Samba baby!!!
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Salvador,
Brazil
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Our aim was to get to Salvador for a Tuesday night as everyone we'd met had raved about how good it was so after a quick brekkie the next morning, we jumped in a taxi to the bus station and boarded the 12:30 bus to Salvador (another 26 hour classic!). The service stepped up a level this time though as we were given snacks, a pillow and a blanket! WOW! The scenery was really pretty following the coast up to Salvador...hilly, lots of little villages, lakes & rivers! Awwww!
We arrived mid afternoon the next day and it was hot, hot, hot! After a while chatting to a very friendly local trying to work out where to get the bus into town, we crossed a manic, manic bridge where people were selling everything, over to one of Salvador's biggest shopping centres and managed to find a minibus to take us where we needed to go! This was a genius find in the end as it took us all along the coastline, past ancient forts until we finally arrived in the old town. I was in hysterics watching Paul try and get off the bus as it had an inconvenient turnstile we had to get through right at the front...thought he was going to fall flat on his face at one point but hey I shouldn't complain as he was carrying my rucksack as well! :0) Our hostel had great views over one of the main squares so we settled down for a few beers watching the world go by!
Well the town certainly does come alive on a Tuesday...there are people everywhere and so much to see & do. We spent a few minutes watching break-dancers doing their thing...I wanted Paul to show off with some moves of his own after hogging the dance floor at the wedding but he didn't want to show them up and then it was onto the main square where there was live music blaring out and food stalls everywhere! We headed through the cobbled streets to try and find the drummers...you can hear their beats wherever you're standing; it's just a case of finding them! We found them in no time and joined the locals following them down the streets boogying on behind....how cool would it be if this sort of thing happened in Northampton every Tuesday night! Hmmmmm chances???? We ended up finding a very cool bar crammed with locals who took to the middle of the bar every now and again for a quick boogy, grabbed some food and then headed back to the main square to try and work out how Brazilians can shake their bums so well and we can't! It just looks so natural to them! What a cool atmosphere...we just stood there drinking beer & caiparinha's listening to samba watching Salvador strut its stuff!!!
The next morning we enjoyed brekkie on the balcony and then it was out to explore the sights! We headed down to a great viewpoint overlooking the sea and came face to face with a tiny little monkey in the bushes just next to us. I immediately got paranoid that it was rabid and was going to bite us so we swiftly moved on! Hee Hee! Salvador has a similar to set-up to Monaco in some respects as the town itself is built up into the hills so there are lifts that you can take from sea-level up to the old town which means not as many steep hills to climb! Sounds like a good idea to lazy old me! It's also got lots of nice boats bobbing up and down in the sparkly blue sea and a stunning coastline which we're presuming carries on this way all the way up the country. We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets - admiring the colourful houses, quaint cobbled roads, old churches and the vibrant people that seem to be everywhere! We stopped for a while in a bar we'd found the night before and all the locals were samba-ing away in the middle of the day, drinking the afternoon away! We could get so used to a lifestyle like this where having fun and dancing is not just something you do on a weekend! It's such a good city for people-watching. I was especially fascinated with some of the female tourists who insist in having their hair dreadlocked...most of the time it just looks soooo bad but maybe that's just me getting old! Think you would have to be mega pretty and brown to get away with it though! Think we'll leave that one to the Brazilians!
The rest of the time in Salvador was spent trying to decide on our plan for the remainder of the time in Brazil! We'd just begun to realise just how big it really is! MASSIVE! GINORMOUS! HUGE!
With a kind of rough plan in place, we had our last morning in Salvador relaxing and trying to explain to a beggar that the watch that Paul was wearing really was cheap!!!!! And then jumped on the bus back along the coastline to the bus station via the huge shopping centre for a quick Bob's Icecream! Thanks Bob! And on the overnight bus to Recife and our next stop...the quaint little seaside town of Olinda...
