Tropical Da Bahia 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<br><br>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 ...

... there without really coming together. It was time to leave Salvador under a little cloud that was lifted with Sunday late afternoon beach visit in Barra. This was different gear. Favella boys singing loud and proud with pop can~s, sticks and Skol as their accompaniment, lovely funky, friendly people all around, beautiful water and silhouettes of harbour divers...so it was a cool Ciao to Salvador in the end..!!

... patience and sincere attempts to help me out. Also I[ve really desired to meet Mestre King and train with him (basically the teacher of all teachers here, pretty much) and have been given leads and people have called his sons for me to get his latest wearabouts. Its really cool. Yesterday my host (the receptionist at my hostel) invited me to come to an Axe lesson with the lead choreographer for Ivete Sangalo. It was super fun and Marcele was very kind to ...

... Angola and was brought by the slaves to Brazil. This martial art was originally disguised by the slaves as a form of dance when really they were practicing their martial art. Today you could certainly mistake it for a dance routine with the accompanying music. The main instrument played during capoeira is a berimbau. Unfortunately we could not take any photos :( After the great performance, we headed off for dinner then went back to Barra.

... me plus fluides. La femme n'est plus vraiment là. Le 'pouvoir de la tête' de l'Orixa a pris le dessus. Quelques tours de piste et Oxumaré sort du cercle. Elle s'affale de tout son long au centr, embrasse le cercle central, se tourne sur son flanc gauche, sur son flanc droit. Elle se relève. Se dirige vers le 'pai' assis sur un trône au fond de la salle. Fait de même à ses pieds. Les paupières mi-closes où seul le blanc transparaît... Les yeux révulsés ...

... mode of transportation... the omnibus! Much more affordable than taking a cab. Will, Lindsay, Lindsay, Brittany and I hopped on a bus right across from the ship and for R$1.80 took about a half hour bus ride to another beach, which turned out to be much nicer than the one we went to the day before. Again we were hassled by the locals, trying to get us to come into their restaurants, but we managed to sneak by them all down to a more secluded area of ...

... selling you things and it is not a very safe place, I am never at ease when I leave the hostel! However, I was very happy to stay here for quite a while to get to know the place, as it is known as the cultural heart of Brazil and I really like it here. Well, that was till last night! Myself and Karen got off the bus and stood on the footpath by the bus for a few seconds and I was mugged! He was too quick for me to see if he was a kid or what! He crouched down, pulled a ...

... up in the local shopping street, which was the real Salvador life. They sold ev**ything from clothes to TV's and furniture to baby chickens. We walked back up to Pelourinho (by this time it was dark) and sat on the t**race next to the drum mak** - making drums for the evening parade. Found a party on the steps down from the church and went to the Largo again for some caiparinha w**e we met a guy from France (who lived in Tilburg, Holland) and Greece. I cannot ...