So much has happened since the last post! Salvador is a great place for constant music and cultural goings on in the street. Veronica and I have actually spent most of our days roaming around the Pelourinho and its pretty streets with painted houses. On one funny day, we stopped by a street vendor's to have lunch. Lunch consisted of a small ham sandwich, and I picked up the red sauce to give it some more taste. I started laying it on until suddenly I heard Veronica say: "Emma, that's the chili sauce." Damn it! I have just doused my sandwich in chili sauce that I can't take and I am starving. So I try and wipe some of it off the top, and proceed to eat it. And I stand there in the street, my nose running, tears coming out of my eyes, laughing as well at how stupid the situation is. So now I check twice before picking up the sauce bottle! Anyway, we have spent ages running around trying to buy souvenirs for everyone back home and also for ourselves of course. By the end of it, I was almost sick of it! Still, it is always beautiful to look at, and like I said one always happens upon one band or another rehearsing in the street. Several times we happened upon Olodum playing in the street and it is funny how few people it takes to make quite a large amount of noise, so you start by thinking there is a huge band playing in the street and then it turns out to be no more than 10 people! Once, we even saw a band of Olodum children rehearsing: they were so sweet, and were playing really well.
On Tuesday night, we decided to go and experience what the guide book describes as more or less "mad Tuesdays",the Terça du Bençao. It is a part religious part pagan ceremony, and all the crowds take to the streets with free music and live bands playing all around the Pelourinho. We reached our first stop, a church near the end of the Pelourinho with a steep flight of stairs leading up to it. At the bottom of the stairs Geronimo was playing and the place was packed. We were alert for any danger and there was a constant flow of people going up and down the stairs which prevented us from fully enjoying ourselves, but the music was still fantastic: lively and uplifiting. Only at one point did I see some sort of "trouble": the crowd of people on the stairs was jammed, and people were pushing to get up and down. The one man was pushed down the stairs and he turned around and said "hey stop pushing me!", and it was clear to me that he had just been robbed, or at least they had attempted to rob him. Other than that the streets were very crowded but it didn't seem too dangerous to me, as long as you keep your senses about you.
Other than that, what else to be said? On Thursday evening we went to see the Bale Folklorico da Bahia. The book described as being worthwhile, and considering where we were, and the rich cultural background, we decided to check it out. The show was indeed very good, it started out with a piece on the Orixás, the gods of candomble and it was really fitting that just that morning we had been to the Afro-Brazilian musuem as we managed to recognise some of the Orixas that were represented. They then went on to do Puxada de rede, Maculele, Capoeira and Samba de roda. Those we all knew about thanks to capoeira, and I couldn't help thinking how lucky we were to actually understand all of this, as for someone who has no idea it must all seem a bit strange... The show was fantastic, with great dancing, great costumes and great music so it was definitely worth while.
We also met some interesting people in the hostel. The hostel by the way, was lovely and the staff very friendly indeed. In fact, Veronica and I almost started feeling at home at the place, and I think the staff considered us part of home too.Anyway, we mainly met two interesting people. One was Robin, a french Canadian singer and artist who was here on a three month holiday. She also had been dreaming of coming to Brazil for a long time and was here to study music and dance, meet other artists and hopefully record some songs. She was a very interesting person and great to hang out with, and hopefully we will get to see her again. We also met this funny American guy. He arrived one night all in a fluster because the hotel had messed up his reservation. I was acting as a translator and trying to convince him to at least stay the night in this place so as to save him trekking around the Pelourinho by dark (unwise). Eventually he relented and then asked me to sit and chat with him. He was so American in that kind of way that they are: sure of themsleves and well travelled. It's hard to put my finger on it. Anyway, he was going on at me about how much he had travelled and how much he had seen, and that he was really streetwise because of this. That he could notice people planning to mug him and so on...I was a bit sceptical but listened none the less...Then he proceeded to tell me about how he had nearly been mugged in Rio and therefore it was a dangerous city. (The mugging involved him seeing a bunch of guys and legging it away from them, in my opinion a huge give away). The next day, Veronica and I ran into him in the old town and it was the best I could do not to laugh. There he was, looking totally American: Long sleeved shirt, sunglasses, his backpack on the front of him with a padlock on it, right on top where it was well visible, and a bandanda (no kidding,a bandana!!) around his forehead. When we finally got rid of him (as he was being quite insistant on having our company that evening), I said to Veronica that I wasn't surpised he had been mugged. He was like a walking bullseye, no matter what he said about being streetwise!
And finally, one more funny story to depart. It seems that I am accumulating at lot of these lately...On Friday Veronica and I decided to head out to the neighbourhood of Ribeira, where there is a famed Sorveiteria (ice cream parlour). My friend had told me it was amazing, better than in Italy, and that people from all over Brazil travelled to it. Upon arrival Veronica and I look at the menu and decide to go for 3 balls of ice cream: 3 Bolas. We have come so far to this famed parlour that we decide to make it worth our while. We buy our ticket at the till and then head over to the queue to get given our ice creams. I state my three flavours, and the guy busies himself away and then hands me one ice cream in a cone saying "Leite Condensado". The realisation then hits me as I realise he is actually going to hand me three, seperate, ice creams. Oh no!!! I look at Veronica in disbelief. She looks at me, we can't believe it. We head over to our table three ice creams each in our hands, shaking with laughter. We are battling to eat them before they all start running all over the place, which they already are, without dropping them too. We realise, we must look like pigs,and can't stop laughing at our mistake. Then, the owners come over to us looking really concerned. Are we alright? What happened? So we explain and then they put two of our ice creams in the freezer so they don't melt,and they just laugh at us and at the situation and so do we. How embarassing! But surely,we think, this isn't the first time this has happened?? And yet they look so surprised....It is hilarious! Anyway, they are very sweet and offer to give us our money back for the third ice cream that neither of us can eat. After this, they have chatted to us for so long that they offer us a lift to a fort (whose name I cannot currently remember) in order to watch the sunset. We said we were going to get the bus but they told us there was no bus and so they would give us a lift. When we get outside, the son turns up in a huge Range Rover, and we are ushered into his car, which as it happens is brand new and still has the plastic covers on it on the inside! The unusualness and comicness of the situation just never ends. So we climb into this brand new Range Rover which Fafa (the son) informs is the second time he has ever taken it out for a ride, and it has a 4 wheel drive snow option (in Bahia???). Then he proceeds to invite us to his private island "you see? That one just over there" one day, and says we are more than welcome and we should just call him...Eventually they drop us off at the fort just in time for us to watch the sun set. They tell us to call them any time we want to, we are always welcome on the island or in the ice cream parlour. Veronica and I just cannot get over this random sequence of events. It was so hilarious though. I don't know if I have told this well enough but I hope it makes you laugh. The sunset in any case was fantastic, and our trip to Ribeira for the ice cream definitely worth it!
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