So it seems that cities like to show me their “fun” sides the minute I arrive. Today, I flew into Salvador da Bahia. When we landed, the woman behind me says in broken English, “I home, Bahia… I love you… I finally free!” She is cooing and cheering softly as she is saying this as well.

Driving from the airport, we get stuck in traffic and it’s not even moving. We’re there for a couple of minutes and people are getting out of their cars. The taxi driver says there is money ahead (yes, I’m starting to pick up Portuguese more). I don’t quite understand what he means, but then we start moving and there’s a convoy of trucks ahead of us, with fully armed police/security in cars following ahead and behind, creating a moving barricade around 3 trucks. Meanwhile, 3 “garras” on motorcycles are zipping back and forth to stop traffic from entering the road while the convoy is passing. Turns out, they were transporting money somewhere and needed lots of security. The taxi driver tells me that if people get to close, then he made a pulling-the-trigger motion with his finger. I didn’t believe him.

They basically have the whole road blocked, but occassionally the road widens and someone tries to sneak by. The truck full of men in fatigues and berets veers to get in their way. Sometimes, the cars would get too close to the soldier’s cars and they would wave the people back. That didn’t work and so the soldier pulled out a gun and hung out the window while pointing it at the car that was following too closely. I’m not sure if the driver didn’t see for a bit, but he didn’t back off right away and I was sure I’d see some action, but after an extremely long 5 seconds, the driver steps on the brakes and almost causes an accident with the fleet of cars stuck behind the convoy. Exciting stuff!

Driving through the outskirts, most of the housing is very poor. It reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of housing in most of Africa. Shoddily-built houses out of orange bricks with rough grout jobs and makeshift roofs.

We get into the city center and I’ve decided to stay in the old city center (Cidade Alta) at a hostel for my first night (and probably second night as well). There are many museums and old churches within walking distance of my pousada and I figure while it’s still cloudy and a little drizzly, I’ll do the historical stuff. I must say, though, the view from up here is quite spectacular. The old city center overlooks the bay. Pictures later…

There are a good number of dogs here on the streets. Mind you, they are very cute, but I don’t dare touch them. I mean, you never want to touch the ringmaster of a 3-ring flea circus, do you?

I was already forced to “take a capoeira class” on display at the market. Basically, I was watching some kids doing capoeira, they saw the shining white beacon of money and the school’s “teacher” made me go up on the stage and his students “taught” me some capoeira. LOL. I must’ve been quite a sight! Then he asked for donations in the way of buying a shirt or CD. When I didn’t want either, he asked for money and i started to give him 5, not enough… 10… nope… 15 was good for him. OK, it was probably worth it, but what a rube, huh?

I’ve already tried some of the local culinary specialties. The first was acarajé. Looks kind of unappetizing, but what it is is vatapá (a bright yellow porridge of palm oil, coconut, shrimp and garlic), deep fried bean cake, hot pepper and more shrimp on top. It was sold by a little old lady in white next to an enormous church… It was quite good despite the shrimp being small and still with shell. Really, I’d get it again.

Next, I sampled coxinha which is basically a fried bean cake filled with yummy chicken. I’d definitely get that again.

Dinner in Brasil doesn’t really start until 9-10, so having little snacks throughout the day is important.

Há amañá…

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