Brazil: Salvador

4/21: We have made it to our final port in this voyage. I cannot grasp my mind around that concept. Becca pounded on my door at 0530 like we planned. I was dead tired. When I opened the door I told her that I needed to sleep and couldn’t go up and watch the sunrise with her. She understood, plus Jenny gets up for every port, so she wouldn’t be alone. I went back to sleep and slept through breakfast and the diplomatic briefing. They’re always so useless, and I had cereal in my room. There was no face-to-face immigration so there was no need to be up at 0700. It was around 0900 that I got up when they told us that the ship was cleared. I showered quickly and figured I’d go wake up Becca and Bea and see what we were doing for the day. As I was getting dressed Bea appeared at my door. I was shocked to see her up and ready before any of us. I finished getting dressed and we went to Becca’s room to get her to leave. We were planning on going and exploring Salvador for the day. We called Victor and set a time to meet up in Tymitz Square to get off of the ship.

When we were all ready we ventured out. Molly, Emily, Bea, Becca, Victor, and me. There was a group of Brazilian guys drumming right next to the ship to welcome us. There were also people on stilts and clowns. They were so colorful. We walked through the gated port area and into the street. It was a pretty standard back street in a city. We walked about 10 minutes in the direction that we thought we could find an ATM. We followed some groups of other SASers. We came to a giant market building. We were told there was an ATM nearby. We found a bank that was open and went inside. It didn’t take anyone’s cards. Apparently, today was some national holiday so banks were closed and some stores were even closed. I feel like this has happened in several ports now.

We decided to go inside and check out the market and see what they were selling. I already had money and so did Emily and Molly. As soon as we entered inside there was a bar serving beers to dozens of SASers. Everyone was loving the fact that you could drink and shop in the same building. And there was an ATM on the second floor of the market. We spent several hours in here scoping out the different artwork, instruments, clothing, and other souvenirs. We all came out with way too much stuff that we probably didn’t need in the long run. We had to buy any souvenirs from Salvador today, because tomorrow morning we were leaving for the Amazon and wouldn’t be back until the last day. We might have time on the last day, but the plane schedule was totally unpredictable. I liked all of the people we came across and bought stuff from. Most could not speak English, but if they spoke slowly we could understand their Portuguese with our limited Spanish. I could even get by with my basic Spanish, which was really cool. This was the first time I’ve ever really had a chance to use it in real life. One guy was selling instruments and we stopped to look at them. He spent some time teaching me and Emily how to use a tambourine and some other obscure instrument. He didn’t know much English, but he loved teaching us even though we weren’t buying anything.

By the time we finished shopping it was time for lunch. We were all starving for food that wasn’t from the ship. Aka something with flavor. There were a few little restaurants in the market. We had come across a little shop that sold empanadas for 2 real or $1 USD. Delicious. The restaurant we wanted to eat at was way too expensive. It had started down pouring outside just when we were thinking about leaving to find an outside restaurant or drop our stuff off at the ship. There was a little restaurant at the entrance that was cheaper, so we ate there.

The food was really good. Bea speaks Spanish fluently was our savior. She could communicate with relative ease with almost any person there and ordered all of our food for us. I had some French fries and a cheeseburger with proscuitto. The table ordered a ton of rice and beans that I also ate. It was all so good. I forgot just how great rice and beans are. While we were eating in the outside area the rain was slowly letting up. There was a capoeira performance going on on a small stage. Victor took out his camera and took some pictures. With that, one of the men who had been performing earlier rushed over to our table to tell him that if he was going to take a picture he would have to give a donation or buy a shirt or CD or something. This was pretty standard and didn’t shock us after being in the other countries. It was a little annoying. The guy showed us some sweet tank tops though and we bargained them down to a more reasonable price.

We talked with this guy for a few minutes and found out that he taught capoeira nearby. He offered to give us lessons sometime in the next few days. We discussed it amongst ourselves and decided to ask if he could do it today, since it was our only day. We wanted to do it late at night then just go out to dinner and out after. He agreed to meet up in the upper city at 1800 right around sunset. He gave Victor his number to call when we were ready.

