I was more than happy to be flying across South America to the other side of the continent.  I had had enough of Peru and Boliva and eating chicken and rice.  I’m going to miss the prices of things on the east coast – Brasil is expensive, just mildly cheaper than Australia.

We had to fly to San Paolo first before taking another flight to Salvador.  It was a long bloody way and the flight from Lima to Sao Paolo was over night.  Ugh. I was so tired, cranky, and vowed not to do any overnight travel again for a while.  In keeping with Hub’s request of getting our own rooms, Hubs stayed at the beach in a 3-star hotel, where I choose to be more modest and stayed in a nice pousada (B&B / hostel) with my own room and bathroom – and it cost about $100 per night less than Hub’s place.  Hubs had a view of the beach, and I had a 10 minute walk to get to the beach.  I didn’t mind, my place was run by a french lesbian couple who were just lovely.

We had four days in Salvador.  Tuesday night is the big night out there, so we followed the advice of my pousada and headed into the historic centre.  There was a stage set up, a crappy band playing, and loads of poor looking drug-affected homeless types doing some unique dance moves in front of the stage.  It was a strange scene and because of the pick pocket warnings we received, we didn’t take anything with us.  We were both unsure of this ‘big night out’ and didn’t really like the crowd we were in.  Anyway, we hung out there a beer or so, then left.

The beach in Salvador is nice and it felt so so so so sooooooo good to be by the sea again.  Loads of people run, walk, and stoll along the esplanade and the views are nice.  It inspired me to do something  about my bulging waist line – so I joined the masses and began each morning with a run / walk along the coast path. It made me feel fantastic!

This place feels so different to other side of South America where there are more indigenous people and more indigenous art for sale everywhere.  Salvador is considered the centre of all afro-brasilian heritage and you can see it everywhere you.  It also feels quite similar to Australia with the beach and beach lifestyle the locals adopt.

We had dinner one night along the beach one night and they had happy hour for seafood – so we ordered a plate of crabs and plate of prawns.  Happy travellers.   We also treated ourselves to the best restaurant in Salvador.  It cost us a bomb in a taxi to get there, about US$25 each – which is expensive.  It was a traditional Brasilian restaurant where the table is marked with red for meat, or blue for fish.  After you decide if you want meat or fish, you can help yourself to the world’s biggest buffet.  Hubs and I both had two shares of fresh salmon sashimi – it was so so so good.  I also stocked up on vegies, and then the waiters would come past with all different kinds of meats on skewers – beef, pork, lamb, liver, chicken hearts, etc.  They slice the meat off the giant skewers at the table. There were so many waiters – we both ate waaaaay too much. It was delicious though.

We spent some time on the beach and spent some time shopping, although it’s almost impossible because we can’t carry too much.

I like the feel of Salvador and really like the historic centre – it’s really quirky (except on a Tuesday night).