The last time I was in Salvador I was very put off by the men. I would go dancing, and within 5 minutes, someone was trying to kiss me or get me to go home with them.
I didn't kid myself in thinking it was because I was particularly special, or beautiful, or just some kind of magical dancer that implored these men to try to get in my pants before the song was over, I just thought it was because they thought white girls are easy. After all, all of the blond English girls I was hanging out with at the time was sleeping with some guy from Salvador.
Lysia and I didn't have this experience at all, yet. There are more catcalls here, and some guys on the beach helped us with our blanket when the tide had unknowingly gotten higher ... Then one introduced himself and asked if we were going to be around for carnaval, but I said no and that was it.
I think "are you here for carnaval" is code for "are you down to fuck?" We get asked that a lot.
Lysia and I are excited that there is another carnaval practice going on tonight. Olodum, the local drum ensemble made internationally famous by Paul Simon and Michael Jackson (they backed him up on a version of "They Don't really care about us," which plays in a store in the square on a loop) had canceled their bi-weekly practice. This was very upsetting, as I consider the night I danced at their practice the first time I was here the best night of dancing I had ever had.
The band was small, but played a large variety of music, and there was a dance school group going the whole time. Lysia and I danced with them, and it was wonderful. It ended way earlier than we would have liked, and a guy comes up to us to tell us that we were nice dancers and if we'd like to go get a beer.
I should have said no. But it's a beer, and the streets are crowded, and it's early. He'll get tired of my shitty Portuguese and we will go home.
Lysia, game for pretty much anything, agrees.
My new friend Ulysses introduces Lysia to his friend who speaks no English, either. They lead us across the street to a chocolate shop that has another samba band playing in the back. im thrilled, because we can keep dancing, and we don't really have to hang out with these guys at a bar! We'll all dance! It'll be great!
They tell us that it's a $10 cover per person. Lysia and I interpret the next conversation to mean that they'll pay for the cover if we'll pay for the beer. Fine. A bucket of beers arrive. I go to say something to my new friend, and he kisses me on the cheek.
I back up and give him the wag of the finger and say no. Lysia looks at me and says, "this beer never leaves your hand, and if you don't open the next one yourself don't drink it."
Goddamn, Lysia, you are so fucking right. Good call, I tell her.
We still haven't paid for anything yet. I go to take pictures of the band, and Ulysses comes with me. He tries to kiss me. I jump back about 10 feet and say "no. I have a boyfriend."
Ulysses says, "but it's carnaval!"
And I suddenly remember what I hated most about Salvador. This all happened in the span of about 10 minutes.
Turns out Ulysses' friend said, in probably the only English he knew, "I like you. Want to come to my habitation with me?" Lysia says no, too, and comes to dance with me.
Ulysses tries a couple of times to get me to sit down and drink a beer. Lysia's friend has already given up on her, as she refuses to speak to him. I tell Ulysses I want to dance. He comes up to try to dance with me. I step away. About five minutes later, he brings me a cup of beer, but he has none.
Good call, Lysia, indeed. I did NOT drink that beer.
Ulysses clearly has given up after he sees me put the beer down, because he tells us that he needs the money to pay. He says it's $20 for each person, for the beer and the cover. I am so annoyed with this guy, I tell Lysia to just give him $40 so he'll go away. THERES NO WAY it cost $20 for each of us, but neither of us gave a shit at that point. Lysia is convinced that there wasn't even a cover charge, and now he wanted to make some money because we didn't go to their habitations. Lysia only has a $50. I tell her to give it to him, just to make him leave. I ask him if he has $10. He says yes.
And then he and his friend disappear with our $50, about USD22. A small price to pay for my stupidity. I tell lysia that this was my fault, and I was sorry we had to deal with that, and that although we'd been splitting everything that evening, this $50 was on me.
Did I really think he roofied my drink? No. And for what I remember now, the men are REALLY aggressive for a very short period of time, and then they move on to someone else if they find out it isn't working out in their favor.
But I paid my stupid American tax for the day.
We leave the bar, and we realize that the streets are practically EMPTY. I had warned Lysia that Everyone warned me that Pelourinho was dangerous at night, and that you should take care to hide your things, not carry a purse, not be conspicuous. The bartenders we met out last nite (who were very sweet and managed to make it through the night without trying to kiss us... They were Colombian) told us the same. Lysia, still carrying a purse albeit with a lot less stuff in it, wearing high heel wedge shoes walking on steep cobblestoned streets, is now feeling like she's made a bad choice this evening, too.
She says, "yeah, I'll share that $50 with you. Stupid me wearing shoes I can't even run away in."
And then we decide to follow other tourists (ie, Very White People) to the next intersection. Some guy comes up to us to sell us some bullshit, and asks Lysia for a cigarette. Lysia and I didn't have a conversation about it, but I think both of us were sure that we needed to give this guy a cigarette so he'd go away, too. It's costing us a lot of money to get rid of these fucking guys tonight. At least the cigarette pack has a warning label that tells us it will make him impotent.
We quietly and swiftly walk towards the B&B, and when we get a block away, we pass an older lady walking alone in her house dress, with a dog. She looks at us with disdain. I say, "boa noite," and she returns the greeting tells us we should be careful, and that Lysia should watch her purse.
I want to point to to anyone reading this.... Aside from walking 10 minutes home by ourselves, we were never in any danger. We were never alone with these guys, and they didn't do anything to us. There are police stationed at every intersection. But no more beers with strangers.
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