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Published: November 23rd 2012
Salvador
Street paradeDay 402 Friday 16
th November
Today is moving day so after breakfast we asked Donald if we could have a late checkout at 4.00pm and he very nicely said yes. It is raining again so we sat on our terrace overlooking the pool and garden and read before getting stuck into the packing. At 4.00pm it was no longer raining so we walked up the road to get a Taxi (Kombi) to the wharf but everyone was full and we waited for about 10 minutes then decided to start walking. As we got a 100 metres down the road it started to drizzle and the taxis were still full, eventually we came across two ladies standing looking up the road and we stopped and joined them hoping they were waiting for a bus. We must have looked odd because they smiled and said “bus” and thumbs up. Thank goodness because it is a long walk and after about 5 minutes the bus turned up and it was 2 reais each. Wish we had known about the bus the day we arrived it would have been cheaper it is just a matter of standing near the kiosks where the
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Looking down the road taxis are lined up and waiting for them, but not sure how often they run. The ferry was waiting and the return trip is free so far today the transport has been cheap. We struggled on with our bags and were underway in about 15 minutes for the 2 minute trip across the river to the other side. Aarial d’Ajuda and Porto Seguro are almost twin towns only separated by the river. The Lonely Planet sort of banged on heaps about how Aarial is the better of the two and because of that we had chosen to stay there. After a brief look at Porto I would say it looked just as good, but it didn’t have a beach on its doorstep.
Donald had recommended a place to eat near the wharf that was Japanese which we were hesitant about after last night plus it looked like a convenience store with tables. After some looking around it actually did not look that bad so we headed back and had chicken yakisoba for two and it was great with lots of veggies and chicken, what a difference from last nights feed and it was cheaper. I saw some of the
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Elevador Lacerda sushi and sashimi that came out and it looked good too, but with an overnight bus trip we thought it was best to play it safe.
Got a taxi up to the terminal at 6.00pm and the bus company had a nice VIP waiting room. The bus turned up and we were underway by 7.05pm to Salvador with the rain now getting heavy again. The bus had good leg room and gave us blankets and this was the first bus we have had in Brazil that showed movies. The bus was travelling with two others and they all seemed to stop together at random spots in the middle of nowhere this was also the first bus that did not stop at one of the big roadside restaurants, the only schedule stops were at their stations and not long enough to get off. The bus was pretty good but the smells including someone farting and the urine smell from the on board toilet was getting bad.
Day 403 Saturday 17
th November
Finally at 4.00am we stopped at a bus terminal long enough to get off and you should have seen the
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Sunset view of the old city rush to the toilets including me. When we hopped back on board the man across the aisle from me decided he would bring his cigarette back on board much to everyone’s horror when the driver walked through to do a head count a few people whispered something to him and when he passed he stopped and had a long look at the man. By now the cigarette had disappeared I think into a can of drink that he was also carrying but I kept looking over for the next 15 minutes or so just in case his blanket caught fire. There were no incidents and we arrived safely in Salvador at 7.00am where I discovered that the bottom of my backpack was wet and it soaked into my T-shirt as I put it on. We decided to have breakfast at the terminal as we knew that we would not get into our hotel room till later.
The taxi driver we got seemed confused about where he was going and stopped to ask us the address again and gave us a long spiel even though we said “No Portuguese”. We almost hopped out but lucky we did not because he
Salvador
From the Plaza looking at Catedral Basilica drove off and delivered us to our hotel door cheaper than the Lonely Planet says the fare would cost and even waited for us to get in the door.
As expected we could not get into our room and had to wait till 11.00am but at least the hotel offered us coffee and tea. As soon as we got into the room I pulled everything out of my backpack to check if anything was wet, everything was OK so now it was time to jump into the shower. We got a map of town from reception which had two no go zones marked clearly on it as this town has got a reputation for being rough and a big drug problem. The area we are staying is Pelourinho and is safe and is near the historical centre which is full of churches, restaurants and souvenir shops and lots of police patrolling. We have to walk up a narrow cobblestone lane to get to the main part and on first impressions the area looks like a caricature of itself with all the costumed people. We tried to get into the vibe but just did not feel it so stopped and
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Another church with H. Stern diamond store attached had a late lunch at Zulu Café which turned out to be really good and chilled us out. I am hoping tomorrow after a good sleep things will seem a bit more vibrant and real. Our hotel is surrounded by the music schools so I fell asleep to the Afro rhythmic drum beats around me.
