After a wonderful lazy beach day during our first full day in Salvador, my friends and I had a busy touristy day where we hit all of the main attractions the city had to offer. First on the list was the Igreja de Bonfim, about a twenty minute bus ride north from historic downtown Salvador. The church is one of the most famous in Brazil, known for the ubiquitious colored prayer bracelets that pilgrims and visitors fasten to either their own wrists or to some part of the church with three knots (each knot allows you one wish or prayer). Bahians have an intense devotion to the church. According to the church's security guard, the story goes that a Portuguese captain prayed to Jesus for a safe journey to Brazil, and after a very tumultuous journey in which he barely survived, he built the church to thank Jesus, making the Senhor de Bonfim ("Good-ending") Jesus himself.
Since the church was practically empty when we were visiting, the friendly church guard named Elton ("like the singer!") gave us a private tour of the church and we even got to chat with the pastor. He invited us to return for mass but sadly we had to turn the offer down....the church was quite far from where we were staying and we had little time in Salvador....
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| Slow tourist day at the Igreja de Bonfim |
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| So. Many. Bracelets!!! |
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| The ex-voto room at the Igreja de Bonfim. People leave wax representations of body parts they need to be healed and photos of people they need blessed. |
After taking a few group pictures with Elton who was sad to see us go, we hopped on the bus back to downtown Salvador where we stopped at the Mercado Modelo for some shopping and lunch. We scanned the handicraft booths at Salvador's famous three story market and found tons of treasures, but none of us ended up buying anything because we were too hungry for lunch! We went to tiny hole in the wall on the first floor of the market for a typical Bahian lunch and split two moquecas: one was fish and the other stingray. I don't think I had ever eaten stingray before but I actually ended up liking it more than the fish!
After lunch we took the famous Lacerda elevator up to Pelourinho, the historic downtown of Salvador that is also a UNESCO world heritage site. The elevator cost only 15 centavos because regular Salvadorans use it all the time to get to work. I was a little apprehensive about visiting Pelourinho because so many people in Rio had warned me about the area saying it was very unsafe. I guess there are a lot of crack addicts there so it can get unsafe especially at night, but I had a great experience there: the area was beautiful, clean, and tourist police were everywhere so I felt secure too! Salvador was actually the original capital of Brasil, and Pelourinho is the historic downtown. Walking along the narrow cobblestone streets surrounded by colonial architecture and countless churches I felt like I was in Portugal again! I was also impressed by how well-maintained the paint on the buildings was, and in such cute pastel colors! I really felt like I was in the historical core of Brazil, a world away from the glamorous beaches of Rio.
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| In front of Mercado Modelo (I was facing it so you can't see it) with the Lacerda elevator behind me |
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| Beautiful view at the top of the elevator |
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| Flashbacks of Portugal.... |
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| A typical street in Pelourinho. The woman on the right is wearing a traditional Bahian dress and headwrap. |
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| In the main square of Pelourinho. The square was still decorated for the Festas de Sao Joao, huge festivities held every june in the Northeast. Theywere especially significant this year since they coincided with the Confederations Cup, which is why the decorations in the back include a huge soccer ball. |
Here's a fun fact: Michael Jackson actually filmed a music video in the main square of Pelourinho. I got ice cream from an ice cream store right below the balcony where he stood in the video. Check it out below! Part of it was also shot in Rio, and the scenes in Salvador feature the "Olodum" percussion and afro-brazilian culture group whose headquarters are also in Pelourinho.
OK so by now you are all wondering when this post will end so I'll wrap this up! After sufficiently wandering the streets of Pelourinho we walked back to our hostel which was about 5km away. It took about an hour but we wanted to walk because the day was so beautiful and we were able to catch a great sunset by the water along the way. That night we went out for caipirinhas and acarajé in the pleasant Rio Vermelho neighborhood of Salvador with Felipe, a Bahian guy who worked at our hostel, and Sebastian, a Columbian veterinary student we also met at the hostel. Acarajé is Bahian street food that consists of a deep-fried ball made from bean paste that is split in two then stuffed with vatapá and caruru, pastes made from shrimp, ground nuts, red palm oil and spices (thanks wikipedia!). Then to top it all off they pile on a pico de gallo type vegetable salad, hot sauce, and salted crispy shrimp. It was SOOOOO good. Sadly I don't have any pictures but you should google it and see what I mean :-) And the whole meal was less than 3 US dollars! I love street food...
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| Amazing sunset in Salvador, Bahia |
As always, thank you for reading!
xoxo
Marie
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