view, the moulding buildings, the bay, the harbour and its harbour combined with its position away from the road make it a great place for contemplation.



We felt hungry and so headed to what is something of a genius, although Brazil only idea - one that could help the vastly obese populations of most Western societies and perhaps cure some of the increasingly fussy nature of peoples eating habits (the latter being something that is very true of the UK, where so many people are afraid of trying anything new). Brazil has many buffet restaurants where you pay for the weight of the food that you put on your plate. This meaning you eat what you can afford and get to try a vast selection of foods, without being afraid that you ordered a whole meal that was 'icky'.



Nicely stuffed, we entered the central square of Pelo, which is home to numerous churches and the cathedral, all of which appeared a little run down from the outside, but all of which house insanely extravagant decorations and treasures on the inside. One of which, the Convent and Church of São Francisco is particularly laden with amazing statues, sculptures and glorious designs. It is one of the things that I truly love about religion, any religion, that it can produce such places. Simultaneously it also stands for one of the things I hate so much about religion, just how warped and misguided its ideas can be.



Saint Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan Order following a sermon which preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was upon them and that they should take no money with them, not even a walking stick or shoes. He dedicated himself to a life of poverty and led a simple life.



I guess if I was thinking overly logically about this, I could suggest that perhaps building a magnificently decadent church, heavily laden with gold leaf in the name of a Saint that denounced wealth, probably would have cost those involved so much that they perhaps too, ended up living in poverty. Otherwise, it just seems a bit daft to me.



Next we visited the heart of Pelo, a triangular area on a sharp slope surrounded by many more beautiful restored colonial buildings. This location is where part of the music video for Michael Jackson's 'They Don't Really Care About Us' was filmed (the bits that aren't in a favela, or clearly city-wide shots of Rio).

Plenty of people and merchandise reminds you of this fact. As much he was controversial and undoubtedly somewhat of a sheltered man-child, seemingly floating on a cloud, his video gave exposure and credibility to a local group, Olodum, which offers cultural activities to young people (a lot of Samba Reggae) and aims to counter racism and promote self esteem. It also gave a big exposure of the extent of favelas throughout Brazil. Perhaps the latter exposure contributed to the government working harder to provide better lifestyles for its more disadvantaged people.



In case you didn't know, Brazil is huge, has a relative population and one of the biggest economies in the world to go along with it. A favela is a sort of shanty town, where makeshift houses have more and more built homes built on top of them so they expand and look like a bizarre, extremely low grade block of flats. They are how to an enormous amount of the countries gangs and drug trades. The police don't generally venture near them.



Anyway, it grew dark and we headed back to the Fallen Crosses. En-route we ate some magically tasty ice cream and I got mauled about by some sweaty Capoiera guys for some photos. We sat and enjoyed the outstanding view under the evening sky, before I headed back to Barra and Ines onwards to her home.



The next couple of days I did very little, simply enjoying being lazy. I visited Pelo again, but mainly lazed and ate. I did meet a nice guy from Costa Rica, Guillermo (Memo) who was heading to remote Brazil to work as an NGO shortly, we spent a lot of time chilling out, eating pizza and having beers.



Memo and I grabbed a local bus up the coast with the intention of meeting Ines and going to visit a lake we had read about. I have absolutely no idea how, but we had wires crossed somewhere and went to the wrong lake (the one we had wanted to visit was only about ten minutes away, this one was over an hour!). Irregardless, it was a beautiful freshwater lake, Abaete Lake, surrounded by sand-dunes. Whilst not being kicked at by horses, Ines asked a local if it was possible to reach a view point of the city, which we did, whilst dodging vultures and keeping an eye on a very nearby favela. The view, as you can see, was definitely worthwhile.



I took a bus from Barra the next day up the coast to where Ines worked and we spent the afternoon walking up her local beach, an absolutely stunning and lengthy beach that anywhere in Europe would have been beaten into a generic resort within a short time. We had a fantastic lunch that lasted a considerable amount of time and bludgeoned both of our stomachs to the point of having to turn down a beach hawkers delightful offer of grilled cheese on a stick. Another quiet, but excellent day.



Before I knew, my last day in Salvador was upon me. Guillermo and I met Ines in Pelo and we milled about once again. Finally the cathedral was open, so we got to see the again, amazingly art held inside. By this point, I am sure you won't be surprised to hear that it wasn't an overly energetic day. We had planned on doing much more - we had planned on visiting a turtle sanctuary at Praia do Forte, but the weather during the Salvador winter appears to be an inconsistent mistress and storms raged during the morning which turned us off the idea. We took in a nice lunch, Guillermo and I had a few more beers (I was now on holiday and he was soon to be going to remote Brazil for several months, we had to really).



Eventually I had my sad goodbye with Ines, who at time of writing should be back in Portugal. No idea when I will see her next. I failed to convince her to come to Australia with me last time round, so if she ever reads this, perhaps she'll consider Canada instead... My time in Salvador was good, I had a lot of fun times eating Argentinian pizza with Memo, sharing countless beers. Although I did not get to see Ines as much as I would have liked, the time together was fantastic and like old times, albeit in a slightly different location to Cardiff. Meeting her certainly made things a lot better and easier than that fateful day in 2008 when I arrived alone in Delhi.



On Monday June 6, I flew to Rio and that's the next chapter.

PS: There are a few more photos below if you scroll down :-)

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Photos

Getting Mauled About
and having to pay for the honour.

Ines at the Fallen Crosses Viewpoint
Lacerda Elevator in the background

Contrasts in the Lower City
The well restored market next to dilapidated colonial buildings

Salvador
As seen from atop a sand dune near Abaete Lake

Che Lagarto Hostel
Back on the road!

Comments

[mum]

You have such great way with words, its always interesting reading,, x