Sounds of Salvador de Bahia
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2007
1
27
31
Trip End
Dec 23, 2007
Salvador, Brazil
Saturday, December 15, 2007
We arrived in Salvador de Bahia very early this morning - we always sleep with our balcony door open and since we are on the Port side - we don't receive sun until the afternoon - so when the blinding sun woke us up at about 6 a.m. (Sunrise is at 4:50 a.m.) we were curious as to why that was. We were heading into the Baia de Todos os Santos - Bay of Saints and we had turned around to reach the Port in Salvador. This city of over 2 million people has about a 70% Afro-Brazilian population and the sounds of drums and music is everywhere. We started out in the lower city and walked through the main Market and made our way to the Lacerda Elevator for a speedy 236 foot vertical climb to the upper city. For .05 Reais - or about 2 ½ cents per person we rode up this elevator that dates back to 1872. We then made our way through the streets of this city that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site - there were many churches - of which most were closed and one had a large tour group there and I never made it back to take photos at a later point. One square had a church on each side - all were very nice from the outside and San Francisco is the preferred Saint in this town with San Antonio coming in a close second.
It was very hot today - not quite as humid as Recife was - but the sun was definitely strong and while Jim ran from one shade zone to the next - I ducked in and out of craft shops and small art galleries.
You will see one photo of Jim surrounded by three Salvadorian Beauties - and they would not leave us alone - they wanted to have a photo taken - they were pulling on Jim, etc - so I figured - it would be a good photo to show everyone and I would give them each two Reais or one US dollar - well then they were trying to take the camera and wanted to take a photo of me and Jim - but I refused - remember I only like to take the photos - not star in them....and then I was getting my money out and they then told me that they wanted 10 Reais a piece!!! Or 5 dollars. (Actually the conversion is 1.78 to the $ - but we kind of do the 2 to 1 ratio which beats the Euro - so it seems like a great deal) Well they were not happy - so I told them that I would delete the photo - and so I deleted a couple of them - but must have missed one - oh well....now you all know who the extortionists are! I think they were going to hold the camera ransom - unbelievable! That was about the only annoyance other than the scorching sun. We found some interesting items such as a ring of silver symbols/charms that were given to slaves when they did good work - after accumulating enough of these charms they could buy their freedom- we walked on some crazy cobblestone streets - and enjoyed the architecture in Salvador de Bahia.
Comments
Extortionists
Good thing you are smart enough to not let them have the camera. Probably you would be without a camera and we would be without photos.
Mom
Good move.
Very interesting. I think you may not have gotten your monies worth on those three. Terry