Day 404 Sunday 18
th November
Today is much quieter so we strolled around to the Elevador Lacerda which connects the area we are in to the old port area. The historical centre sits on a high bluff with the port below, which sort of creates problems with deliveries so way back in the old days they built a steam driven elevator to help shift supplies. In the 1930’s they rebuilt the structure so what we now have is a lovely art deco building with lifts that take you to the bottom 72m below and lucky for me they don’t crowd you in too much. Once at the bottom we crossed the road to the Mercado Modelo which was originally the Customs House built in 1861 where the new slaves were held awaiting auction, Brazil didn’t abolished slavery till 1888,
Salvador - CSF
God's office in the Convent Sao Francisco being the last western nation to do so. After a fire in 1986 the Mercado was reconstructed and now holds very tacky markets which are crowded with tourists, I was hoping to buy up big but the souvenirs are badly made and same, same. After pushing through the crowds and seeing everything we headed back to the lifts and up again. Being Sunday we thought we should do the Churchy thing so first visited the Convento Sao Francisco which showed that there were no levels in those days as the floors and walls definitely were at interesting angles. It also contains “beautiful” azulejos tiles from Portugal which when you look at them the patterns never match up properly and the colouring varies, I know they are handmade but I think that when they were shipped they all got jumbled and no one bothered to sort them out. Of course everywhere I have seen them it has been the same so maybe that is the effect they were going for???
It was still too early to see the church attached which opens at 1.00pm so we stopped for a cool drink in the shade for half an hour and had
Salvador - CSF
The church in the Convent of Sao Francisco to make sure we left the café before the live music started in the afternoon or we would be charged 3 Reais each which is OK if we were going to sit here for the afternoon and enjoy it.
At 1.00pm we wandered over to Igreja Sao Francisco finished in 1723 I think this church contains the most gold and silver of any church in Brazil which makes sense as Salvador was the capital till 1763. This church is soooo over the top there are hundreds of carved cherubs everywhere which are not the most attractive things we have seen and on top of that gold upon gold. I must say this is not the most beautiful church I have seen or the most ascetically pleasing there is just too much going on. Most of the poor little cherubs had their penises chiselled off in the 20
th century for being offensive but some of the “little” guys are intact. The church was built by the slaves and it is said that when carving the cherubs they distorted their faces and put large sex organs on them….first case of religious sabotage maybe. My personal opinion is the Spanish churches we
Salvador - CSF
Altar in the Convent of Sao Francisco have seen in South America are better but that is just my opinion.
We did some window shopping because we have nearly run out of cash as the only bank near us has not been working since we arrived, this is Banco do Brasil which contains about 10 ATMs with no power to them. For two days we keep seeing people going in and coming out with very unhappy faces much what we have looked like exiting the bank.
For dinner we went back to Zulu Café in Rua da Ordem, for another great meal probably the best in Brazil so far of Moqueca a spicy fish and shrimp stew served with rice and pirao – yummy. A few blocks away there was live music playing in a hall with lots of people dancing we could hear this music playing all through the town so we had live music with dinner for free. This town has such a great music vibe with lots of African drum beats, a lot is very touristy up in the old historical centre, unsure what it would be like out in the burbs?
Day 405 Monday 19
th November
Today
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Outside facade of the Convent Sao Francisco is a chores day and the first one on the list is exchanging the books we have finished and Salvador has two second hand bookstores which are actually in the no go zone of our hotels map but I think they are being over cautious so I checked with the manager and he said it is no problem to go around these areas in the day just don’t carry anything flashy with you. So of we headed with 3 books, well they got a nice tour of Salvador because unfortunately although they had English books there was nothing we were interested in. Scott is starting to look at Danielle Steel’s books that are in every second hand bookshop as he is more than halfway through his current 1100 page book and knows he will need something soon. Thankfully the bank is operating today so we now have money to buy bus tickets out of here, so that is the next thing via some shops of course.
