Mercure Salvador

... a Skype place and called Luana, who had mussed her flight to Salvador, so I was free for the evening after all. We found a taxi to Pelourinho and after a brief row with the driver over the fare, which we solved by mutely handing him an amount of money halfway between what had been agreed at the start of the ride and the much higher amount he then started asking for, we got out at the bottom of the elevator and were whisked up into Pelourinho, emerging from the lift to ...

... me up to dance with him. We did a small roda and got a big round of applause from the ever growing audience. Dors tells me my pink recorder boyfriend tried to cut in a few times, but accepted that I could dance with others... Just before we left he presented me with ´´a presente do amor´ a present of love, a roll of toilet paper. And I accepted it as if it were a diamond ring, with much pagentry and ceremony. I placed it beside me. Others sitting near us joined ...

... down here and the reason why I dont think I am going to miss this place too much. The fact that they try to rob you almost every night you go out (3 out of 4) makes you thing. It is true that they were quite amateur tries ...

... First stop was Morro de Sao Paolo. Which we were hoping to use as a transfer point to get to a more undiscovered spot named Boipeba. Although we had done a fair amount of research on the web and Lonely Planet it was still unclear what was exactly was involved in getting to our final destination. It turns out for us that getting there meant being in Morro do Sao Paolo at 9 am in the morning ...

... waterfall picture came from and it was just to the right of the waterfall that we ran the boat under. After hiking for quite awhile we got to an area to break for lunch and we had.... Brazilian barbecue. I didn't know it at the time but this was going to be a reoccurring theme for the entire trip because the bbq's were conveniently stationed along all the tourist areas we were and left little else to eat. They are expensive, but they are worth it. After lunch we took ...

... ride for the 30km journey for R25 (about A$17), after some canny bargaining. (He started at R50!) My Hostel is quite cute, with a gorgeous breakfast balcony, but is a bit pricy R27. Walked around a local market in an extremely dodgy part of twon, and got some very strange looks from the locals who seemed to see a gringo here at dusk. Had a couple of beers and people watched. 70% of the people in Salvador are ...

... br><br> <br><br> <br><br>...and some interesting statues and other points of interest which represented either the African or religious influences which have shaped this area over the years.<br><br><br><br>There were lots of well-preserved old churches to see and after gaining UNESCO funding they're doing a good job of restoring anything in disrepair and ...

... summer! Apparently I have weak ankles? So that was a little painful, but the next day I was already going to the doctor to get my sea egg checked out so I got an ace bandage there and hobbled around that day. My sea egg is pretty much healed now, yay! The second to last day Kelsey and I went on a Semester at Sea sponsored program to the favela (what they call a slum) Calabar Community which is one of the slums that has organized and is working together to better their ...

... revolting but was absolutely delicious. Yes, I ate raw fish in a less-developed nation and it was delicious, the restaurant was pretty legit though so I'm not too worried. So that was the appetizer. Then came the main course(s). The way the main course works is that there are waiters who walk around with huge slabs of mean on swords and a machete in the other hand to cut it onto your plate. There were also waiters walking around with side dishes. So, I ate the ...

... tion*l *rtists *nd shop people served 6000 d*ncing *liens from *ll over Br*zil *s well *s *ll over the world. There were less visitors this ye*r in comp*rison to l*st ye*r *s Org*nizer Alok s*id. The re*son is th*t the org*nizers Alok *nd Sw*rup w*nt to st*y *w*y from *ny commerci*liz*tion. The didn't *llow b*nners *nd posters of loc*l or intern*tion*l comp*nies. Other non-tr*nce-festiv*ls spre*d 10000s of flyers *ll over Br*zil *nd *ttr*cted more p*rts of the ...