Salvador: We Like It

We took a lot of pictures in Salvador, Brazil, so it gets its own post. Overall, we thought it was a great city, though a bit touristy at times. Great beaches in the city, beautiful old historic buildings, and good street food. Tons of people warned that it could be dangerous at night, but we never felt that way. Now, to the pictures:

I didn't read any statistics, but if I were leading a tour of Salvador, I would say it has approximately 3 churches per person. It is also the center of a Nigerian religion, which apparently has even more small places to worship. This is one of the churches on the main square. The tout who helped us find a hotel room told us that there used to be a law that churches didn't pay taxes until they were completed. So, a lot of churches avoided taxes for years by never completing the second tower. No idea if it's true, but a good story.

The oldest church has a nice back area (seems to be translated in Brazil as sacrisy, but I have no idea if that is the proper term). This guy was my personal favorite. He seemed so lifelike. Well, if a gnome were to become a catholic...

Salvador is famous for its restored colonial architecture. This area is probably the best example. Also (again according to the hotel tout), Michael Jackson once performed here.

Coconuts are so ubiquitous is that even the phones are in the shape of them.

These things were so freaky that I made Tara pose with one. We're almost certain that they had real human hair.

One of the most famous sculptures in Salvador is this one, by a slave who made the blood of christ out of banana resin, ox blood, and rubies. I thought it would be sparklier and cooler, but here it is so that you don't have to pay the $2 if you are ever in Salvador.

Some of the churches have beautiful wooden painted ceilings. They are hard to photograph in the dark cathedrals, but they seem a great use of the tithe money.

The coast by Salvador is really nice. The best urban beaches we saw. Rocky in places, but very clear water.

Salvador is built on hills, so they have ways to get up and down. Apparently, someone in power was really lazy because they built the first elevator up the biggest hill in 1891. It has been redone a couple times since, and now cost the massive sum of 3 cents.

In the mall, they put kids in these giant balls and throw them in pools. Most of the kids cry. Seems awesome. They looked at me as though there was no way I could get in one, so I didn't try.

Some people have asked how we do laundry. Here you are. Seriously, laundry is no fun. We now hoard soap on the rare occasion that a hotel gives us any. It takes forever, and doesn't always dry quickly if in a humid area. We often end up tying it to our backpacks.

Also going up the hill is the funicular, a combination of "fun" and "vehicular homocide" or something like that. Two train cars go up and down on cables. Must be the world's shortest funicular. It also costs 3 cents.

Some guys doing capoiera on the beach, which we learned was invented by slaves who weren't allowed to fight, so they slowed down their fighting and called it a dance. I'd say those were some dumb slave owners if they didn't recognize two guys kicking each other in the head in slow motion as potential fight training.

On the way out of Salvador, you see that not everyone lives on the beach. This is a favela, similar to what we later toured in Rio.

We literally ran into a parade of one of the Carnaval drum teams practicing with about 1000 tourist trailing behind. We hear that teams in Rio actually charge to hear them practice, so this is as close to Carnaval as we got.

Between Salvador and Rio, the landscape changes a lot and much of it is a bit like the US southwest, complete with strange mountains and cacti.

Here are a bunch of yucca like plants taken from the bus window. The stalks on them are probably 30 feet tall.

That concludes our stay in Salvador. Tara and I both agree that its the nicest big city in Brazil. Worth visiting if you are in the area. Also one of the cheaper big cities.