Salvador da Bahia

We arrived at the airport at about 0930 for our planned flight to Salvador. First, as always, the airport fees had to be paid. These include parking, landing, navigation, taxes, and to be honest I'm not even sure what else. The payment is made in an administration office in the terminal. One would expect that it should be a simple matter of generating an invoice and acceptin payment, One could not be more wrong. That is in fact all that has to happen, but the computer program used by the offices (same sofware, all offices of the national airports authority) appears to be a source of great mystery to all who use it. The fellow working away at it was on the phone for the whole time he was filling out the form, and there appeared to be a lot of going around in circles and puzzled staring, the upshot being that we were over an hour and a half making payment for two aircraft. After this, it was over to the airplanes for fuel, and call up ATC for engine start and airways clearance, about another 25 minutes. After all that the flying part is easy. Flight was about two hours, and we arrive at Salvador in the early afternoon.

Arriving at Salvador da Bahia

We were directed to parking by tower and a marshall on the ground, and a bus transported us to the terminal for cab to our accomodation, the Convento de Carma. This is a 16th C. Carmelite convent, recently converted to a hotel. Very large place, about 200 rooms, located in the old city atop one of the hills. It was located outside the old city walls, and when the Dutch invaded in the 1640's, we were told that the city residents, realizing they were outnumbered and outgunned, abandoned the city and took refuge in the monastery. When the invaders entered the city, the Salvadorans closed the gates behind them, and placed the town under siege, finally forcing the Dutch out a year later.

We enjoyed a walk through the old city after our arrival, including a trip down to commercial district and its artisan market. The trip off the hill down to the lower level is by elevator at a cost of about 10 cents each way.

Elevator



The stuff for sale in the many market stalls was mainly tourist oriented. Salvador is now populated mainly be the descendants of African slaves, and the population is about 80%  black. As sometimes happens with enigrant populations, some of the cultural artifacts brought from the old country become frozen in time. While the home country evolves in its own way, the removed group is cut off, and things move in their own direction according to local conditions. In Salvador, there are things like musical instruments of African origin that have apparently disappeared elsewhere. Religion is predominantly Catholic, but in the days of slavery (not ended in Brazil until the 1880's) the African population maintained and disguised their own religious practices by giving their  deities the names of the Christian saints. so there is still something of a hybrid religion to this day, known as Candomble.

We had a guided walking tour of the old city the next day, which included a Franciscan monastery that had remarkable glazed tile walls in the cloisters. The scenes protrayed on the walls illustrated desirable virtues and values in blue and white tiles brought over from Portugal, and were arranged to by passed in a clockwise direction, so that each turn brought a statue of a different saint into view.

Bountiful nature, in this case represented a four-breasted woman

We continued to the cathedral, the first built in Brazil (Salvador was the capital until 1763), which was built mainly by slave labour and craftsmen. The African slaves included some very skilled carvers, but not painters. They had, of course, no experience of traditional European cathedral art, so they placed their own interpretations, the result being a unique Bahian Baroque, with cupids and saints bearing somewhat African features.

Detail of a carving

We continued to the main plaza of the old city, which has churches in every direction including a Jesuit church built in Portugal, the stones numbered, and the building disassembled and put back together in Salvador. The Jesuits were in conflict with colonial authorities, as promoters of education.

The Portugese apparently recognized that knowledge was power, and didn't want to see it dispersed outside their control. The Jesuits also innovated a system of banking, storing private wealth, for a fee, in their own treauries. This was too much, so the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil in 1759. One of their old colleges became the country's first school of medicine in the early 19 C., when the Portugese royal court moved to Brazil to escape the occupation by Napoleon.

Also in the square was a statue of a leader of the 17th C. slave uprising, Zumbi dos Palmares. Runaway slaves formed their own republic in Palmares in the early 17th C., and Zumbi lead the former slaves in numerous battles against the Portugese. He was finally captured in 1695, and legend has it that he was offered freedom and amnesty if he would foreswear the cause, but refused and was beheaded.

Zumbi dos Palmares

Another statue of note is that of the first bishop of Bahia, who on his departure to return to Portugal only reached a nearby island in the bay, where his spirit and strength were transferred to the happy cannibals who ate him.

Parts of the old city have been restored in a constant battle against the tropical humidity. The area is a Unesco World Heritage site, so there are strict architectural controls. Property values have risen, and many former residents take the money and move to suburbia. The restored areas have a prominent and well-armed police presence, as a defense against the scourge of pickpockets and thieves that troubles parts of many large cities. It appears to be effective, and our guide told us to avoid a wrong turn into an unrestored area, as they weren't policed. The streets in the old city are rough-cobbled (apparently in colonial days the only people who routinely travelled the streets were slaves), and the building facades very attractive.

Slave auctions took place on the steps

Pelourinho Plaza

Pelourinho Plaza is where the slave auctions took place, and is so named for the pillory which was also erected there for the flogging of racalcitrant slave. In modern times it is famous as the site of a Michael Jackson video, during which he performed in the square and environs, including from the balcony of the blue building above. http://originallilly.glogster.com/MICHAEL-JACKSON-IN-SALVADOR-BRASIL/

Slave church, currently under restoration

We enjoyed wandering the streets, and found a local artisan who produced a uniqe craft of knotted waxed cord, with polished stones and shells. Very friendly fellow, and among us I think we made his weeks wages.

Brenda's new friend

Our crew with a local lady dressed in traditional garb of a house slave.

We had a large lunch at a plaza restaurant, with different local seafood preparations, so in the evening we strolled back up to the plaza and tried a local street food of west African origin, acarje. It is a deep fried bread made of bean paste, and was served with shrimp, fried vegetables, and a paste made of shrimp, peanuts and cashews. Very tasty and filling. We accompanied it with cans of Guarana soda, a Brazilian specialty made from a local caffeine-rich berry. The local ladies got a kick out of the fact that I was sweating so heavily in the tropical heat and hunidity, compounded by a post surgical quirck that left some salivary nerves attached to sweat glands so if the food's good I sweat. Very special.

As always our stay was short and left us with a taste of something we'd like to revisit, but on this trip we take what we get and enjoy it.

In the morning off to Sao Luis for our last night in Brazil and South America before heading for the Caribbean.