Salvador, Brazil
Trip Start
Dec 08, 2007
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Trip End
Aug 14, 2008
Salvador,
Brazil
Thursday, January 17, 2008
It is a beautiful city, I was really looking forward to going and we really loved it. We stayed in a nice hostel at a place called Barra just outside the city by the beach. Although we were only there for a few days we managed to see lots of Salvador. 80% of the population of Salvador are of Black African origin, which sadly is due to the horrific history of slavery here. This is reflected in the music, food and culture of the city and it feels very rich and vibrant.
We met up with one of my work colleagues from London who now lives in Salvador
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. As it is almost Carnival there are gigs and practice events happening all the time and she took us to an afro-brazilian gig with her friends, which had several well known local artists playing and it was a brilliant night, everyone is already really in Carnival spirit. I donīt think we could hack it for a whole week! On the way there we found an all women african drumming band practicing in the streets for Carnival. There are very few all women bands in Salvador so we were lucky! They were really fantastic and their drumming and dancing was so energetic and infectious.
We had a day of sight seeing and went to Salvador cathedral, the afro-brazilian museum and archeological museum. Salvador is built on two levels the upper old city and the lower newer city and they are connected by a lift and a cable car so we had a go on both of them. 1p each a go! We also saw an all children drumming band practicing in the streets as well and they were amazing, some must only have been 6 or 7. (see photo)
We found a really nice restaurant and had two typical Bahian fish stews which were absolutely delicious - we nearly ordered it all again! Then we went to a free gig on these huge church steps where Geronimo - who we had also seen the night before, bit of a local hero, was playing again.
We also went across on the ferry to Itaparica island to spend a few hours on the beach before we had to catch the next overnight bus and underestimated the hot Brasilian summer sun and got some bad sun burn! Brits abroad!
