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Travel blog of a year-long round the world trip.
Currently in London, UK.
(the first leg of my trip in a nutshell -- route as originally planned).

The Dark Side of the Moon [18/12/03] 

Salvador de Bahia, a.k.a. simply Bahia, is a place of many faces. The current face is full of Xmas decorations, colourful lights, choirs of old women and small children singing carols in the evenings and gigantic Santa statues are guarding the major squarees, watching over a chunky overgrown baby Jesus in the arms of the kings or have been attached to and made to climb various buildings and other surfaces.
The historic town, Pelourinho, is rife with colonial architecture, narrow cobbled streets, wide open squares and what must be many of the 166 churches of the whole of Salvador.
Apparently Pelourinho is where Michael Jackson pranced around the streets in with a lot of poor but happy kids in one of his later videos (one of those dedicated to racial equality, peace and loving children (in which sense of the word no-one including himself seems to know anymore).
There are plenty of good restaurants and street vendors (many serving African dishes - the strong African influence on Bahia is everywhere, from religion, to music, to dress, etc...). There are many good swimming beaches, great live music and loud, loud Afro-Bahiano drum ensembles in the street and generally a lot of touristy, fun things to do here (although incomprehensibly a lot of nightlife here finishes at 12 while in the rest of Brasil it only seems to get started around then or later!)
All this entertainment and relative peace for tourists, however, seems to have been bought in Pelourinho through a massive police presence on every street corner, barely ever more than 30m away, 24 hours a day. I get the distinct feeling that Pelourinho is surrounded by Favelas and the only thing stemming the tide of crime, poverty and crack-smoking (which literally starts just one block away from the town centre in most directions), is a uniform and holstered gun.
During the day the only real signs are legions of people asking anyone remotely gringo-like for cash, but then late at night a lot of unsavoury start prowling and picking fights and I only really feel safe when in viewing distance of a copper or two. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em - I guess I'll never be satisfied...
Anyway, it looks like tomorrow I'll head off to a beach village, Arembepe, a little way from here and then return to Xmas decorations and carol singing in a couple of days. Then again, for me, the obligatory cold weather and sleet is missing so I may not get into the mood anyway. :)

[in the Xmas spirit here's an Onion article I found amusing, check it out if you're bored.
I also want to thank everyone for the overwhelming response to the Xmas poll: a grand total of 3 votes ;) have decided (2-1) I'll be staying in Salvador :).
I also want to apologise for the barrage of photos on the gallery - please let me know over the new poll whether you would prefer a shorter edited gallery with only half-way decent pictures or (unflatteringly to my photographic non-skills) to keep including almost everything (including all the rubbish and random memory-pictures)
Cheers for your participation :) ]

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