An adventure in Salvador

Well I arrived in the north east region of Brazil - a state called Bahia which apparently is totally different to the rest of Brazil and proudly calls itself the most cultural!

Having arrived late at night in a foreign place I was glad to hook up with Louis Martin a french canadian who speaks amazing portuguese having spent ten months on and off in Brazil. He told me that he was staying in Barra outside of the main town as it was close to the beach and reminded him of the time he had spent Carnival here with his girlfriend, it seemed to be a good idea to stick with someone who knew where they were going and after establishing that neither of us was single we gladly told the hotel that we would share a room (with twin beds).

Since arriving in Salvador I have been fighting off a really bad cold and I feel kind of miserable but yesterday I spent the day on the beach whilst Louis took care of his plane ticket stuff (he was flying back to Toronto today having not seen his folks for 15 months and his girlfriend for four) and then we went into the Old Town, I was expecting it to look a lot like Lisbon as it was one of the first towns to be colonised (after much toing and froing) by the Portuguese and it did´t dissapoint. It was also the region where slaves from Africa were brought and it is because of this that the regions´s population is predominantly black. Things like Capoeira and Canduble (?) are very popular here, the first being an amazing form of martial arts to the rhythym of music and the second being a tribal religion.

Anyway all the above makes it a very beautiful town to walk around in, if Rio was massive, busy, good looking, noisy and kind of scary then Salvador is the beautiful sister to Rio, also busy, more noisy but feels safer and is just great!! I feel a little on my own now that Louis has left but it has also been nice as with a cold it is always best to be left to one´s devices. Yesterday we happened to arrive in the old town whilst an evening musical festival was being set up and so we stuck around to observe the singing, drumming and general merriment that was taking place. It was great fun.

Today I have spent the day on the beach topping up my tan and being hassled by men of one kind or another. I think tomorrow I may try and buy a wedding ring - just so´s they get the message. Where is my big man to bat them away eh? Honestly I kid you not, I was told that being ´blonde´would draw me lots of attention but it was really annoying at times today, not even the runny nose that could beat rudolph´s hands down in a red nose competition put them off!!!! In an effort to cheer myself up I have been for a wander around the shopping centre (found some good books for research) and went to the cinema, I watched ´Click´an appaling Adam Sandler film that really there is no point in you wasting your money on. There was some theatre on in town but the was I was feeling earlier I needed to make sure i didn´t stray too far from my bed.........

I think tomorrow, if I am feeling better then I will go for a guided tour around the old town in Salvador.

Almost forgot to mention - every morning i eat my breakfast on a top floor balcony overlooking the sea. There is a spectacular array of birds and butterflies in Brazil but today i ate breakfast with a hummingword - words cannot convey my excitement and fascination with this small and totally beautiful bird..... :)