Salvador, Brazil

Second attempt at the Salvador post! Fingers crossed!

After the bags fiasco with TAM the previous night we were keen to get involved in the worlds biggest party - Carnaval. The Salvador rendition of the flagship Brazillian festival is a traditional street party, in contrast to the Rio de Janeiro counterpart which resembles a stage show style parade. Salvador has long been considered the African heart of Brazil stemming from it's slave roots and colonization by the Portugese.

Carnaval:
On our first real night in Salvador word spread quickly about a Carnaval pre-party down by the lighthouse. Within hours there were hundreds of thousands of people out on the street singing, dancing, drinking and having fun to the makeshift bloco's which consisted of a local band in the back of a Toyota Hilux. This went on till the early hours of the morning and left great optimism in our minds for the nights to come. These are some of the preparation photos. Apparently the work takes all year to get ready for the 6 day event.

For the Carnaval there are three options available. Tshirts can be bought for the bloco's (big trucks with performers and a private roped off area which moves down the parade route) and camarote's (purpose built grandstands which are a party in themselves including pre-party, massages and catering). Prices vary from AU60 for the cheapest bloco up to AU350+ for the most decked out camarote. If either of these are out of your budget you can party on the street for free, but this comes with obvious flaws.

For the first night we opted to party on the street to get our bearings and to suss out which bloco's we liked for future nights. This was good fun and very useful. Subsequently we decided to get tshirts for the 'Yes' bloco on the second night. Headlining this was DJ's Tocadisco and Kaskade, which was heavily targetted to gringo tourists. We left our purchase to the very last minute and picked the tshirts up for AU60 a piece. This was a bargain considering others at the hostel paid AU180 for them just that morning.

The bloco was crazy and really got us involved in the festival. We walked with it all the way from the hostel at the start (Barra) of the circuit down to Olinda some 5-6km away. This took it's toll on both lack of sleep (See below: our room had no air con) and walking 5-6km down, and back again. The photos below don't really do it justice as the crowd goes forever after turning the corner at the lighthouse and onto the main street.

Sam and Emma arrived on the Sunday after finally sorting out the Brazil visa issues in Lima. We went back to partying on the street for 2 nights and decided to hit a bloco again on the final night. We decided on the 'Skol' bloco that would feature Ferry Corsten and others. We increased our budget to AU100 and set off for the market again at the last minute like last time. For the purposes of explaination, the market is an unofficial gathering of locals on a random street corner that sell tshirts to passer-bys. It's a consortium of people that regulate prices on supply and demand which was not really in our favour. Long story short, we were within striking distance of our budget before the last 3 were sold to some others. Oh well, this is Carnaval and there is always fun to be had.

We caught up to the bloco and followed it on the outside from Barra all the way down to Olinda, taking in a few traditional Brazillian bloco's on the way. Time definitely does fly when you're having fun - before we knew it, it was 5:30am. What a night! Before tackling the walk back to the hostel, we waited for the next bloco to roll through. This was THE bloco for the locals, consisting of 4 trucks and thousands people. Organized chaos would describe it best. After returning, the sun was well and truly up. Carnaval, finished.

Salvador (like...as a city...):
When we first arrived the poverty of the city was evident. We'd heard Salvador was one of the worst in Brazil but even in Barra, a reasonably affluent area of the city, families sleeping on the street was common, vulgar odours, rubbish was everywhere and there was no shortage of people wanting to rip you off. Awesome! The shops, restaurants and tours shut down during Carnaval which left us twiddling our thumbs during the day.

The morning after Carnaval ended the city reformed. No homeless families, odours gone thanks to washing the streets down with detergent, rubbish collected and the dodgy characters had vanished. Shops were open and restaurants serving as though the last 6 days never happened. We went for a walk around the lighthouse on the final night and grabbed these photos.

I think this more accurately depicts Salvador for the other 51 weeks of the year and would let it's character and laidback atmosphere shine. We didn't really get to experience this. That said, the only reason Salvador was on our itinerary was because of Carnaval so I probably won't lose any sleep over it.

If we had more time we were going to do a boat tour out to nearby islands which wasn't running during Carnaval. In short, I don't think we experienced the real Salvador but had an absolute blast regardless.

Some tips for anyone else that may read this:
• Get a room with air con!!! It's stupidly humid day and night, and the money you save won't come close to justifying the level of discomfort and loss of sleep.
• Despite missing bloco tshirts on the final night, I'm convinced the best and cheapest way to get them is just before, or even after, the bloco leaves. The 'market' was behind Shopping Barra or around the corner from the big HSBC bank (depending which end you come from...).
• You don't have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to enjoy Carnaval. I had the best fun on the last night and it cost me nothing!
• Theres a fair bit of pickpocketing and dodgy characters around. I usually took R20-25 out with me (R2-5 in my pocket, the balance hidden in my shoe). ALL drinks on the street are R1-2 so you won't need much...
• The biggest issue is getting out of the way of any fights between locals as Military Police move in quickly and don't mess around. This is pretty rare though. I only saw 2 in 6 days. I've seen more than this in Melbourne on a Saturday night.

Recife post coming up next - much cleaner and laid back than Salvador.

Off to Rio on 25 February!!