Relaxing on Itaparica Island, Tue 4th March

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  Salvador, Brazil
Sunday, March 9, 2008

After we enjoyed a lovely breakfast of fresh bread, cheese, ham, cake, fruit and juice, while sitting at the table on the patio outside our room, we checked out and strolled across the road to the beach. The sun was blistering today and after five minutes in the sun, I felt fried! All I could do was cool off in the sea but even the water was like a luke warm bath! I resorted to sitting in the shade under a palm tree and later, a breeze started up. It was so peaceful and relaxing, very different to the buzz of Ipanema beach but I enjoyed the peace and quiet.
We went to the pousada to collect our bags and the woman offered to take us to Mar Grande as a taxi service to catch our ferry back to Salvador. We were grateful of the offer as it saved us trying to flag a Kombi down. She explained that Mar Grande is better for us as the ferries are fast and they stop at Mercado Modelo, right next to the Elevator Lacerda, which takes you up to Pelourinho, the historic town centre. The other port, Sao Joaquim, is only good if you are taking a car across.
We arrived back in Pelourinho and experienced the novel art deco elevator up into the centre and got a bus, which we thought would take us to our last hotel, where we'd left our backpacks. But it went all over the place, with no sign of our hotel, until we ended up close to where we'd started! To avoid wasting any more time, we got into a cab. The cab driver, thinking we were naive tourists, tried to rip us off by putting 2 on the meter. Taxis should only use 2 after 9pm, when the fare increases by 20%, but it was 6pm and should have been on 1. I told him to change it to 1 - I wasn't as dumb as he thought!
When we finally checked into our hostel, in the centre of Pelourinho, I was pleasantly surprised. Spacious, clean, with our own modern bathroom and french doors, which open onto the cobbled street, this seemed more than your average hostel.  It has a trendy cafe and creperie, internet, a chill out area with hammocks and the location is perfect, set on a corner of a cobbled street, in the midst of the lively atmosphere. You can hear the sounds of music wafting through the doors. Outside, the little streets are filled with art galleries and paintings are displayed outside on the streets.
We dined at a nearby Italian restaurant, which the woman at Nel Blue pousada recommended to us. Being Italian herself, we knew that it must be good. Mike had steak and I had shrimp pasta and we shared a nice bottle of wine - it was delicious.
With music and singing on every corner, we went to find somewhere to sit and enjoy it. We ended up in an African bar/club, which had a live band playing. As soon as we walked in, it had a great vibe. Everyone was dancing happily. The dancing resembled salsa - maybe it was. We sat on the side of the dancefloor, mesmerised by the impressive dancers on the floor, thinking 'I wish I could dance like that!' I felt like Baby from Dirty Dancing, when she carried the watermelon through that club! Mike pulled me up onto the dancefloor and tried to teach me a few moves but I was hopeless! I had fun trying though!

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