Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. 13-17 de Enero

Enter Brazil - The final leg of our journey! 

After rather a long and arduous flight south from Colombia - 20 hours and 3 countries we arrived to Salvador de Bahia on Brazils north-east coast. We swear the long-haul buses are less tiring than flying!

Over the next month we will make our way south/west along the Brazilian coast, eventually finishing up the journey in Buenos Aires.

Brazil brings pearly beaches, jandals, 3-tier bunks, cake for breakfast, afro's, braids and butt-floss bikinis! Now I know what you´re thinking and NO, not all body beautiful! 100kg and all ages are sporting the string bottom bikini,
.............and FLAUNTING it!

Very reluctantly Matt and I put the Spanish aside for a month and began speaking what we like to call 'Spanglagese'. We had heard it was similar to spanish - however not so easy for those non-fluent Spanish speakers. Lucky for us every other tourist in Salvador is Argentinian so we leapt at the chance to keep up our Spanish momentum! 

Sadly Salvador is where our little camera gave up the go! The following day we very unhappily discovered my SLR had joined the party when the lens began to sound somewhat like a tractor! Not happy but we will truck on with what we've got! 1 month more.............



Igreja do Santissimo Sacramento do Passo



Pelourinho surrounds

Salvador was incredible and again re-organised our list of favourite cities - with Rio to follow it´ll likely happen again next week. Being the indigenous capital of Brazil, Salvador is apparently the most 'Brazilian city' where you experience the best local culture. Hearing this on day one, we were pretty excited to get out and about to check it out.

As we had 5 days we opted to stay in 2 different locations. The historical suburb of Pelourinho and the seaside suburb of Barra. 

Pelourinho

First day in Salvador and we struck their pre-carnival carnival Lavagem do Bonfim.... on the 2nd Thursday of every January they clean their major church, have a holiday and party in it's honour.
After sleeping-in we heard we´d missed all the action but while out touristing about, we stumbled on a huge street party (more than 3km long) and joined in the festivities. Fair to say we didn´t see any more of the city after finding this!! We had a great time tearing into all the local beers amongst the Brazilians.

It seemed as though we were the only tourists game to venture away from the tourist hub of Pelourinho to party, so it felt all the more authentic!

Matt learning some Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian dance/art form.
Its derived from a combination of martial arts, dance, sport and music.

Ascensor from Pelourinho down to the waterfront.






It was all too tough for this old fella.....

So after the carnival Lavagem do Bonfim we had one day left to wander about all the colonial architecture (there goes that word again) in Pelourinho. Plus it was packed with markets, plaza's, food and music. We loved it!!


Praia do Porto - Precisely as we imagined a Brazilian beach would be.
The locals beach on a Sunday avo, which we attempted
but there wasn´t even room to lie flat!

Barra is a gorgeous seaside suburb that is hugely popular for tourists and the locals alike. Here, Matt and I had our first taste of what it was like to be at the beach with an 'ozone layer' and lapped up 3 perfect days of sunshine amongst the stifling humidity and heat.
Being at the beach we could finally get back into some running and explored the coastline either side of the main street. Otherwise we just relaxed and took it all in............

Salvador was where the hunt for Matt's new bathers began......when in Rome!!
Waited for ages for the girl behind to lie down but she kept fluffing about with her oil
............so lads, here's one of the better g-string sportings.

Brollymania!!!



 


Barra point lighthouse

You can purchase anything you could possibly dream of on these beaches.



Funky Salvadorian phone booths.

Salvador is apparently the most dangerous city in Brazil but we can honestly say we didn't see anything of this. Definitely a city to put on your itinery in Brazil!

To spare a 1700km bus trip we were lucky enough to get seats on a fairly decent flight from Salvador to Rio De Janiero. Sadly we would've loved have had a few more days to explore Salvadors nearby national park and islands but Rio awaits......