Salvador days 3 and 4

Hello fans!

I've been MIA recently because honestly I've had no energy or motivation to blog :( Between starting classes (with a packed schedule from 7 am to 5 pm Mondays and Wednesdays), figuring out how to actually register for them, registering with the federal police, applying/interviewing for various internships in Portuguese, and housing stresses involving a wacky landlady and a last-minute hurried move on the first day of school, I have been quite stressed! I'm looking forward to settling into a new routine.

Anyway, a few days ago I ran north along Copacabana beach about 3 km  all the way to the giant Clock across from the Windsor Atlantica Hotel that is counting down the days until the World Cup (which, for the record is 293 days). That reminded me that I needed to update my blog, because I still haven't talked about my third day in Salvador when I walked by the World Cup stadium there! We decided to walk to the stadium from our hostel because it did not look too far on the map, but it ended up taking a while, especially since it was raining. On the way was the Dique do Tororó, a natural lagoon right in the middle of the city that has man-made geysers and giant statues of orixás (Yoruba gods from the syncretic candomblé religion of northeast Brazil).

Hanging out with a giant Orixa

The soccer stadium itself is beautiful, but it sits right in the middle of very rundown looking neighborhoods. I don't want to use the word "favela" (that has violent connotations not necessarily be appropriate here), but behind the stadium we walked through the kind of squatter neighborhoods with tiny one-room houses, the stink of sewage, and narrow staircases/steep alleyways in lieu of real streets that scare tourists away. Quite frankly, to me Salvador did not seem ready to host the World Cup...the metro stations were boarded up (I assume they were being renovated?), the buses were infrequent and confusing to navigate, and the stadium was in a location difficult to get to and as I mentioned before, dilapidated at best. However, Salvador already hosted the Confederations Cup in June and pulled it off, so who says they can't do it again for another FIFA tournament come June 2014?

Above is the Arena Fonte Nova Stadium complete with a huge soccer ball/berimbau (traditional instrument used in capoeira) clock. Right across from the stadium is the Dique de Tororo lagoon that is in the bottom picture. 

And now, saving the best for last....On my last day in Salvador I went to Praia do Forte, 40 km north of Salvador. We took a bus to the main bus terminal in Salvador then from there took a local bus that stopped at every town hugging the coast just north of Salvador. Door to door from our hostel to the beach at Praia do Forte probably took about three hours, but it was 100% worth it. We got to see a glimpse of the Bahian countryside and of its famous "coqueiro" (coconut tree) coastline. When we first got off the bus, we were all antsy to see the beach yet found ourselves in a kitschy touristy town of fancy restaurants and bikini stores. However, about 800 meters later, we finally found Praia do Forte shining before us like a dream that was too good to be true! Sorry for the corniness but seriously guys there is just no way to describe how perfect this beach was. You know those "Find your beach" Corona ads with the idyllic sand and perfectly slanted palm trees? Well, I found my beach at Praia do Forte!!

After a long bus ride and a walk through a tacky tourist-trappy beach town, finally arrived at Praia do Forte!

Found my beach!

Found a perfectly preserved crab shell in the sand!

We walked down the already very sparsely crowded beach to our own private little spot next to a beach vendor who became our own personal and super enthusiastic flowery-tropical-drink-maker and stuff-guarder when we were swimming. He called himself "Meow" and he was quite the character. Apparently when he was little his dad, a fisherman, used to feed the stray cats some of the leftover fish from his daily catch. So his dad was nicknamed Meow and our friend was nicknamed Meow Jr., although today he just goes by Meow. He chatted up a storm about all of his past loves with my friend Sarah, and, completely smitten with her, offered our group a place to stay (his place, where else?) whenever we decided to come back. Of course we just laughed it off but needless to say "Meow" provided quite the entertainment to us that day.

Sarah and our instant friend "Meow"

The cherry on top to a perfect last day in Bahia was when we walked back to the town from the beach in Praia do Forte and it was high tide, so the way we originally came from was underwater. A friendly janitor  let us cut across the turtle sanctuary that Praia do Forte is known for, and that usually demands an entrance fee but that we got to see for free! We got to see huge adult turtles and the cutest tiny baby turtles!

Walking back at high tide

I am still dreaming about that trip to Praia do Forte, it was definitely one of the main highlights of my time in Brazil so far.

