Blogs from Bahia, Brazil, South America - page 57

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South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 28th 2006

Having done two nights of crazy carneval, we decided to spend a couple of days in the countryside, relaxing and getting our forces back for the last day of carneval when Fat boy slim would be playing. Chris' family has a lovely house with a beutiful garden not very far from Salvador. It is very close to the beach and there is a swimming pool in the garden. The days in the house were incredibly relaxing and nice. In the meantime my brother Peter and his g-friend Karin also came over all the way from London. We enjoyed two days at the beach with them, one in Praia do Forte and one around the house sunbathing and trying a lot of the local food. Now we are heading back to Salvador to do the last night ... read more

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 24th 2006

Finally - The Carnaval! One of the highlights of my trip was supposed to be the carnaval. Having really high expectations, I was afraid of being disappointed, but the reality more than met my expectations (Except the photos - it is not safe to take a camera to the carnaval, so I used a disposable one only form the Camroche, and the quality is disposable also). One thing that surprised me most was the variety - in each region of Brazil Carnaval is celebrated in a different way, and more than that - in Salvador itself there are 3 regions in which the Carnaval takes place - Barra, Pelorinhio and Campo Grande. The image of the Carnaval many people have from TV - an arrayed parade of people in customs of feathers - is of the ... read more
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Timbalada
Timbalada

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 24th 2006

I did first day of carneval AND I WANT MORE!!!!! Ok, so finally I got to the purpose of my trip - to go and visit Chris in Salvador and attend carneval. Carneval in Salvador is not at all like all the pictures you see from Rio. No, here there are no halfnaked ladies in feather costumes. It is more like a crazy blockparty with bands playing on trucs that slowly go down the streets in the carneval areas. People can choose to buy tshirts from the different bands and follow them in so called blocos. We decided to go there as popcorns yesterday, ie not paying and getting to see all the bands in the streets. It was crazy. Tons and tons of people everywhere. The music was very good and very singalong music, even ... read more

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Morro de São Paulo February 21st 2006

I took a boat to Morro de Sao Paulo - An island which is located in a 2 hours distance from Salvador. From the boat Salvador looked like a really beautiful city (not at all like San Antonio), and it felt to me as if I was leaving all my troubles behind in Salvador. When I arrived, I realized that every image I had about tropical islands, was true in Morro - Magnificent beaches, a little bit of jungle, palm and coconut trees on the beach, beautiful women. Here for the first time I truly understood the meaning of the Spanish word 'tranquello' (there is no good translation, but you can try relax / calm / no problems). I met here allot of interesting people - From Switzerland, Germany, France, Argentina, Spain and even tourists from ... read more
Morro
Beach in Morro
Beach in Morro

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 21st 2006

The Salvador Carnival turned out to be a bigger experience than I expected, a huge party, streets buzzing, dancing, millions of people partying, at times you just couldn't move, everyone was involved and Salvador also lived up to its reputation as a pretty dangerous place. This entry is a long one, but lots of stories to tell......... Carnival is a big event all over Brasil every city, town and village has a parade of some sort, everyone gets involved. The Carnival runs in the days leading upto Lent.....we have Pancake Day they party for a week.......says alot about Brasil and the Brasilian way of life. The two big carnivals are Rio and Salvador. Rio is all about Samba Schools parading the most outrageous colourful processions in the city's Samba Dome. Salvador on the other hand is ... read more
Salvador Carnival
Salvador Carnival
Salvador Carnival

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 21st 2006

It's not been all beaches over the last few weeks, we have done some culture too. Principally colonial remnants from when the Portuguese were in charge here. Salvador is Brazil's biggest party city after Rio and we spent a few days taking in the culture. It's a weird mix of European, African (big slave trade influence) and Brazillian. They were also warming up for Carnival so there were drums and dancing everywhere. It's also one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil so we practiced our big group walking, not taking out anything you can't afford to lose as we ran the gauntlet from our hotel to the area where the tourist police were on every corner. It was only 200 yards, but the stories were quite scary enough. But we survived and have honed our ... read more
The Drums
San Francisco Church
Coconuts for sale

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 20th 2006

I arrived to Salvador, and took a taxi to the hostel. When I told the taxi driver the address, in San Anotnio region, he was a little bit surprised. I asked him if it´s a good hostel, and he said 'more or less'. At this point I started to worry. The neighborhood looked pretty scary to me - some ruined houses, and the hostel itself didn't look to well. But after checking in, I relaxed because the hostel was run by Israelis, and it was like 'Migdal Bavel' over there - people from all around the world - Australian, Canadian, German, British and of course Israelis. It was really interesting to talk with them. Later Rafael (a friend who lives in Salvador, whom I met later in Moro De Sau Paulo), told me that I was ... read more
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South America » Brazil » Bahia » Morro de São Paulo February 14th 2006

Hey everyone! it looks like the internet is too slow to check my travel blog on the ship, so when i have time in port i will check it. A quick update on Brazil: I didn't go to the Capoeira school because at the last minute, 2:00 in the morning, I decided to take a 6 hour bus ride to a place called Lencois for a couple of days with some people i barely knew.- turned out to be amazing! Lencois was beautiful! After the 6 hour hot and sweaty bus ride and several frustrations later, we arrived in Lencois. It's a small town, cobblestown streets. a river running through the town, though not very fast. A local took 5 of us to the local swimming hole and the next day we hiked for about 4 ... read more

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 13th 2006

Well unfortunately we were not able to get a cheap flight from Campo Grande to Salvador, and instead opted for 50 hours of buses. The first two, although long, went relatively well, especially since the one from Campo Grande to Brasilia I had no one sitting beside me. The last bus ride, however, from Brasilia to Salvador, was 24 hours of crap. Neither Jord nor I could manage to sleep between the crying babies, the psycho lady that I was sitting beside, and teh bus driver driving through corn fields. For the price of the rides you would think there would be a movie, but alas there was not even that to keep me occupied. I have now read 4 chapters of Harry Potter, and for the most part I understand what the hell is going ... read more
Some river
Carlos and the Croc
Ant eater

South America » Brazil » Bahia » Salvador February 6th 2006

BRAZIL!!! Wow, I had the greatest time in Salvador. Before we arrived they briefed us on all the dangers that we could encounter and overly did it in my opinion. I had no trouble but there were definitely some scary moments… (more of that later). In the upper part of the city the architecture was amazing but all of it was really run down. Most of the people on the ship did SAS trips to the Amazon or Rio. Not that many people stayed in Salvador. For the most part I spent my time with my two friends Whitney and Mario. Mario was a lifesaver because he speaks Spanish and he was able to communicate with everyone for the most part even though they speak Portuguese here. I don’t know what I would have done without ... read more




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