Random initial thoughts on Salvador da Bahia

I went out last night at about 1 am with a bunch of girls from the hostel (and I mean girls. I am by far the oldest person at this hostel.) "Going out" time in Brazil is notoriously late (although not as late as in Buenos Aires, where people go out on a Tuesday at 2 in the morning...) so were were surprised to find that almost everything was closed in Pelourinho except for one gross bar.

Pelhourinho, where I am staying, is the historic center of town. "Pelourinho" means "whipping post," and it was here that the enslaved Africans were beaten, tied down, and whipped. It is very hilly, all cobblestone. It has rained a bit every day so far, making the cobblestones very slippery and hard to negotiate. The people here are accustomed, and everyone: kids, the corpulent, the old, seem to have no trouble, even in their worn flip-flops, which are standard attire. It is "very touristy," which is actually not terribly so, but there are tourist shops and people trying to sell you something in the main squares.

Almost everyone is some shade of black. Except for the tourists, who are white. The English girls I was with, who were all tall and blonde.

Making us quite a spectacle.

I have heard that Salvador is less dangerous than other parts of Brazil, but that I should be wary of being robbed. In theory, there is safety in numbers, but I'm starting to wonder if it's not so safe to travel with a bunch of really white people. And I mean WHITE.

We went to the only happening spot, basically a cobblestoned intersection outside this bar, where people were drinking beer and dancing to loud Brazilian music. I could've gotten into the dancing, except the ratio of men to women was about, conservatively, 40:1. There was no mistaking us for Brazilians, much less Baians, and they swarmed upon us like killer bees, speaking whatever little English they knew, pick up lines and quotes from Borat, trying to get us to dance.

Persistent motherfuckers. And the TOUCHING!! So much touching. Not "bad touches," but lots of touching the shoulder, lower back, and especially elbow. So it could be worse. But it's annoying. And they didn't let up. I grew tired of it in about 5 minutes. Some of the more adventurous girls opted to dance. I was not having it. I turned around and went back to the hostel.

On the other hand, I walked alone this afternoon, took a bus to the mall (amusingly enough, called "O Shopping" in Brazil), had lunch, went shopping, came back, and no one bothered me at all.

By the way, the trip to the mall was to find a battery and charger for my camera because I stupidly left it at home. Probably in my couch. Fuck. There will probably be no pics of Salvador unless I invest in some disposables. Cameras are impossibly expensive, and my Canon ELPH, pretty reasonable and common in the US isn't even sold in any of the stores I went into today.

I am looking forward to many things I haven't seen yet... I have to go the couple of recommended cultural centers for dance classes. This is really what I want to do when I'm here. Tuesday night is the "big night" to go out, which means live music and percussion groups in the streets. Wednesday I'm going to go to a candomble ritual. Candomble is a spiritual, polytheistic religion prevalent here. There are a coulple of folkloric shows that are supposed to be amazing. They're all at about 8 at night or later, leaving me the rest of the day to spend at the beach.

If it ever stops raining. It's a comfortable temperature, much more pleasant that in New York. There are hammocks and a very bohemian bed-sized cushion with pillows in a nook that's on an open patio at the hostel. I'm really just satisfied hanging out here during the rainy parts of the day and the evening, as the music plays and I share travel stories with the others from the hostel.

Oh, and despite the warm weather, it's winter, which means it gets dark at about 5 pm. Weird!

I am not in love with Bahia, but I do like it. The food is amazing (heavy as it is) and it's easy enough to navigate if you speak some basic portuguese. (My portuguese is basic, and I'm afraid it's not getting better any time soon.) It's beautiful in that run-down old historic sort of way. More to come.