Holiday Inn Salvador

aahh yes. Salvador de Bahia. i arrived here on wednesday from fortaleza after a 24 hour bus ride. and to be honest that bus was probably the best bus i have ever been on. no one on board, comfy bed seats, and most of all..it was fast! hahah

anyway i arrived here to pelourinho, which is the historical part of town,and even though it is super touristy it is absolutely beautiful. so much history here, and especially a lot ...

... just a day at the beach. We've met some cool friends at this hostel, so Lareina, me, 2 friends we've met here, and the husband of the couple that own this hostel all set out in the morning, and grabbed a 2 hour bus, and a 2 minute motor-cycle taxi, to a place called Imbassai(eem-ba-psi-ee). It's a little beach village, built around the mouth of this river, as it exits in to the Atlantic. The beach is kind of a stretched out hill, with the river on one side, and ...

... which is a whopping 15 quid for effectively a shity piece of ribbon. Then a knife is pulled out, the British guy hands over 20 reials but the local is still demanding 50. At this point we see a hotel across the road, which we head for speedily. The local then scarpers. The Peloriniho is suppose to be the safest place in the city, the Lonely Planet says "Tourists are protected like an endangered species in the Peloriniho" and we've been mugged within 5 minutes of leaving the hostel ...

... detail but basically we both had our cards copied and accounts ´rinsed´of about 3,000 pounds between the two of us. Sorry for the blubbery call dad, should probably have composed myself first! When Ash first came in and told me her account had been hacked into I remained hopeful and did not consider that mine had also been.............!!! Since the event we often play a game of ´What would you rather ...

... trouble. Men whistle at me, tell me I[m beautiful, gorgeous, delicious, as I pass. If I sit for a bit they really want to strike up a conversation, hand me their numbers and ask me if they can show me around. Its really funny. I just laugh tell them they are really smooth, take their numbers, flirt a little and move on. If there are other people around we joke about them wanting my visa and everyone smiles and laughs. After that the guys realise I'm not in it ...

... Salvador was 2 hours and uneventful apart from getting snack service. yay! Upon arrival in Salvador we caught a bus to the Barra district of Salvador. The bus was pretty slow but the first thing we noticed was that there is a turnstile you have to go through to get to the seats. Luckily the driver was used to people´s large bags so he put them in the front so we didn´t have to take them through the turnstile. About an hr and a half ...

... entrée en transe totalement contrôlée et encadrée. Pourtant Oxumaré est plus présent, ou en avance au rendez-vous des divinités sur Terre ce soir. La danseuse se courbe. Dos plat horizontal. Jambes droites. Mains sur les genoux. Tête renversée. Yeux révulsés fébrilement agités par une autre présence... Soudainement, les épaules sont agitées de soubresauts, la bouche émet des gloussements de poule, comme pour expluser quelquechose. Corps pris de convulsions ...

... the ride, but he eventually ended up in the back with the rest of us gringos. I told some more of Dad's stories since the girls hadn't heard them (the chicken soup, the sunscreen at Atlantis, and driving from the back seat) and Will can't hear them enough. This brings me to our last day in Salvador. We wanted to do a little more shopping, mainly for Havaiana Flip Flops which are made in Brazil and are really cheap here. I bought two pairs, Will ...

... so under-dressed in my shorts and flip flops that I just felt so out of place and I left! I felt much more comfortable drinking water from the green coconuts on the street with the locals! On Friday night in Lapa, where I was staying, it is party central and everybody comes out, but again it was just to pester you and sell things, everybody was trying to sell you some sort of food or sweets or drinks! The whole central strip was over run in little home made stalls ...

... a nice sunset it was time to pay the bill and go. Chicken and fish cleared us out money. Which meant that we did not have any money for the bus left. Luckily T had his card with him, but still took an hour to find a cash machine that worked. Finally found one and then we had to find the nearest bus stop to take us back. Luckily the bus system in Brasil is good and the people are friendly, so within no time we w**e on our way back. Next day it was capoeira day ...