Salvador,Brazil, Backpacking Eight Months
On the Road
Bus Through South America
By David Rice  
Salvador,
Page Seventeen
Salvador, Brazil, Backpacking by Bus
In South America
Eight Months On the Road
By David Rice  
Salvador, Brazil,  More Beaches

On a peninsula where the River Paraguacu empties into a wide bay,
Bahia de Todos os Santos, the Portuguese arrived on All Saints Day in
1502 and by 1549 had built their settlements,
On a steep bluff that divides  the city into two sections, Baija at sea level
and Alta, 275 feet above, an elevator built in 1873 takes passengers
between the upper city and lower city. Sao Salvador de Baihia de Todos
os Santos is the name of this the oldest city in Brazil, the historic city
noted for its carnival and now called Salvador.

In the center of the city there are two big squares and that is where the
history and nightlife happen. Pelourinho Square, now a World Heritage
Site, is also the location of the San Francisco church, a Baroque
monument to excess.
The city had lots of wealth during the sugar and slave trade and they
poured a considerable part of it into this very ornate baroque church
that had many statues of European-looking angels, pregnant angels at
that.

I love to explore the street food and found a local favorite: acaraje, a
brown-eyed pea or brown bean fritter stuffed with shrimp, onion, garlic,
and a touch of cayenne and deep fried in palm oil. Another that I liked,
pasteis, a deep-fried palm oil fritter. These are treats of dubious health
value but a backpacker walks off the extra fats..

Extremely steep hills divide the upper to lower city on the ocean while
streets in the center hum with street music, beer joints, restaurants, and
lots of shops selling art. The people were friendly, some brown skinned,
some black,  and some light skinned. The town also attracts many world
tourists for its history, architecture and, festival and nightlife.

From Salvador I went south to Porto Seguro. There a man told me that I
should go to Arrail d Ajuda,  a colonial town on the ocean that I needed
to see. He told me to go to the end of the dock and get a ferry to Arrail d
Ajuda and then get a combi to the square. Turned out to be a nice clean
square and an area of quaint hotels and b&bs, classic old buildings
surrounded by tropical trees, a unique architecture with no high-rise
buildings.  All of the roads were cobblestone and they ended at a beach
lined with restaurants and hotels. I enjoyed a beer and some swimming
at this upscale community. This was my last beach before Rio so I spent
the day there and caught ferry back in the afternoon hoping to catch a
bus South to Rio, a long trip that might be 36 to  40 hours.

Soon I was on my way and stopped the next day for a rest briefly and
then caught another bus to continue to Rio.

By now my mind was full of images of the beaches that I had heard so
much about: Ipenema and Copacabana. Soon I would be moving south
again towards Rio, normally a three-day trip by bus from Fortaleza, but
for a beach loving backpacker it turned into ten days before I would hear
the sambas, taste the foods, and walk the powdery sands of Rio's
beaches.   
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