Bahia: the land of sun, sand and the samba!

There are many ways in which one can get from here to there in Brasil. In our time on the ground here in Bahia I think we tapped into almost all of them!


When one arrives onto the gorgeous island of Morro de Sao Paulo you will be greeted not by a line up of cars, but boys and men of all ages sporting a bright yellow shirt painted with "taxi" and their trusty wheelbarrow. Ready to load up your luggage, mangos or the latest delivery of toilet paper...whatever comes off the boat.

If you want to go further and a little bit faster I suggest the collectivo (AKA the minibus). Now I've rode my fair share of these in countries all over the world, you know the type....they properly seat about 12 people, but in no time you have nearly 25 people squished into every sq inch of space. Sitting on strangers laps, holding onto hand rails they installed, and the kid tasked with marketing is still hanging out the open door singing the names of where we are heading to recruit more passengers. We frequented the collectivo on our most recent venture from Imbassai the beautiful remote beach town that consists of a few cafes and bars (including one gay bar that loves american country music) and Praya de Forte where we learned about the local approach to save the sea turtles (Jo saved three on her own with her t-shirts) and take care of important business like hitting up the ATM getting new bikinis.


En route I started to think about our next leg back to Salvador which would include a mile walk through town with our packs in the blazing sun to the highway, to flag down the bus followed by a two hour ride, followed by a taxi to our hostel. Not cheap and about a days worth of traveling. So the business savvy personality in me came out and in no time we were proposing to our new friend the collectivo driver that he should be interested in picking us up at our remote hostel by the beach and drive us not only to salvador but to our neighborhood of pelarino. I guaranteed to fill up his mini bus with 6 gringas for a total of 100r and we were in (which was a total bargain for us a great deal for him...win win all around)!


The ride was smooth (although squished and sweaty at times) but we arrived door to door in less than 2hrs!
Now this was a key move as the night before we truly danced ourselves into the sand and our crew was suffering from lack of sleep and drinking nearly all the beer in town.

The night began with a full moon party on the beach complete with two types of meat on a stick, a bonfire and our third method of transportation of the story...the cavalo.
We were marveling about how much we could see with the moonlight on the beach a how great it was that the mozzies were actually scared off by the ocean breeze (you could play a pretty good game of connect the dots with all the bites I have) when all of a sudden a heard about 10 horses come galloping down the beach through the darkness. An impressive sight for sure, especially because who would be crazy enough to horseback ride through the crashing waves at midnight. In comes Shona, our fearless Kiwi friend...in no time she is up on a horse (in a dress mind you) and riding off into the moonlight. She of course eventually retuned and joined us at the bar later on. However even after a washing she still complains that her purse smells of wet horse.


Now that we are back in the big city (Salvador) we are spending our days skipping (and often slipping) down the cobblestone 18th century streets and learning to samba in the nightclubs. I'm telling you these women are amazing and no matter how many caparinas we drinks we still can't seem to swing our hips the way that they can. However it was just the other night that we found ourselves not only listening to an amazing live Samba Mesa band, but out on the dancefloor. It was only a few minutes before I found myself in the hands of a gorgeous chocolate brown bahian who was doing his best to teach me the rhythm and motion...I turned around to see all my girls in a similar situation and enjoying themselves around the dance floor when...whack! Apparently Bahian ladies can swing there arms as well as their hips and this particular woman had given her boyfriend (who also happened to be my dance partner) a good smack. I quickly slipped off the dancefloor and my professor got a good talking to about introducing gringas to the world of samba. Oh well...


So by the time the sunsets this evening Laurie and I will be saying goodbye to Brasil and on our way to Buenos Aires. For a few days I'll be putting on my work hat and joining in at a genocide conference, which should be an interesting shift. But for those who know me, know the hat never really comes off. Over the past few weeks conversations on aboriginal policy could be heard on bus rides and somehow Alex (one of our kiwi girls) has been become fascinated with the post Holocaust era and is avidly reading my book about the Eichmann Trial. Wish me luck on my presentation!