We paid our bills and headed back to the ship to drop off all of our stuff. First we stopped by a little convenience store so someone could buy shampoo or something. I found a pair of Havianas for really cheap. They have the Brazil flag on them. They’re awesome. A guy followed us into the store and was speaking to us in Portuguese begging us to buy him stuff. All we could do was ignore him. He followed us out of the store and part way back to the ship.

We were able to pick up our passports for traveling the next day. We changed into more gym-like clothes for capoeira in a few hours and got ready to go back out and do some sight seeing in the upper city. We ran into Saahil, who hadn’t gotten off the ship yet. We told him our plans and he decided to come along.

We walked back by the market and stopped there so some people could get money from the ATM. I hung out outside and looking at all the fishing boats. We could see where the elevator was to take us up to the upper city. We crossed a few streets to get to it. It cost 15 cents or whatever the coins are to get up to the top. It was so cheap. The elevator took us so high up to the top. There was a spectacular view from there of the lower city and the water. We took pictures and admired the view for a little while. We ran into some more SASers. We continued on down the road. The buildings up there are most older and more historical looking. It’s absolutely beautiful and I loved this area. There were some outside vendors that we stopped to look at. There were cats and kittens everywhere up here.

Without any notice it started to rain again. We ran inside to a music shop. A few people wanted to buy Brazilian music. The rest of us went next door and ran into some friends. They had been learning capoeira out on the streets and were now getting coffee to warm up. They were soaking wet from the earlier down pour and then this. We all sat around and got the most delicious chocolate coffee drinks, something called Moka Chocolat, or something like that. Their teacher was an older Brazilian man with dreadlocks down past his butt. His name was Hawk. He was really welcoming and nice to us.

When the rain let up, we paid our bills and went our separate ways. We kept walking and ran into more SASers as we entered into the square. The square and area reminded me a lot of Puerto Rico. It was beautiful. I loved this area. There was a church and a bunch of little shops and restaurants. The ground was all cobblestones and somewhat hard to walk on, plus everything was soaking wet. While we were in the square we ran into Jonathan the capoeira guy. He was standing around with another guy and a young American woman. He introduced us to her. She was over here with a few of her high school students. She was really nice and loved hearing about our adventures. She told us we had done well in hanging out with Jonathan and that he is a really good guy. Awesome. She had to leave, but wished us well.

Victor, Molly, and Bea went down one of the alleyways, while Becca, Emily, and I checked out a few of the stores right in that area. We spent a while looking around, but didn’t end buying anything. After a while we went down to try and find them, but we ended up getting distracted by another store. I bought some more Havianas a few bracelets. I had to pay with credit card. They told me that I could, but I had to go into one of their other stores. I walked with the woman through the rain back through the square over to another store that was much more legit. Then she took me back with an umbrella to her store. We finished up our purchases and went to go find the rest of them.

As we walked down the street we were distracted by an older man selling fish paintings on the side of the street. These paintings were beautiful and we had to stop and buy them. Plus the older man was so nice and amazing. He wrapped them up for us. As we were paying the other 4 emerged from down the alleyway along with a ton of other SASers who had been in the video. They had been in a music video for the past hour and a half. They had been shooting it all day. They had to learn a dance and were in the background of it dancing around. It would be shown on the news later. It was a music video with some famous Brazilian singer and was for the World Cup or something like that.

We walked back up to the square to waste time for the next 45 minutes before we were to meet up with Jonathan, our capoeira instructor at 1800. When we got to the square Jonathan was there with a few other guys that we had met earlier. We all stood around and talked. Bea was our main communicator as she stood there speaking in Spanish to them. All of us except for Emily could understand what was being said and we followed along with the basics of the conversation. Eventually Jonathan decided we could just leave and go and take our lesson now. We said goodbye to the other guys. One of them told us to come back to the square when we were done around 1930 and we’d meet up for the night.