An instagram picture I took on my iPhone at Praia do Forte. Tough life huh...

Beijos to you all and thank you for reading :-)
Tchau for now,
Marie

Trip to Salvador! Day 2

Oi again!

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....

Slow tourist day at the Igreja de Bonfim

So. Many. Bracelets!!!

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.

In front of Mercado Modelo (I was facing it so you can't see it) with the Lacerda elevator behind me

Beautiful view at the top of the elevator

Flashbacks of Portugal....

A typical street in Pelourinho. The woman on the right is wearing a traditional Bahian dress and headwrap.

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...

Amazing sunset in Salvador, Bahia

 As always, thank you for reading!

xoxo

Marie

 

Trip to Salvador! Day 1

Oi everybody!

So my Brazilian cellphone got lost/stolen :-( and my camera is not working because I think I got too much sand in it... but other than that I had a lovely time on my trip to Salvador! Oh, and I was still able to extract the pictures that I took on my camera before it stopped working so I apologize in advance for the deluge of photos coming up...hehe

 I got back on Thursday night from a 5-day trip to Salvador, Bahia in the Northeast of Brazil. We had a one week break between the language intensive and before the semester officially starts tomorrow (my first class is at 7 am woohoo!) so I jumped on the opportunity to visit somewhere outside of Rio and I thought why not visit Salvador? Along with Rio it is one of Brazil's most popular tourist destinations so I knew I wanted to go there eventually, and I thought I would go this week to take advantage of the fact that my friend and old Mar e Floresta co-worker Kyla was there so we could reunite after two years of not seeing each other! I had a great time seeing a completely different side of Brazil and exploring a new city.

Planning the trip was a bit last-minute and not as easy as I would have liked...after being on the internet and phone for more than two hours calling Brazilian airlines and my American bank I was able to buy a ticket from Saturday to Thursday from Rio to Salvador with layovers in Sao Paulo. I learned the hard way that many websites only accept Brazilian credit cards and when I finally found one that accepted American cards my bank blocked my card. Anyway, with my ticket purchased just two days before leaving, I convinced three PUC friends to come with me and they all bought tickets the next day! I made hostel reservations the day before we left and thank goodness there was still space! We ended up having a lot of luck because it is currently the low season for tourism in Brazil and so prices for the hostel were reduced and even though we booked 4 beds in an 8-bed female dorm we had the room to ourselves as the hostel was pretty empty.

Our bright yellow hostel

Not a bad set-up for some R&R...

The first day we went to the beach right next to our hostel called Praia da Barra, where I had planned to meet Kyla. She had no cellphone though so I basically just had to scan the beach to find her. It ended up taking only about 5 minutes of looking around the beach until I found her: the beach was pretty small and although it was crowded, Kyla stuck out like a sore thumb with her super light blonde hair and blue eyes, rare features in Brazil and especially rare in the northeast where most people are of African descent.

We ended up just chatting on the beach the whole day, catching up one each others lives (Kyla was in town visiting her Bahian boyfriend!), swimming, and sipping on coconut water in the hot sun. In Portuguese there is an expression matar as saudades which means literally "killing the saudades (longing/missing feeling)." Meeting up with Kyla, reminiscing on our camp counselor days and discussing dreams and hopes for the future, was a perfect example of this :-)

Reunited in Brazil! A day at the beach at Praia do Porto da Barra Beach with Kyla to matar as saudades, 2 years after working together at the Portuguese language camp Mar e Floresta :-)

I don't think he has enough cans....

Beautiful day for a walk

Walking past the lighthouse! I almost felt like I was in New England haha!

Sharing a bowl of yummy yummy açaí

We finished the day with a walk to the beautiful Farol da Barra (an old lighthouse on the southern tip of Salvador) and with a typical post-beach Brazilian snack of açaí, an vitamin-packed berry that only grows in the Amazon and that is served frozen and blended guaraná syrup to counter its natural sourness. Topped with banana and granola, there is nothing more filling and delicious!

After walking back to the hostel at sunset me and my friend Sarah, from New York and who was also hanging out with me and Kyla all day, regrouped with our two Columbian friends and travel buddies Andrea and Diana for dinner. We opted for a traditional Bahian meal of moquecas (a seafood stew made with red palm oil, spices, and vegetables) to get a taste of the famous Bahian cuisine, known for being infused with African flavors and influences, and it was delicious! I am not used to eating seafood so it was a huge treat for me. Me and Sarah split the siri catado moqueca which was made from crab. They also brought rice, a typical side dish made from mixing flour with the moqueca juices whose name I forgot, and some very hot pepper sauce. It was so nice to finally have some spicy food after weeks without it (it is extremely rare to find spicy food in Rio) and overall it was a wonderful way to wrap up our first day in Salvador.

