A Weekend in Salvador

It' 9:30 on Sunday night here in Salvador and I'm relaxing after the weekend, sitting on the couch listening to the soothing sounds of the city: the cars going by, the incessent barking of dogs, the whistle that someone keeps blowing, the occasional "bang" that I hope (but truly doubt) is fireworks and the sound of the man on the street hacking what I can only assume must be by now, a world record size wad of phlegm!

We did some interesting things this weekend. On Friday night we were lucky enough to visit a candomble house for a party for their 100th anniversery. Candomble is the second most popular religion in Brazil (after Catholicism) and it's actually pretty cool. It's an Afro-Brazilian religion that originated in Salvador and the surrounding areas by the africans who were brought to this area as slaves. In this religion, people are possessed by Orisha's, or spirits and these spirits all represent different qualities or ideas. For a long time this religion was criminalized in Brazil but since those who practiced it saw many similarities between their Orisha's and the saints of the Roman Catholic Church they were able to practice their beliefs secretly while pretending to follow Catholicism. The language that it used for many of the candomble rituals even today is Yoruba, a language that is spoken in many parts of Nigeria. After a long ride, we arrived just as the party was getting started. None of us got the memo that we were supposed to dress all in white (we were actually told we should wear bright colors) so we really didn't blend in at all. We went into a room that was filled with people dressed all in white. Many of the women wore the traditional white outfits with the large petticoats and the white headscarfs. There were white stramers hanging from the ceiling blowing in the breeze and the room looked beautiful. We grabbed seats on the side of the room and watited (and waited and waited) for something to happen. Finally after about an hour some people got up and made some speeches. They seemed to be leaders from the candomble community and from the local government but since nothing was in English we really had no idea. I wasn't to worried though because none of the people who could understand seemed to be particularly impressed either. Once the speeches were over everyone moved outside to where there were tables and chairs and a stage set up. Soon they started to set up tables of food (excellent chocolate!) and wine and champaigne were poured. The performers came on and they were amazing. Their musical and dancing styles seemed very African but then they had trumpet players joining in as well. It was very much a combination of African and South American culture and it was a pretty awesome night.

On Saturday I figured that since we are on the coast I should check out the beach that Salvador is famous for so I walked down to it. Now "walking down to the beach" is not a figure of speech, I literally walked down - as in straight down a very steep hill to get to there. (Note to self: find a flatter country to visit next year!) When I arrived at the beach it was packed, I guess everyone in Brazil had the same idea, it was wall to wall people on the sand. (Even though it is winter in Brazil, Salvador is pretty close to the Equator so the temperature is in the mid -70s every day and we are near the end of the rainy season.) I walked down a little further toward the lighthouse and found a less crowded spot to spread out my towel for a day of people watching and reading on the beach. I spent the day just relaxing switching between my Sandra Brown book for the beach bum in me and my Freire book for the scholar in me (I'm such a geek I've been doing some cool academic type writing while I'm here so my brain doesn't atrophy!). It gets dark so early here that before I
knew it, it was time to pack up for the dreaded (though much less painful than expected) walk back up the hill.

Today was supposed to be our day to take a boat ride to some of the islands in the bay but since the pounding rain kept waking me up all night I figured we would be looking for a plan B. A bunch of us decided to spend the day at the Pelourinho - the historic city center of Salvador. The name Pelourinho means pillory or whipping post and was the spot in the center of the city where slaves were disciplined but the name has now come to mean the whole upper city center. There are a lot of shops and alley ways to explore in the Pelourinho but we were warned to only stay on the main streets around the square where there is a heavy police presence. I was able to take a look in a church which was decorated in 500 kgs of gold (yes it's as tacky as it sounds!) and was able to find some good bargins along the way. We also got a chance to ride the elevator between the upper and lower cities. I guess that's one way to deal with these hills - now if I can just get them to build me an elevator to the beach life would be good!