Jonathan led us down another alleyway that we hadn’t been down yet. He took us through the winding streets to a building. He led us in and down a narrow staircase into a dark basement. The whole place was super sketch. It was dark and smelled like the Sigma Chi frat house after a big party or football game. The smell did make me a little nostalgic. It was really bothering Becca though. As soon as we started walking down the staircase Jonathan turned around and told us it was too small and we headed back up. He led us up another staircase. We had to pass by a few guys carrying cases of empty beer bottles out and cases of full bottles in. The stairs were really narrow and creaky. When we got to the top there was a small hallway. To the right it led to a kitchen/bar looking area and a really disgusting bathroom. I would have been better off not looking in there at all. To the left was a small room that reeked of spilt beer.

The room was tiled with white blocks. The walls were unfinished and the beams were exposed. On the walls hung several sheets of sequined cloths. They were silver and gold. The room had a DJ booth to one side with a small window. A guy, who I assume was the DJ, was trying to get the lights on for us. This was clearly not Jonathan’s place, but a friend of his. A disco ball hung from the middle of the ceiling. As we waited in the hallway for the room to be ready, Becca and Saahil said they couldn’t take the smell any longer and left to go outside to a little café where some SASers were having some food and drinks.

Eventually the lights turned on revealing this lovely, lovely room. I ran downstairs to get Becca and Saahil for our lesson. They said they were going to pass and probably head back to the ship. Oh, well, their loss. Jonathan asked us if we wanted an hour and a half lesson or two hours. We decided on an hour and a half because we were hungry and didn’t all have enough money for the extra half hour.

The room we were in was so hot. I was dripping sweat before we even started doing anything. He had the five of us stretch out and move around for a little bit. We ran in a circle around the room for about 5 minutes. The floor was so slippery. Probably from spilt beer the night before. Jonathan ran around with a towel to dry it as best as possible, but there was no hope in this humidity.

Then we began. He taught us the first basic move, the jenga (I have no idea how any of these are spelled). We practiced this for awhile, moving side to side. We followed him then he’d turn around and watch all of us. He kept making fun of me because I kept moving backwards when I did it. And the room was too small for that to be ok. He had me come forward and demonstrate it for everyone. I’m not sure if this was because I was good or just because I was in the front.

Then we started incorporating more moves in with the jenga. The jenga is used for everything and is the basis of all moves. We worked on defending our faces and hitting the ground to avoid high kicks. This move wasn’t too hard, but when we moved back into jenga-ing, it was more complicated to remember which foot and arm went where. He practiced with each of us individually. We would jenga then he’d high kick and we’d have to duck down into this position. I forget the name of it. While working on this I somehow managed to get stung by a bee on my neck. It hurt so badly. I don’t think I’ve been stung by a bee in almost 15 years.

Next we worked on our kicking. This was hard. I’m not a very good high kicker. Your leg is supposed to remain straight while you sweep it across your body, while moving your arms to defend your face in vulnerable positions. You need good balance for this. That is not something I have. Nor am I the best multitasker. But this wasn’t just hard for me, everyone was struggling and falling over and ending up on the wrong foot. Luckily he wouldn’t get too frustrated with us and would just laugh and shake his head. He then made us each do this individually in front of everyone. We would face off and jenga then he’d tell me to kick (I forget the name of this, too), and he’d duck down in the other position we had just learned. I went first. I don’t know why he always had me go first, but it gave me little time to over-analyze it and I would just do it. It took me a bunch of times to get it right because I couldn’t get my leg to sweep across my body while being straight out. My body was soar from working out on the ship, too.

Everyone went through and spent a few minutes with Jonathan practicing this. Then we moved on to the final move. This was the hardest. We would jenga then reach down and spin around on the floor and up onto our feet again the proper position. There were a bunch of moves in one here. There wasn’t enough space to practice it all together so we had to do it individually with him. I didn’t go first. Good thing. I would have had no idea how to do it. We all struggled deeply with this move. None of us could even kind of do it. After we all attempted it, our lesson was done. We had worked hard for an hour and a half. It actually ended up being longer. We paid Jonathan and took some pictures with him. Bea had taken a bunch of pictures and videos while we were all working individually. I need to get those from her, because they were so funny. The DJ was in his booth now and was able to take a picture of all of us together. Bea translated their conversation for us. Jonathan asked him if he planned on washing the floor before tonight when the “club” opened, and he replied with “no one will notice when the lights are off and they’re drunk.” We all got a kick out of how dirty this place was. We’d been barefoot the whole time, too. I’m sure Dr. Mort would have had a heart attack if he’d seen this place and what we were doing rolling around on the floor of it.

