Postcard from Salvador de Bahia

2/5

Jim jumped out of bed at 5am to watch the ship pull into the harbor. The sunrise was beautiful. Our first look at Bahia showed a less than pristine dock area with tin roofs. We were, however, in the company of four other cruise ships that were docking today for Carnaval! (Am I the only one who didn't know that Carnaval translates as "Goodbye meat"? Think of Lent starting tomorrow….)

After one more lecture to the students (no flip-flops, no skirts, no tight shirts, be prepared to be groped, give up your valuables without protest, don't drink the water, stay in groups, wear sun screen, no earrings unless you are prepared to lose a lobe, etc.), we were cleared to leave the ship by about 10am.

Bahia does not accept American dollars, so our first task was to change some money. The cruise terminal has one money exchange booth, with a line that stretched around the building. We were told that all the banks were closed today, so we got on the line. After an hour's wait, we were able to procure some reais (at a less than optimal rate, $1.00 to 1.6 reais), then were ready to explore the city.

Bahia consists of a Lower City which is the business district, and in the hills above, the Upper City which is accessed by a huge municipal elevator, and contains the historic district, churches, and the main square called the Pelhorino. Pelhorino translates as the Whipping Post, and is where many slaves were tortured and sold back in the day when Bahia was one of the major slave markets. We learned that only about 15% of slaves ended up in North America, with most remaining in the Caribbean and in South America. North American slaves were nurtured as valuable and replaced through reproduction, while South American slaves were worked to death in the sugar cane fields and usually did not last more than 10 years. Sobering thought…. Bahia has the most African population of the cities of Brazil, and the religion is a mix of Catholicism and Condomble. (More about this later.)

We took the elevator up to the Old City, and spent the afternoon looking at handicrafts and many beautiful old churches. I'm happy to say that the handicrafts here are NOT made in China! Our lack of knowledge of Portuguese hit us hard when it was time for lunch, so we ended up paying too much in a tourist restaurant for what turned out to be a chicken sandwich and French fries (frango = chicken). Portuguese looks kind of like Spanish in print, but all the letters are pronounced differently (d = je, r = h, x = sh), so when you hear it, you have no idea of what is being said. Unlike other places that wish to attract tourist dollars, Bahians have not learned English. A challenge!

Many of our shipmates paid $300. or more to be part of a camarote – a group with a designated place to stand and watch the Carnaval. Those who did not wish to pay for a place stayed on the street, and are called "popcorn" because they jump up and down and get jostled around like popcorn in a skillet. We did not do either of these things, returning to the safety of the ship for the evening. However, we can report that the crowds were many, the music was loud and a good time was had by most. There were several mugging stories from the students, but as far as we know, no earlobes were lost!