Solar Do Carmo Hotel Salvador

... up, saw what was going on, and took out some money and gave it to the driver so he could shut up and give me the bag. the lady saw i was desperate, and i was. it was wild. and what a crazy way to end my 3 month adventure in south america. but that is what its all about, and that is why we do what we do and see the world, and experience all kinds of situations. <br><br>this trip was an amazing experience. did a lot of learning. always learning. learning about myself ...

As usual, I'm writing this after being here for half a week. We're are in Salvador, now. We started by wandering around the town, and seeing the sites. We are staying in the area known as Pelourihno, which is the original city, built in the 16th century. Most of the buildings are turn of the 20th century Spanish, it's pretty cool. The entire area is built of cobbled roads that are all lined with tiny shops and restaurants. It's rather touristy, but for good reason ...

... historic centre of Salvador, to reach it you take this column elevator 50 metres up to the old town ! We had a great time that evening just sitting listening to the music, there was a group of Japanese carnival  performers playing drums , however the funiest thing that happened that evening  was when Edesio leaned back and fell right back off his chair in the middle of the plaza! Unfortunately we have no photos of the carnival, looks like we will have to go back again one day! 

... with lots of offers for this and that and plenty calls of Amigo, amigo...!! With the darkness upon us and directions to Hostel Open house a little sketchy, it was an interesting start. On arrival at the Hostel, it was a very creative, warm, friendly vibe, Alex was a top welcomer and with talk of his directing feature lengths, the hopes were rising fast....and then musicals, biblical stories set to ...

... shame!! We went out last night and explored the streets with 2 aussie guys and a girl who are travelling round together and listened to drumming in the streets and watched all the women dance along samba style. Salvador you have to have your wits about you and some areas are no-gos. But there are police on most streets and as long as you're sensible you should be fine. We are now also carrying our money in our underwear ...

... in the church complex was a mannequin with what seemed to be a cilice belt (you know, the one Silas wears in the Da Vinci code). Pretty freaky! Our next stop was the Afro-Brazilian museum which traced the arrival of Africans in Brazil and showed their cultural influence. It was really interesting to see maps which gave a breakdown of the different colonies in Africa and the slave routes around the world. There were excellent ...

... des battements de tambours plus répétitifs les uns que les autres... Le 'pai' confie un plat de nourriture à chaque « EBEKE » qui se dirige vers le bas de l'escalier d'entrée et jette le contenu des plats sur le sol, en offrande à EXU pour qu'il protège la cérémonie de ce soir. L'assemblée est sereine. Les Orixas peuvent être appelés l'un après l'autre par des chants qui leur sont dédiés. Ils ne vont pas venir ' dans l'ordre' pourtant...ils vont ...

... to give us rides to the "beautiful beaches" and they just kept yelling at the group of us in Portuguese and all we knew how to say was "Nao Obrigado" which means no thank you. We ran onto the beach to get away, which was filled with the locals and they all loved to sit and stare at the gringos. All in all we found a place and sat on the beach for about two hours, the water was like a bathtub, there was trash in it, and it smelled bad. Total waste of ...

... kids who had raided there parents alcohol cupboard, selling it on to the tourists, offering to make all sorts of lethal concoctions! I had a local drink called Caiprinha, local firewater, fresh limes and a teeth crumbling amount of sugar! This drink cost me about 0,90 cent and I was very tipsy after one! Bargain! After staring at the transvestites who were selling their "wares" on the street wearing bikinis that didn´t hid the fact that they were pre-op I had to call it ...

... 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.