We gathered up all our stuff and Jonathan said he’d walk us back to the main square. We asked him for a good recommendation for a restaurant for dinner to celebrate Bea’s birthday. He told us he’d take us to a really good place with live Brazilian music. Sweet. As he led us through the streets I realized how far back we’d gone and how we never would have found our way on our own. We tried stopping at an ATM, but it wouldn’t take our cards. When we got there we briefly looked over the menu and decided this place would be good. We asked if they took credit card. Nope. The owner said he could take us to an ATM nearby. Jonathan told us that we were safe and could trust him; he knew him. That was good enough for us. We thanked Jonathan and said goodbye. The man led us a few streets over, back to the square. One of the little restaurants we’d passed by earlier in the day had an ATM next to it. We all got money. As we did, it started down pouring again. We waited under the tented restaurant until it let up enough for us to walk back. The older man spoke with us a little bit in Portuguese while we attempted to speak Spanish.

He walked us through the outside tables and tents to one of the few inside tables. There was a tv on inside. There were even English menus so Bea didn’t have to translate for us. Lovely. Victor and I ordered some Brazilian cocktail to start out. I ordered a big meal: steak, rice and beans, and onions. A few other people got the same thing. Bea and Victor split the filet mignon. The drink was strange and tasted just like a bunch of types of alcohol mixed together. I was glad to have a plain beer after that. The food was delicious. I love Brazilian food. While we sat at dinner the tv played and showed Rio. The Christ statue had been hit by lightning recently and was almost entirely covered up while construction was being done on it. That would suck if you were going to Rio. That’s such a huge part of going there. It made us glad we were all planning on going to the Amazon early tomorrow.

When we’d all finished dinner, the owner motioned for us to come outside to a table he had set up for us under one of the tents. As we walked out, the live music started up. The place was starting to fill up; there hadn’t been too many people there earlier.

We ordered a few more beers and hung out. Jonathan and a few friends appeared out of nowhere and sat down with us after mingling with the owner and a bunch of locals. They talked to us and hung out with us for the rest of the night. They kept buying us beers. We hadn’t been planning on buying too many, but they were very hospitable. Jonathan’s English was pretty good. Apparently he learned it on the streets. He didn’t have much schooling because he hated it so much. The other guys spoke very little English. One of them spoke Spanish rather than much Portuguese. We spent most of the night talking to them in our limited Spanish. The guy who spoke Spanish had family in Miami and knew a lot about it, so we talked for awhile. He took a liking to Molly. One of the other guys took a liking to Emily and her Mohawk. It was so funny. He would say things about how much he liked her to us in Spanish and Bea would encourage him. Emily took French, so she had no idea what he was saying. It was hilarious. A bunch of SASers ended up cycling through at different points for the live music and drinks. We hadn’t been planning on staying out late, but ended up staying there until it closed.

Jonathan and his friends walked us back to the square to help us get taxis. They picked out a taxi of someone they knew. He told the guy exactly where to take us and made sure it was metered so we wouldn’t pay an unfair price. We hugged them all goodbye and thanked them for everything. We had such a great night with them. We promised to call on our last day if we had any time between getting back from the Amazon and leaving for Ft. Lauderdale. I was legitimately sad to say goodbye to them. They were so awesome and really made sure we were ok all night.

When we got back to the ship I found a note on my door from Becca saying sorry for bailing. I went by her room to see if she was there or if she was still out. She was there. She hadn’t gone out. Her and Saahil had just come back to the ship and stayed on for the night. Apparently a lot of people had been mugged. Mostly during the daylight hours. A lot of people were not liking Salvador and had run across some nasty people. That sucks. We had such a good impression of Salvador after hanging out with Jonathan and his friends all evening and night. I guess it’s just luck of the draw who you run across.

I finished up my packing for the Amazon and went to bed to rest up for the next big adventure.