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Salvador By Night!!!
We first arrived and was greeted with these spooky streets!!! But in the end we grew to love them!!!! Well 27 hours on a bus!!!!!!!!!!! Was not actually as bad as you´d think, they have this bus thing sussed, air conditioning, reclining seats and a few stops for food and the loo…. But still the tales you hear of robbery haunt you and stop that peaceful sleep you crave!!! The usual trick here is befriending and offering you a cool refreshing drink (that allows that peaceful sleep!!!) and you wake up with NO stuff and you pockets missing!!! As in cut out of your trousers!!! But this was a good first bus experience!!! All you needed to do was keep an eye out each time it stopped to let someone off……..
Gonna skip a bit here and just say Salvador is “Cool” (bear with me it´ll all become clear!!)……
So got into Salvador and headed for our recommended hostel “Nega Maluca”, it was in the old town “Pelerinho”, the place was very daunting!! Very steep up and down cobbled streets no wider than a car at times, and the buildings were tall with only the ground floor in any kind of repair… Our first thought was 1 day then fly out!!! But within 5 hours i´d spoilt
Room With A View!!!
The view from the balcony in the Nega Maluca Hostel.... that by coming down with a bug (Bit of fever and the usual blokey “Where´s my chicken soup stuff!!”), unhappy to set off for Manaus knowing we had a long cruise to do when there and I might still be ill, kay took charge while I lay dying and came up with Plan B….. Well what do you normally do when you feel a little under the weather!!! You go to a remote Brazilian island for 2 days to recover!!!!!!
The place was called “Morro De Sao Paulo” and anyone going to Salvador MUST go there its beautiful, totally chilled and safe, no cars, and three wonderful beaches. They named the beaches with lovely English names Beach 1, Beach 2 and yes Beach 3, we had a cool little passada (family home hostel) “Millenium” on beach 2, which was the best and busiest one, but busy in a lovely way with locals playing beach footy and the main place to have a drink and food but not at all overcrowded. I felt better within hours!!!! There were not many tourists as this place was used a lot by Brazilians taking a holiday, but we did meet our first official
On The Way To Hospital!!!!
Catamarran To The Island.... travel buddies in “Ben & Brooke” a lovely aussie couple from Sydney (Hope to see you both in Bolivia, Kay read your book on the Amazon Ben, my turn next…xx), we “pretty” much spent the next 2 days together which was lovely, food was great on the island!! Lobster lunch at 3 pound a head!!! It was nice to feel secure for a couple of days and swim in the sea, gave me a nice feeling and with coming to the end of week one on the island the fact this was now my life for a year and not just a holiday really started to sink in!!! (how’s work!?!?!) …
Got to mention the boats too and from the island. On the way there we got a catamaran, very fast boat and the trip took 2 hours, but you had to sacrifice time by enduring the most bumpy boat ride ever!!! You got on it and every seat had a plastic sick bag tied to it with extra ones thrown in here and there!!! I was fine and found it highly amusing watching the 90% who weren’t running for the sides then desperately looking for bag number two (aye
Kids On The Beach!!!
What A Lovely Little Place To Grow Up!!!! No Cherry Door Knocking Here!!! Kay!!), I had my moments but focused on the TV showing Argentina win 6-0…
The way back we got a boat-bus-boat combo as it left a little later and meant we could see all the Aus v Bra game, first was a fairly normal little boat and then cross country 1 hour bus. Loved the bus!!! Why are we so reserved!!!! We miss out on so much!!! All the Brazilians (all strangers to each other) just started singing songs together!! It was really cool, even i would have joined in if I knew the words?? Its as if there is a world of nursery rhymes for adults, why don´t we have this!!!!??? Next stage was even cooler!!! Got on this speed boat type thing with the driver on a small little top deck, the boat got quite full and three people were gestured up to the top, me and Kay were there straight away!!! If only for the views!!! We got that wrong!!!! Ever wondered what it would be like to go through a car wash on a push bike?? Well I know!!! It was the log flume from hell but such cool fun, got soaked for 45 minutes and
Morro De Sao Paulo
Little jetty on beach 1... On the way back to mainland saw kids jumping of this and thought why the hell didn´t we think of it!!! Gutted!!! was licking salt of my face for hours!!!! Best bit was the fact we left at sunset and got there in the dark…..
So back in Salvador and both all refreshed with new eyes for the place…. Went for a walk into the heart of the old town quite late, sat and watch the world go by, the place was very vibrant and really quite beautiful for it (two different places from day to night, in the fact you cant see the dirt and the smells go away), lots of characters and very African influence to the music and gene pool of the locals… So So hard not to buy stuff here!!!! Art work in 50% of the shops and some stunning stuff…The place consisted of 3 main squares and held street parties every week with live band in each of the squares, we even changed our flight by a couple of days to get to see this, but come the night it rained!!!!! So ended up in a bar… Next night we went to a theater to watch a performance of local dances, Brilliant!!! The girls were ace and the guys!! Well Kay must have been in her
Morro De Sao Paulo
Beach Number 2, just a 1 minute walk from our hostel.... element!!! Never have I felt so out of shape and unfit!!! I was ashamed!!! These guys were so fit and toned and performing “Capoeira” a martial art no contact fighting demonstration along with all manner of dances… After two lovely days here the streets become quaint and really quite homely I was sad when it was time to go!! Next stop Manaus and a 7 day boat trip up the mighty Amazon river…
Bit for the Travelers - Kilo food about R$14.99, Boat to Morro R$50 eachway, Don´t go with your first impression Salvador is a really cool hip place (give it a chance).. Hotel Hillmar nice place to stay R$50 double room and Nega Maluca also cool for the community vibe… Flight to Manaus R$900…
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