Salvador

Hey everyone,
After Pipa we bussed north to Natal, spent a night and then flew the next day down to Salvador. Salvador is known for being a centre for Afro-Brazilian culture, with beautiful beaches, surfing, a really rich Historic Centre, and some dang good food! We actually tried Couchsurfing for the first time here, and it was a great experience. Our hosts, Clarissa and Tiago, took us around the first night showing us the local food, and we sampled all sorts of yummy things. We had acarajé, which is black eyed peas that have been ground up and moulded into a ball, stuffed with shrimp, veggies and a yellow sauce.








































































Making tapioca
























The house of Yemanja, one of the Candomblé deities. Candomblé is a religion that was founded here in Salvador, influenced by the religions brought to the area by the African slaves when they were brought here to work on sugar cane plantations. It has also absorbed elements of Roman Catholicism and indigenous American beliefs. They have many different deities, but Yemanjá is particularly interesting. She is honoured by a festival on February 2nd of each year where people bring offerings to this house, and a human woman (who is thought to contain the spirit of Yemanjá), enters the ocean and stays under the water for 5 minutes! She is the deity of the water, and is thought to protect women, to cure infertility, protect children, and those giving birth, among other things.


























Salvador by night





















Chopping up a green coconut by machete





















Drinking coco gelado (cold coconut)










































Piña, a fruit that looked like a dinosaur egg

The next day we pounded the pavement all over Salvador to check out the sights























































Women in traditional Baiana dress


















This huge elevator connects the upper and lower city, so you don't have to climb all the stairs every time you need to get from one to the other. Not a bad view either!


















Capoeira- a Brazilian combination of martial arts and dancing


















Igreja de São Domingos




































Streets of Salvador

The next church we went to was the Igreja e Convento de São Francisco. It took a number of years to complete, but the foundation stone was laid in 1708. To say it was the most beautiful church we have seen so far doesn't begin to describe how awesome it was. The inside was absolutely full of baroque wood carvings, covered in gold.





































































































































































The cloister had hand painted tiles imported from Portugal, with various Latin sayings and a depiction below. This one said "quis diues, qui nil cupit," which translates to "who is rich? He who desires nothing."

















































A fun little side room in the church with old stamps and currency.













"Terreiro de Jesus" one of the main squares in the Pelourinho











Igreja da Ordem Terceira Secular de São Francisco de Bahia. This sandstone facade is the only one of its kind in Brazil.





































An ossuary, which is a room into which the remains of people are placed. You can see the individual cubicles all along both walls.



























Next was the Afro-Brasiliero museum, where we learned about the history of the African slaves brought to the area, and how they brought their culture and religion with them to this area.









Wood carvings of the Orishas, or deities of Candomblé. Jared is pretending to be very hard done by, but really he's glad we saw so many churches and museums today.









It's Yemanjá!



We took a wrong bus, and we wasted over an hour on that saga, but luckily made it Barra in time to catch the sunset. And get some fried cheese!



















Walking back along what will be the parade route for Carnival. The "trio elétricos" will have a band playing on top, and the music will be pumping! Picture a semi truck with a flat deck but the platform has been built up to raise the musicians high above the crowds. Then some massive speakers blast the music and they parade down the street like that. And there are a bunch of different bands so a new trio is always close-by, from 5 pm to 5 am!!
























These pictures were actually taken on the first night of Carnival in Salvador (on our way back from Chapada Diamantina), and the place was packed! You really couldn't move around at all, each trip would be followed by another, and people were parting everywhere. It was crazy!





Yup, that's a condom.

Until Next Time!