Hello from Salvador

Trip Start Sep 06, 2006

Trip End Sep 01, 2007

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Flag of Brazil Salvador, Brazil
Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Salvador is capital of Bahia and also its cultural highlight, the home of the drum. Most of the population are African Brazilians and it still retains its African soul in its music, rhythm, religion, dance and food. Its a huge city but most tourists dont see that much of it because you are herded into one area, Pelourinho, the historic centre which is admittedly completely stunning, full of old colonial architecture, cobbled streets and music where ever you go. However Salvador suffers from severe social and economic problems and thousands of people are homeless, jobless and starving.

Our first encounter with Salvador was with a 10 year old boy who met us at the top of the famous elevator which you catch from the port to the centre. He insisted on being our guide and taking us to our hostel for a number of Reals of course. He was barely 10 years old and and only wore an oversized jumper

Floating meat pie

. When inside our hostel we were warned against giving money to street boys like him for they were `very bad news and are crack heads, can`t you tell, thats whey they have no teeth?` No we couldnt tell. We very quickly realised how we hadnt really come into contact with the serious and desparate side of Brazil on all those beautiful beaches we`d been visiting.

Salvador is full of tourists all set on experiencing its arts, samba, copeira and the mystic of candomble and they go about being followed around by street kids and adolescents begging for money to feed their crack habits. First the tourist will smile say no thankyou, then try and ignore them but these kids are persistent, they`re addicts. Then the tourist will loose their cool, complain about the awful state of Salvador, question why no one helps these addicts and then they leave beautiful Salvador, and I`m afraid to say we weren`t all that different. You can`t walk down a street without someone trying to sell you something 50 times, without being asked for money 50 times or kids asking you for milk. Milk, we learnt, was the worst thing you could give to a kid as there is a great trade that goes on and they can exchange it for crack. We hadnt experienced feelings of guilt until we arrived in Salvador. We wanted to help these kids and bought food,biscuits and sandwiches but then discovered that they had swapped these for crack again. Salvador is truly an amazing place, full of Brazil finest offerings but it is also a very sad place.