This time it's Brazil and my friend Laurie is my partner in crime.
We both have a love for warm weather and all things latin. So to catch you up on our first few days...we arrived to Salvador, Bahia and it only took us 30 hrs... 3 planes and four taxi rides (via a short stop in Rio with just enough time to sing
'the girls from Ipanema' while walking the cold rainy streets to realize our afternoon flight heading north towards the equator was in fact a really good idea).
So we arrived in Salvador after 30 hours of traveling and wasted no time in joining the city wide street party with a live salsa or samba band on each corner we turned. Since then the dancing has not stopped. Day 2 included joining a capoeria class at mestre Bimba's school. Now for those of you who may not recall I did once play capoeira (in Australia) which may I remind you was over 5 years ago! However, apparently it's just like riding a bike and the energy of playing in the land where capoeira was born is amazing.
My lessons have continued each day, but often in a less formal setting. This morning for example I found myself joining the local boys on the beach for a headstand lesson after they gave quite a performance while periodically jumping into the ocean to cool off. The hearts of Brazillian are as warm as the ocean and it already feels like we have been here for ages!
This particular beach excursion took us to Morro de Sao Paulo, a spectacular little island off the coast of Salvador where the taxis are boys with wheelbarrows and the streets are made of sand (literally).
The island was only a few hundred km away, which is all good except it took us a minibus ride, followed by a ferry, followed by another minibus ride followed by a small boat to get there. Totally worth the trouble and the whole trip took no more then a few hours.
An important lesson we have learned is that whenever something runs in Brasil those involved are anything but in a hurry. Chillen on dock for over an hour waiting for your boat to arrive is pretty much the norm.
We rushed to catch our last connection which was apparently a commuter ferry back to Salvador. Only once we pulled away from the dock did we realize we were the only two women on a boat full of about 200 Brazillian men. They were nothing but sweet to us and in no time buying us drinks and we were singing dave matthews together. In most cases we wouldn't have been in any kind of a rush. However, today being Friday we were doing our best to beat sundown and return to Salvador for shabbat.
How is it that we had shabbat plans in a city we had spent a total of 48 hours in, and has a Jewish population that could barely make a minyan you ask? Well... while I was busy doing cartwheels with boys in dreadlocks at capoeria school, Laurie went shopping a found herself not a new dress, but one of the few Jews in town. Who mind you also happened to be a Calvin Klein underware model (but that is a story for another time). Khaleb, traces his heritage to Etheopia, Turkey and the Sudan is one of the few active members of the community here. He was gracious enough to invite us for Kabbalah shabbat at his very multi-chorizo synagogue.
ok that is all for now... we miss you all and promise the next post will hopefully include some photos. This afternoon we are heading into the jungle to search for Brasil's tallest waterfall.
ciao ciao
Morgana
email me
No comments:
Post a Comment