Salvador, Brazil

We traveled Wednesday night, and all day Thursday before arriving in Salvador, Brazil at about 9 AM on Friday.  For some reason, we backed up for over a mile before arriving at our berth; seemed to us that it would have been quicker to sail in and turn around, but this wasn’t our day to run the ship.  As we were nearly at our berth, we saw the reflection of the ship in a large, glass-faced building near the pier.  It was an interesting sight.

Salvador is the fourth largest city in Brazil; it was founded in 1549, and was Brazil’s capital in 1763.  The early colonists established sugar and tobacco plantations that brought great wealth to the area.  The city, with its white sand beaches and tropical vegetation also is known for its numerous churches – over 165 at last count.

We were docked close to downtown, the central market and an elevator that took passengers up to the historic upper city.  We decided with John & Judy to take the elevator to the upper city and see the market on the way back to the ship.  The upper city was a bustle of activity, as they were setting up barricades and sound stages around a number of venues which were part of the Carnival celebration in Salvador, which was to begin on Friday night.  Most of the buildings, and even statues were covered by large sheets of plywood; apparently the authorities wanted to take no chances with the large crowds expected for Carnival.  The streets of the upper city are narrow and cobblestoned, and today are home to many shops and restaurants.  We saw many women in colorful costumes; we’re not sure if that was for Carnival, or if they dress that way to depict colonial days in Salvador when a cruise ship is in town.

It was very hot and steamingly humid, even though it was not yet noon, so we found a sidewalk restaurant with umbrellas for shade and stopped for a beer.   After shopping our way back to the elevator to take us to the lower level of the city, we re-boarded the elevator and made our way back to the Mercado Modelo, or central market.  This was a large, multi-story building, just crammed with stalls selling various goods to tourists and locals alike.  We were hot and tired, so we walked through the central aisle of the market to a covered, outdoor area where we had another beer.  John and Judy stayed in the market to shop, so we found a shady street to travel the several blocks back to the ship.  We both changed into our swim suits and jumped into one of the ship’s pools to cool down.  Sufficiently cooled, we sat on the deck (in the shade) until time to clean up for cocktails and dinner. 

  

We sailed about 5 PM, and will have one more day at sea before arriving in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.   The ship will stay in Rio for two days, and we are booked on a city tour on Sunday morning, and also for the Carnaval celebration in the Sambodromo on Sunday night.  The festivities are supposed to begin around 9 PM and not conclude until about 7 AM on Monday morning.  Don’t know how long we’ll last, but we will do our very best.  At least we can sleep most or all of the second day in Rio.  We’d like to see either of the world-famous beaches in Rio, Ipanema or Copacabana, but with the crowds in the city for Carnaval, the streets are supposed to be almost impassable.  We’ll let you know how successful we are.