Salvador: city by the bay

If you like Afro-Brazilian culture, colonial architecture, and beaches, you should check out Salvador de Bahia.

We spent two days in the city, which, considering it is not beach season, was just the right amount of time.

After arriving at our hostel in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood and eating a little breakfast, we took a bus to the city's historic center, which was the first seat of Portuguese power in Brazil.

It turns out some of the paintings are actually hand-made…

Our first stop in the downtown was at the artisan market. The signs on the wall say that you aren't allowed to take pictures. You'll notice an unsuspecting tourist and unsuspecting artisan getting photographed here. 

So much great architecture!  And the churches are supposed to be very beautiful.

After the artisan market, we took the elevator up the hillside to the Pelorinho neighborhood. The weather was a little overcast and misty, so the streets weren't as lively as we imagine they normally are. There was some Capoeira happening in the parks, but not nearly as much as we had hoped for/expected.

Bahian cuisine is the love child of foods from European colonists, African slaves, and central Brazilian climate and  indigenous traditions.  The most famous dish is Acaraje (see tomorrow's Vitoria de Conquista post).

The province of Bahia is famous for its regional cuisine, which contains a lot of everything that is locally available. It is so famous that is has its own museum. Don't let the fact that there are only two rooms in the museum fool you. There's a lot of it.

Pineapple with pesto, salty cheese, and a raspberry is apparently a Bahian food.  We support this tradition.

Like any good food museum, there is an attached cooking school, book shop, and restaurant. The culinary students master their craft by preparing a daily lunch buffet of regional foods.

The Afro-Brazilian Museum provides a great introduction into the culture's origins and belief system. Many of the slaves that arrived from Africa maintained their traditional belief systems, despite having Christianity imposed upon them. The museum explains the pantheon of African gods and how Afro-Brazilians still maintain their culture. The most impressive room in the museum was the 27-panel, hand-carved cedar display by Carybé, an Argentine-turned-Salvador artist, that depicts the animal and anthropomorphic representation of each god.

Next to the historic center is the used book district. We came across a Jewish cookbook with an interesting take on the spelling of cholent. The Brazilian equivalent to cholent is called barreado and is the state dish of the Parana state.

Despite being from Michigan, I have never been inside of a lighthouse before (Avery has been to a few). We decided not to go inside this one, either. Instead, we just walked around the perimeter.

Here is the view of the neighborhood we stayed in while in Salvador, Rio Vermelho. It was described to us a the city's bohemian neighborhood with great, live music at night. We were there in the middle of the week, but there was still a bit of nightlife. I can imagine it getting a bit more exciting on weekends.

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For those keeping track at home, this is the fifth shoe repairman that we have visited on this trip. There was one in Santa Marta, Colombia (guy on the street with neon glue), one in Quito (real shop), one in Leticia, Colombia (household operation), one on our boat from Santarem to Belem (Argentian architect with rubber cement and his apprenticed French musician who has had some shoe experience), and this one in Salvador, Brazil. Unlike the previous four, I believe that this guy actually fixed my boots. Only time will tell.