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Published: August 3rd 2006
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Pelourinho at twlight
A Igreja da Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Prêtos, probably the most famou church in Salvador´s famous (and infamous) neighborhood of Pelourinho. To make a long story short, I managed to get robbed within my first hour in Salvador. To make this short story longer, I arrived by bus from Lençóis early Sunday morning, before 6:00 am. I know my way around the city somewhat well since I´ve spent a week there previously so I grabbed a local bus that I knew would get me close to where I was trying to go. The man on the bus pointed me to the street that I needed to take to get to the neighborhood where I was staying. Unfortunately the road was one of the cities famously dangerous ladeiras (steep streets), a place where you would ride a car through but never walk. As soon as I turned onto it, I knew I shouldn´t be there but wasn´t sure what else to do. A few minutes later I looked back to see two guys following me, about 40 yards back.
This low-speed chase went on several minutes as I was trying to walk as fast as I could (without running) to arrive somewhere where someone else mine see me. No such luck, and soon they reached me, asked for my money. I nearly
laughed when they opened my wallet to reveal 10 reais (about $4). They clearly weren´t very smart because one went through my entire wallet, looking in all the compartments, but somehow managed to missed the one with all my credit cards in it. Then, they asked what was in my pack, I told them just a bunch of clothes. I should have said books, because they were still interested in clothes. The problem was that I had a smaller backpack on the top inside my larger pack that contained my passport and digital camera. So, as I opened the flap of my pack, I reached below of the backpack and pulled it up, underneath the flap, as if it were part of it. All they saw were clothes. (Pretty smart, eh?) They ended up making off with a bag of 4 T-shirts despite me telling them that they were dirty. Honestly, the whole episode was more annoying than anything. Then, I discovered later that night that they had also taken a bag with 4 pairs of boxers too. Very annoying.
Needless to say, the spent part of the next day at the mall getting a few new shirts.
Praia do Forte
A beautifully insolated beach about two hours north of Savlador. Very nice way to spend a day. As for the city itself, Salvador is great. It is the single most important cultural center of the country and has a history built on the savagery of the slave trade. Pelourinho (´whipping post´) is the famous historic district where during the day artesans sell their wares to tourist and by night the party gets started, with live music everywhere. One of my favorite parts is all the people selling all types of street food--acarajé (an African fritter filled with beans, okra, shirmp, and more), meat on stick, roasted cheese on a stick, and a wide selection of local drinks. The problem is that there are so many beggars, swindlers, tricksters, and children trynig to selling you things or get your money that it can become very old very quickly. If you spend more than a day there, you´ll see the same people doing the same things to new tourists all over again. I even recognized some from last time I was there two years ago.
Some more people that I recognized were all the Swedish! In Lençóis I made friends with two different groups of Swedes--Camile and Lotta, and Oglof and Frederick. I had hung out with the
Praia da Barra
Salvador´s most famous beach is much more crowded on the other side of this old building. People congregate there every day, and if you´re lucky, you might even see a group of men playing capoeira. girls some in Lençóis because they were staying at my pousada and ran into them again in Pelourinho so were got to catch up some. As for the boys, they had been on the 3-day hike with me in the Chapada. I was sitting on my bed in my room in Salvador on Monday night, when who should walk in but my blonde-haired, happy-go-lucky Swedes. Very funny guys those Swedes.
To escape from the craziness, I took a day trip up to Praia do Forte, a very pleasant beach about 2 hours up the coast. Despite having a number of pousadas there, it is a very quiet, undisturbed beach. Within the last several years an initative was started to help the local sea turtle population, so there´s a small ´zoo´ where you can get up close to all different types of sea turtles and marine life.
As for the job search, I spent a day getting some résumés out to various English schools, and it seems like I have at least one bite. Nevertheless, I got on a bus for Maceió last night (or rather this morning--I missed buying the last ticket for the 10 pm bus by
A look at Barra from Morro de Cristo
A peek through the palms at the chic beachfront neighborhood of Barra 2 minutes, so I had to wait in the bus station overnight for the 6 am bus). I´m not sure what my plans at the moment are, but I´ll probably relax here for a few days and poke around for a job.
Right now though, I just realized that I´ve only had a bottle of Coke and a roll of cookies in the last 24 hours so it´s time to grab some of the good grub that my Lonely Planet has told me all about. Tchau!
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Mav
non-member comment
nucking futs man
who has the balls to rob a guy with a mohawk? oh wait, you're a gnome, i forgot. that's insane though dude, very very nice cover with the passport/camera bag within-a-bag. most people have to practice to be that sexy smooth. or at least buy some lotion or something.