New request

[Guest coolguy]

Well, i was in rio back in august, and although it didn't work well with me for the first 5 days, actually turned out to be an unforgetable experience. Some friends i met in Rio invited me to Salvador, told me that i would have a great time, but i'm somewhat hesitant.

Has any of you been there?

What about the scenery?

Is it something like copa or Ipanema? Upscale? nice restaurants and shops? Nice clubs for haunting?

And what about the people?

Whites or totally colored? I have a feeling that 90% are black! (Don't flame, i'm not a racist, just not used to live with colored people)

[Mike_M]

I haven't been to Salvador in quite a few years, but I suspect it doesn't have any of the things you are looking for - and I hope you're wearing an asbestos suit, it's about to get very hot in here!

[CT Dick]

I was in Salvador in July. It is very diffent from Rio. The city is massively Baroque with large sections of the old city being restored. It looks like Old San Juan or Old Havana. The churches took my breath away.

 

The city is heavily Afro-Brazilian which makes it a different experience from Rio. This tourist who lives in the white suburbs of NYC did not feel at all threatened in Salvador.

 

The hotels are mostly at the southern point, the Barra. This also has a gay beach. The old city, where the restaurants and intreresting walking are, is a taxi ride away.

 

The best meal I had in Brazil was at the Restaurante Maria Mata Mauro, near the San Francisco Church.

 

I loved it there.

 

Dick

[trilingual]

RE: Salvador

 

Dick is right on. I'll only add a bit more to his commentary:

 

Salvador is a big city (about 3,000,000 in the metro area) and there is a lot of poverty. As a tourist, you'll be insulated from much of it, but it's there and visitors should be aware of it. The reason for all the baroque architecture in the old city is that Salvador was the capital of Brazil for more than 200 years, from the time Brazil was founded in the 1500's to when the capital was moved to Rio in the late 1700's. The upscale areas of Salvador, mostly hugging the coastline, are attractive, resembling Copacabana and Ipanema in some ways. There are good restaurants and the usual shopping (mainly in the big, air-conditioned shopping centers -- a blessed respite in the tropics). If you're familiar with New Orleans cooking and like it, you'll enjoy Bahian cooking, which is also an amalgam of Indian, European, and African ingredients and styles. Seafood is used a lot, as in New Orleans, but Bahian cooking commonly uses ingredients that aren't part of a Louisiana pantry, like coconut milk, malagueta pepper, cilantro and dendê (red palm oil). Salvador is also considered to be the heartland of modern Brazilian popular music, where the Tropicalia movement got started. Many of Brazil's finest and most influential musical artists are from Bahia, including Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, and Gilberto Gil.

 

Forget about the black thing. If you're comfortable in Rio, you'll be comfortable in Salvador. Brazilian blacks aren't "different" from other Brazilians the way blacks in the U.S. or Europe are "different" from their compatriots. There's no cultural difference between black Brazilians and other Brazilians, nor, thank G-d, is there a separate black dialect or the kind of deliberate self-separation and tension/hostility between the races that exists in the U.S. or Europe. In a way, all Brazilians are "black," regardless of the color of their skin, because of the overwhelming influence of African culture in Brazilian life, and because of the tremendous racial mixing that took place over the centuries. It's what makes Brazil unique. So just go and enjoy. Besides, that's the whole point of travel, to experience things that are different from what you already know!

[trilingual]

RE: Salvador

 

P.S. You'll enjoy the experience much more if you have some clues to the culture before you go. Read Jorge Amado's rollicking "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," or at least rent the movie to get some flavor of the Bahian spirit. There are other books by Amado you can get that are worth reading, but "Dona Flor" is probably the easiest to find and it's specifically set in Salvador.

[xchris]

RE: Salvador

 

I've been in Salvador in my last trip to BA and RIO.

 

No saunas with "garotos de programa" as you can find in Rio. Always a couple of saunas with 5-6 masseurs to ask to go to a cabin, and not the large selection you are used in Rio. Anyway, the clients of the sauna are lot more interesting and handsome if you want find new friends!

 

The beaches in the front of Barra are shorter than Copa or Ipanema, but the water is much cleaner, is transparent and warm.

 

Also good trip by ferry to Itaparica, island with large selection of nice crowded beaches, full of music.

 

Prices are lower and walking is lot safer even at night.

 

The feeling is to be into an istorical town insted that into a commercial one.

 

Ciao

Chris

[BillyZ]

Chris -- which saunas?

 

Chris, which saunas did you try?

Which ones were your favorites?

 

Thanks!

 

:-)