First impression of Salvador

Yesterday afternoon, I arrived in Salvador de Bahia. From the plane, I had a nice view of Salvador and the 'All Saint's Bay'. I didn't except the city to be this large and the airport bus took over an hour to reach the neighborhood of Barra.

The little guesthouse I am staying at is at Porto de Barra right across from a small beach. The neighborhood is quite lively and the famous 'Farol de Barra', South America's first lighthouse is close by.

Still suffering from a bit of jet lag, I went to the beach early this morning, it was still quiet but as the morning went on the beach got crowded. Vendors pass by every couple of minutes trying to sell you anyhthing from hats, bikinis, sunscreen, cold drinks, coconuts, sarongs, grilled cheese sticks or chicken hearts, jewelry, etc.

It started to get too hot and I decided to do something cultural and went to the lighthouse which houses a small museum as well.

In the afternoon, I took the bus to the neighborhood Piatã where the daughter of a Swiss couple, whom we had met in Ubatuba, lives with her family. The bus took quite a long time to get there but I managed to find the right bus stop, Yara and her son were already waiting there for me. We went to their apartment up on the hill overlooking Salvador and I spent the rest of the afternoon there. She made a delicious passionfruit mousse, which tasted a bit like 'batida de maracujá' just without the alcohol. When her husband came home from work, we walked down to a little square and she made me try 'acarajé', Bahian fritters made of beans and dried shrimp fried in dendê oil.

Back at the bus station, we tried to figure out which of the many buses would stop at Porto de Barra. The problem is that the buses don't stop until you flag them down but you can't really flag down 10 buses in a row just to read their signs. Anyway, one bus that stopped did have Barra listed and I got on. I did ask the conductor whether the bus still actually stop in Porto de Barra and he mumbled something that sounded like Barra. Anyway, after about 1/2 hour on the bus I expected to see the lighthouse, but all of a sudden, it made a turn into a different neighborhood that didn't look at all familiar. At some point, the conductor came up to me and told me that I missed the Barra stop but that we would drive by there again and he would tell me when to get off. Finally, when I got off the bus, I was on the other side of the lighthouse and still have to walk about 20 minutes back to the hotel.

My first impression of Salvador is good and I can't wait to explore the city further.Tomorrow is the big day where I will move into the volunteer group house and meet my fellow volunteers.