Salvador, Bahia, BRAZIL

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil Part I

We will have 5 days in Salvador, the third largest city in Brazil at about 3 million, and also the most African, with about 85% Afro-Brazilians. The predominant language is Portuguese, which luckily has some similarities to Spanish, but most of the time I have no idea what comes out of my mouth. I have no language acuity so it’s a big jumble. Why would I think “Merci” is going to work in a Portuguese country?

Of course, we are here for the entirety of Carnaval. That is good and bad. It’s good if Carnaval is your thing! Lots of students and staff have enjoyed various incarnations of the celebration (more on that later). The drawbacks are that many things are closed for most of the week, including some of the notable churches. Plus, we got some heavy-duty safety admonitions: walk in groups, preferably three; take off your watch; spread your money around in several pockets; put your credit cards in your shoes; don’t flash cameras or camcorders; don’t eat street food, no tap water; don’t go to many areas after dark; if you are robbed, give it up – your safety is worth more than your stuff.

Well!! Welcome to Brazil. As you may have gathered, street crime is a big issue, especially at this time. But I have not felt particularly unsafe, even as I violated one or two of the directives. That’s not to say that there haven’t been problems – some staff have had attempted pickpocketings, at least 2 incidents (confirmed) of students being robbed in various ways, and I feel I will hear more once everyone is back on ship. The commonality for that seems to be attendance at the later and more heavy-duty Carnaval events. And as you may imagine, that does not tend to describe me.

My first trip was a “Historical Walking Tour of Old Salvador.” That area is known as the Pelheurino (sp?) and is characterized by a couple of squares dominated by churches (4, in one case!) and linked by somewhat decrepit narrow cobblestone streets. There is probably a 4-block financial district next to the bay and the port which backs into a sheer 50-60 foot cliff. The old town is in the upper portion, accessed by an incline and an elevator complex. Oh, the masses of humanity going from one area to another!

The upper portion definitely has its charm, but a walking tour during Carnaval becomes a tour OF Carnaval. While we lost out on some of the “history” like the churches, we got a chance to see a more traditional Carnaval celebration on a neighborhood level. This was even more pronounced at night when I went back for dinner, and I’ll leave that for part II.

{A note on some tech challenges I face, other than my own: tonight I was unable to connect to the wireless network, which I have done before. So updating will be more of a process, and no pictures will be forthcoming as I was going to follow Gretchyn’s advice and load a program, etc. I’m hurrying to do a lot during port while computer use is down, otherwise the network slows to a crawl, literally making dialup look speedy. Plus I have a finite number of minutes to use, after which I must purchase them at something like a quarter a minute. So forgive some of the lag time and other drawbacks. If nothing else, I will do internet and physical photo albums when I return!} Good night!