Blogs from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, South America - page 17

About a week ago, I managed to find a book with really interesting statistics concerning racism and social inequalities in Brazil, so I wanted to share those with you today. The book is called "Miséria da periferia. Desigualdades raciais e pobreza na metropole do Rio de Janeiro", by André Augusto Brandão (Pallas, 2004). The book looked pretty serious so I assume the statistics are reliable. Firstly, according to the author, about 45% of the Brazilian population is black. Wikipedia (so reliable, obviously) seems to disagree with him, but I think it largely depends on how you define black, as there is a large population whose ethnic characteristics are pretty ambiguous due to interracial marriages. So numbers must be taken with a pinch of salt as I myself am not clear about how he defines black. Nonetheless, ... read more

I must apologise for not having written anything recently, however it is harder when one stops travelling and has a fairly simple routine. However I suppose I can share a few observations and, of course, give some news. Firstly, the latter. I am now in my second week of Portuguese classes, and I am greatly enjoying them. It is challenging but satisfying to be confronted not only with the more basic vocabulary but also with more complex grammatical constructions of the language, which allows me to express myself more fully. I have now been joined in my classroom by Mathias, an extremely friendly Argentinian. Through him I have met many people (and his presence has lowered significantly the cost of the lessons). I think I have now (mostly) come to terms with the Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation, ... read more

Hola people! Day 3 is over soon and a lot has happened. I am on the run at the moment, but heres a short version of the last two days: School is surprisingly intense, good for the part of me that wants to learn portuguese, but hard when you go to bed at 4 and school starts at 8:50. The suns shines everyday and we enjoy the sun on a crowded beach. God bless the inventor of the thong ;) I have danced(tried to) salsa/samba with the locals for several hours. I have never seen a brazilian person laugh that much... Here the whole family goes out together, Kristian and me shaked ass with 3 generations at once(from 14 to 55). I can officially confirm that grannys here know how to shake their booty. I have ... read more

I am very exited about my trip to Brazil. I am gonna spend 17 days down there. I'll be traveling by myself half of the trip. I have been reading for a long time but the more I started to read the blogs the more made me feel like not to read. "The safety" issue is getting a bigger and bigger issue to me. I don't think I'm gonna keep reading the blogs. Excited? Yes! Kinda scared after reading so many getting robbed related blogs? Yes! Kinda annoyed after reading so many "don't do this-don't do that" kinda stuff? Yes! Is it reality of the country? Yes! Do I accept and travel with these facts being understood by myself? Yes! Am I afraid that while I'm gonna try not to be robbed, I won't be able ... read more

Nur ganz schnell wollten wir noch Salvador anschauen. Brasilianische Grossstaedte liegen uns beiden nicht wahnsinnig, Salvador wurde uns aber von verschiedenen Seiten empfohlen. Die Altstadt von Salvador ist definitiv ein Besuch wert. Ueberall Musik, ziemlich bunte Haeuser, jedoch auch ziemlich viele Touristen und Leute, die mit Touristen ihr Geld "verdienen". Leider haben wir mit 1. und 2. Januar nicht die beste Zeit erwischt. Viele Clubs etc hatten geschlossen. Viele Bewohner Salvadors waren ueber die Festtage ausgezogen, was zur Folge hatte, dass es in der Stadt nur noch Touristen und Touristenjaeger hatte. Dies war mit der Zeit aeusserst nervtoetend. Dennoch kamen wir am einen Abend in den Genuss von einem tollen Konzert in den Strassen von Salvador.... read more