Monday, February 25
Our port
today is Salvador da Bahia, but it is referred to as just Salvador. Salvador is the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia and has a population of almost 3 million. Here is a quote from Lonely Planet describing Salvador. "Salvador da Bahia has an energy and
unadorned beauty that few cities can match. Once the magnificent capital
of Portugal’s New World colony, today Salvador is the pulsating heart
of the country’s Afro-Brazilian community. Its brilliantly hued center
is a living museum of 17th and 18th century architecture and gold-laden
churches. Wild festivals happen frequently, with drum corps pounding
out rhythms against the backdrop of colonial buildings almost daily."
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| Salvador is the gateway to a very large bay. |
Our
activity for the day was another ship excursion, but it didn’t leave until
after 9:00 so we didn’t have to get up until 8:00. When we got up, we were just entering the
harbor so before I started getting ready for the day, I went out on the balcony
to watch us dock. After breakfast in the
Neptune Lounge we made our way down to the showroom where we waited for our bus
number to be called.
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| We enter the harbor of Salvador. |
After our
number was called, we made the long walk off the ship and through the terminal
and were ready to go by 9:30. Our tour today
was called Easy Salvador and was mostly a bus tour of the city. As we drove through the city, our tour guide
told us of the history and culture of the city of Salvador and the state of
Bahia. Salvador is a large city, but it
seems different than the other large cities we have visited in Brazil and seems
to have more character. There aren’t as
many high rise buildings and the architecture seems more interesting.
There is an
upper and lower part of the city and to access the upper part you have to drive
either up or down the coast to get there. There is an elevator near the cruise port and
Central Market for pedestrian access.
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| Some views of Salvador from the bus. |
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| The elevator to the upper part of the city. |
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| The people in the foreground are members of the Candomblé religion. |
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| These walls were covered with "remembrance ribbons". Rather than try to explain the meaning behind them, follow this link for more information. |
After the church we continued our tour of the upper part of Salvador and saw many different districts.
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| More views from the bus. |
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| These utility poles are a complicated mess of wires. We saw these everywhere we went in Brazil. |
From the upper end of the city we drove back to the coast and stopped at the Farol de Barra lighthouse. There were great views of the coast and many were out enjoying the beautiful day.
Carnival in
Brazil starts next Sunday, March 3rd, and everywhere we have visited
preparations are underway. Carnival is a
huge event and the preparations are extensive.
There are also many pre-Carnival events which started over the past weekend. As we drove through Salvador
today, those preparations were very evident.
Streets were blocked off and a lot of vendors were setting up along the
parade routes. There were also many
mobile Federal Police installations being set up at various locations. Our guide was very excited about the upcoming
Carnival and said it is an event not to be missed.
Another thing we have noticed is the number of street vendors we have seen. At first I thought it was just for the tourists, but it is prevalent in every part of the cities we have visited. Everything from food and drink to clothing is sold from carts and sidewalk stands everywhere you look.
After our
visit to the lighthouse we headed back into the central area where we visited
the Mecado Modelo, the central market that had been converted from a customs
house. We had originally intended to
leave the tour and walk back to the ship, but after shopping a bit, we decided
to go back on the bus as it was pretty hot and humid.
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| And more views from the bus of Salvador. |
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| The Mecado Modelo |
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| Outside the market there was an area where you could get food and drinks along with entertainment. |
Today's tour
turned out to be very good and we really enjoyed it. Even though we spent most of the four hour
trip on the bus, we feel like we really got an overview of the various areas of
Salvador. Of the Brazilian cities we have visited,
Salvador is our favorite so far. Our
guide was also great and kept us listening to his interesting commentary
throughout the trip. He not only told of
history, culture and facts of the area, he also gave us his own slant on the
area and an insight into his own life here in Salvador.
We arrived
back on the ship just before 2:00 and after dropping our cameras and packs in
our room, we went up to Lido for lunch and made it just before it closed. After lunch we relaxed for a while and then I
decided to update the blog for the day.
Just before
5:00, the captain announced that departure would be delayed as the ship was
being resupplied today and they hadn’t finished loading yet. When we returned from our tour today we
noticed large pallets of food and drink lined up along the ship, with more
trucks coming in to be unloaded. I
decided to go up on deck and take some pictures of Salvador in the early evening
sunlight and then returned to the room to start our nightly dinner routine.
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| A view of Salvador from the ship. |
Once again
it was trivia, dinner and as has been the case lately, a very short visit to
the casino for me. I left Val in the
casino and headed back to the room where I downloaded and backed up the
pictures we had taken today. We don’t
have to get up early tomorrow so we there was plenty of time tonight. Val returned from the casino later and we
called it a night, tomorrow we’ll be in Ilheus, Brazil.
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