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Salvador de Bahia

 View from our Salvador Hotel

Well, - Salvador couldn’t be more different than Rio.  We have an OK room, with a fabulous view of the bay and the old forts of Salvador. Our stroll down the street yielded us an excellent Swiss restaurant, where the owner insisted we remove our watches, rings and other jewellery.  Apparently a serious crack cocaine problem exists in Salvador, both in the old town and near our hotel. Not a great way to be welcomed to Salvador.

The beach here is fabulous and we are enjoying our days playing in the surf, walking the beachfront, reading spy novels and generally relaxing.  We aren’t in shopping mode so we don’t spend much time in the stores.

Yesterday we visited the Old Town, called Pelhourinho, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Very interesting and, in my opinion, sad history; about five millions slaves came through Salvador over the past hundreds of years.  During the 16th century, slaves came from Angola, 17th century from the Congo and from the 18th century from all over Africa.  We toured some museums which focused on black history and also a black Catholic church. Many of the regular old churches throughout South America were only for white people.

It doesn’t appear that the black people were that interested in the Catholic Church anyway. The Brazilian blacks practice a religion known as Candomble.  Candomble ceremonies are full of movement and music.  Apparently the slaves somehow married their belief based on the worship of the elements with the Catholic Church and so were able to keep their own beliefs and still worship in church.  Good for them.

Have met a couple of foreigners who live here, but not many compared to the other places we’ve visited. Both people didn’t seem that happy to be living and working here because it’s so hard to make a living. The French Canadian woman said she is working 80 hours a week.  Strange that she stays but there you go.

We’ve got one more day to enjoy the beach and then we are off to Recife and Olinda – other old cities along the coast.

Church Sign Main Square in Old Town