Pictures from Brasil

The last time we posted a few albums we said that photos from the rest of the trip would be coming up shortly. Well, we know it's been a while, but we finally got around to putting up the rest of our pictures from Brasil (and a tiny bit of Argentina). Rest assured, they're worth the wait! Also, more posts and pictures coming soon!

Amazonia

Lencois Maranhenses

Sao Luis (Oh Sao Luis, we poured our scorn on you but really all we wanted were some beautiful snaps)

Salvador

Cataratas do Iguasu - so overwhelming that Foz do Iguasu had to be divided into two parts (I and II) and that's not including the Argentine side!

The Quest for a Limpo

We first noticed one in Cafe Alquimia where we had a drink before Bale Folclorico and then we saw one in our hostel and then we saw more all around the city. Floating, dreamy characters carrying the world in a bucket or a paintbrush or flowers. Many walls in Salvador carry the mark of the graffiti artist known as Limpo and we were quite taken with his work.

We decided to try and see if we could get a piece. We trudged around a number of galleries asking if anyone knew about an available Limpo which was small enough for us to carry. It seemed no one had any, since he's on the rise in the art market and lives in Europe. But we asked and asked till we found one gallery which had a small enough piece and for a small enough price. After much mulling and about 2 hours before we left Salvador we decided that we wanted it! But alas, the owner was (slightly) clueless about how we could take it with us and did not possess a box or case in which to carry it. She initially offered to roll up the painting (oil on canvas!) and send it with us, but we insisted on a hard shell case to carry it and in the course of trying to find one we fortunately we spoke to another gallery owner who immediately said NO - that rolling it would damage the painting. Unfortunately then, with only a couple of hours left there was no way we could get a box and in any case it would be a headache to lug it around with us for a month in Argentina.

But we do have the gallery's email address and may still get it shipped. So if you visit us, you might get to see a Limpo in India!

A Long Bus Ride

From Sao Luis, we decided to take our first really long bus-ride to get to Salvador. It was going to be more than 24 hours. We even tried to plan breaking our trip by first going east to Recife and then continuing down south to Salvador, but on further inquiry, we found out that it wouldn't make a difference. Both towns - Recife and Salvador - were about the same distance from Sao Luis so we would in fact be lengthening the journey.

We made inquiries at the bus station and our so-far favourite bus-station attendant (in the Itapemerim booth in Sao Luis) informed us with a finger-wagging, head-nodding sing-song that there was a bus to Feira-de-Santana, which was about an hour from Salvador but not to all the way to Salvador. That bus actually continued a further day, going all the way to Rio. We decided to take the plunge and go 27 hours to Salvador, there didn't seem to be much that was attractive along the way. In the usual course of things it wouldn't really be much of an issue - we have both been on plenty of long train journeys, say, in India - but for the fact that we were not sure we would have an vegetarian food available at the stops the bus stopped at.

After much fretting we decided to carry all our food with us. We made a whole bunch of jam sandwiches, bought a load of snacks and fruit and were on our way. Finally rid of the decidedly un-lordly Lord Hotel. The landscape was beautiful and the trip mainly uneventful and we even found some food along the way - rice and beans at a per-kilo, self-serve place and some really bad pao de queijo. We made our way first through verdant coastal vegetation of palms and looked like sugarcane country and then wound through the dry interior - the parched and harsh sertao, full of scrub and a few cacti - to finally reach Feira de Santana. Here we hurriedly scrambled into a second bus to Salvador and we were there! We survived!

Nordeste Brasil - Salvador da Bahia

Salvador is a true gem. It is the African soul of Brasil, where the slaves and their descendants maintained their customs, religions, culture, food, and way of life more than anywhere else in the New World. A cascade of emotions washes through the streets, people and performances - from the joyous celebrations of life, to the anger and sadness unavoidable in a place central to the horror of slavery in the New World. In order to make their religions more acceptable to their owners, the slaves renamed their gods and goddesses with more Christian sounding saintly names. Today, there are two main Afro-Brasilian religions practised - Candomblé and Umbanda.

The historic centre is called the Pelourinho - literally, the whipping post where the slaves were displayed and sold. Today, the Pelo is a vibrant artsy tourist hotspot. Imagine well- preserved colonial buildings and churches, the ever present sounds of drums, constant parades on the streets showcasing different dance groups, and artists working in their studios open to the public.

Salvador is home to world-class dance and music performers. We attended an excellent performance called Balé Folclorico da Bahia where we sat enthralled by the grace and energy of the dancers as they did maculelé (a fast and aggressive dance to celebrate the sugarcane harvest, and to display aggression towards the slave owners) and and capoeira (a mock fighting-sparring dance that showcases the athleticism of the performers). The performance also included samba de roda and dances of the orixas (the Candomblé gods and goddesses). This dance performance is the highlight of my stay in Brasil. I highly recommend it!

The City sits in a stunning location on a beautiful bay with white sand. We spent an afternoon at the sculpture garden of the Museu de Arte Moderna. The pieces are all housed outdoors along a wooden deck facing the gorgeous ocean view. The Mercado Modelo is an artesan market where we purchased a capoeira tote bag, still high on the excitement from the previous day´s performance.

Another must-see is the Afro-Brasilian museum, a joint project between various governments in Africa and the Culture department of Brasil. Here are housed the splendid wooden murals of all the orixas by Carybé.

In Salvador is yet another gold church, Igreja do Sao Francisco, the opulence of which will open even the most gold-church-weary eyes. But really, this one is excellently maintained and looks as elegant as a church entirely done in gold (on the inside) and dead saints can.

In Salvador we could finally sample local vegetarian cuisine at Ramma, where they make fresh and innovative food from local Brasilian and Bahian ingredients - highly recommended (albeit expensive, so we only went once.) Also of note is the artisanal ice-cream shop - Le Glacier Laporte - which had flavours of local (even non-Amazonian) fruit and interesting others like a mixed-spice flavoured one which was surprisingly good. Lastly we would also like to recommend Bar Zulu which also had some great vegetarian options like Thai Curry and Alu Gobi, but we tried the Morrocan Lentil stew which held its own against anything we´ve eaten on the trip. The rest of our outside meals were cheap pizzas at a quiet corner bakery washed down with fresh pineapple juice.

And finally, a huge thanks and a big nod to the excellent hostel we stayed at, called Nega Maluca (which means crazy black woman). The staff goes above and beyond the call of duty towards their guests (for instance, when our flight out of Salvador was inexplicably cancelled, Nega staff dealt with the airline and got us on the very next flight out with no extra charge), the breakfasts are sumptuous (with eggs made fresh the way you want them), and the rooms excellent. There are many other nice touches such as the provision of tote bags for its guests to not have to use plastic at the market. Instead of going the regular dorm route, we treated ourselves to a suite with our own bathroom, kitchen and balcony (with hammocks!).