We had hoped the hotel could arrange to get the tickets but no luck for our destination so we had to walk to a small market area where there was a tiny office
Salvador - SF
Igreja Sao Francisco the gaudy interior with one lovely but very stressed lady and a huge queue. At the front of the queue were 3 gringos also trying to buy bus tickets but there seemed to be mass confusion and it took forever for them to get the tickets, next in line was a lady who just wanted to pay a bill maybe electricity so this one woman does everything….talk about multitasking. We were worried after the other gringos had problems and the time it took but our request ran smoothly and was sorted quickly till all the paperwork had to be filled in manually and then a phone call to the bus company to confirm the booking, what about computers?? Well after an hour of queuing we had our tickets for Recife (pronounced Heh see fee) and went back to the hotel to do some research on where we are going.
Dinner back at Zulu and another great meal.
Day 406 Tuesday 20
th November
We are leaving today so put our bags into storage and started walking the street and saw more churches…..if only we could visit a synagogue or a mosque for a change. The first was Igreja NS
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It is as if God vomited Gold in the Sao Francisco do Rosario Dos Pretos which is again built by slaves but this time for them, so it was done in their free time and took a hundred years to complete…..yes you guessed it, these guys didn’t get a lot of free time. This church inside is elegant and beautiful, with the most amazing painted ceiling and the minimal use of cherubs. The exterior is rococo and stands out because it is periwinkle blue. Up the hill is the decaying Igreja Da Ordem Tereira Do Carmo (wish these churches would have shorter names) it is a shame how bad this church is, as in its day it would have been magnificent. The two main reasons to visit here are the statue of Nossa Senhora do Carmo (Mary) holding baby Jesus carved by a slave called O Cabra who was in love with Isabel II from a wealthy family and modelled Mary’s likeness on her. Also baby Jesus is said to have black features, maybe his fantasy included having a child with Isabel? Unfortunately the statue is behind the altar in glass so it is hard to see the finer details. The other reason for coming here is to see O Cabra’s
Salvador - SF
Too much Sao Francisco other statue of a life size Christ which has 2000 rubies forming the blood. This statue you can get close to but it is in a glass box which has mould growing on the inside and numerous finger prints and you have to look hard to see those rubies but the piece is beautifully carved and worth seeing. Next door was the largest Carmelite Convent in the world but it now has been turned into a flashy looking hotel.
From here we wandered the streets looking at the old pastel painted buildings and visiting a few antique shops before heading back up to the plaza and stopping for a cold drink. While sitting there we noticed and main doors of Igreja Sao Francisco were open and there was beautiful singing emulating so we walked up for a sticky beak. There was a Mass going on and as we entered we bought a wish ribbon each, thinking we would need all the help we could get with coping with Brazil. Although we have met some lovely people in Brazil in general they are not the warmest or most helpful people and the service is worse than Australia and Bolivia which
Salvador - SF
Statue Sao Pedro in Igreja Sao Francisco is really saying something. In saying that we have both warmed to Salvador which has probably been helped by finding a good restaurant which we have discovered is not owned by a Brazilian. Scott is having major issues with travelling in Brazil and has described it as worse than India, so you get the idea that things can be tough, but Salvador has restored his faith…albeit briefly.
At 3.30pm we had a late lunch/dinner at Zulu and then started walking back to our hotel, as we stopped to buy water we saw a large group of police fully decked out with helmets and everything and then heard the sound of drumming and singing. As we stepped out of the shop a parade/protest went past with the women in traditional dress followed by drummers and people with banners, we decided to follow them for a while before turning back – damn having to catch a bus.
Back at the hotel we quickly changed into fresh clothes and ordered a taxi and were soon sitting in heavy traffic on the way to the bus terminal. We still arrived early, 6.10pm and had time to do our favourite thing….sit at bus
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Cherub encrusted pulpit in Igreja Sao Francisco terminals. Just before 7.00pm Scott wandered off to the toilet and the next thing I know he is telling me the departure board has our bus leaving at 6.45pm 15 minutes ago so as you can imagine panic set in as we run to the departure gate and to the platform to discover no it had not arrived yet. Nothing like getting the heart pumping and the legs moving but at least we had not missed the bus, maybe they change the board every now and again to watch the panic on tourists faces? Our bus left on time at 7.30pm for another sleepless night of people up close and too personal.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
THE POWER OF THE CHURCH
Extraordinary pics from Salvador...colours...simple lines...then the "over the top" lavish in the churches...guess its the power of the Church that it can extol the funds into its building funds to do so. When I see such opulence I wonder who ultimately paid for it. Have a great time as you continue on the road to everywhere.