Our Salvador travel crew! From Left to Right: Diana, Sarah, me and Andrea. And that was the last time I saw my phone :-(

Current Tunes and Bye Bye Botafogo!

So I have this habit when I get up every morning (bright and early at 6:30 for class) of blasting music from my computer to help move me along as I get my day started. Lately I have been listening to a lot of Brazilian music (go figure) and to one singer in particular named Wilson Simonal. We actually used to sing his version of the song "País Tropical," originally written by Jorge Ben Jor, at Mar e Floresta (the Portuguese language camp) but I never knew anything about the singer until two weeks ago when I watched a documentary about his life in class.

Talk about swag-- Wilson Simonal with his signature headband look.

The film, Simonal - Ninguém Sabe o Duro que Dei, was a comprehensive overview of the singer's precipitous rise to fame from an extremely modest background. He was raised in poverty by a single mother, yet achieved a level of fame and fortune in the 1960s and 70s that resulted in red carpets literally being rolled out for him in Leblon, the very chic neighborhood where his mother used to work as a housekeeper. What is interesting about Simonal's story is that despite his amazing talent and immense initial popularity, he was largely shunned by the public after a gaffe from which he never recovered. Basically, given his modest background and celebrity status Simonal did not know how to handle money and hired an accountant to do so. Whether Simonal simply blew his fortune on trivialities himself, or if his accountant actually stole from him is unclear to this day, but what happened next is what really screwed Simonal over. He was arrested for extortion towards his accountant in which DOPS (Department of Political and Social Order) agents allegedly tortured the accountant on Simonal's behalf (his actual involvement in the torture accusations is debated). Simonal freaked out and to escape going to jail he pledged allegiance to the Brazilian government, which was under a military dictatorship at the time.

 

Here's a video of him singing in English with the American singer Sarah Vaughan. He seems so likeable on stage: his smile and charm remind me of Obama while his style reminds me of a young Michael Jackson.

Branded as an informant for the military dictatorship, Simonal's fans completely shunned him and his career never recovered. Although he had the potential to be one of the greats of Brazilian music, his name rarely makes the cut unlike other singers such as for example Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso. I think it was a pity that his career was stunted because he clearly had so much talent, and out of ignorance he threw it all away. However, the Brazilian public also seemed overly harsh. After all, Simonal was an entertainer, not an intellectual. He had little education, and not fully understanding the effect that taking the dictatorship's side would have, he impulsively did so without necessarily being a bad person. But, at the end of the day he still made great music that if anything helped Brazilians take their minds off of tough times and the military dictatorship. We had a discussion in class about whether he would have been so abruptly rejected by his fans if he had been white. Also, we thought that the fact that he rose out of poverty so quickly may have been a cause of envy for the public. What do y'all think? 

Anyway, in terms of my news tomorrow is the last day of my Portuguese intensive and tonight is my last night in the Botafogo neighborhood. Tomorrow I move to Ipanema, where I will be renting a room just a block away from the beach! I wanted to move to Ipanema because that neighborhood has a great location close to school, the Lagoa, other students, and like I mentioned before, the all-important beach :) Also I will be living with two other UC girls (they will have a double, I will have a single) which is nice because I felt pretty isolated all by myself here in Bota. It's wierd though, right as I'm getting ready to move out, it's growing on me...I'll definitely miss how "real" Botafogo is, aka the lack of tourists/gringos, the cheaper prices, the overall less glitzy-ness of the neighborhood, and of course the wonderful view of Christ the redeemer!! Oh and last but not least my homestay apartment here also has a view of the Dona Marta favela, where Fast Five (that's Fast and the Furious 5 for all of you that don't know haha) was set :-)

Last night in my bohemian apartment :) My homestay mom is an artist and plays bossa nova guitar (hence the canvases and guitar)

Alright that's all for now! On Saturday I am off to the Salvador, Bahia in the northeast of Brazil. I can't wait, it's supposed to be very different from Rio. Beijos
Marie