November 2 - 6:15PM - Pelourinho

Alright, back at home base in the hostel area. Actually we’re having a coffee down the street but today was a very interesting day. Took Paulo’s recommendation and headed to the beach. After a bus ride there we got lost for a while, walked around in circles for a bit and then actually found the beach. Once we did we also found thousands and thousands of Brazilians hanging out at the beach as well. Today is a bank holiday here in Brazil, whatever that means, so every Brazilian in town seemed to be at the beach. Kevin and I were the only white people for miles and miles. It is an interesting feeling to be such a minority and is a feeling that I haven’t ever felt before. The beach was completely full, every square inch of sand taken and people sitting back just taking in the rays. Every vendor and small street kiosk is busy and people are spilling over into the sidewalks and plazas. Some are dancing in the street.

We walked down the beach, got heckled for having such white legs and then found a restaurant that Paulo had recommended to us on a point at the end of the beach. It was called La Boca. We drank some beers before ordering and busted out our Brazilian Portuguese phrase book and found the useful term “O que voce recomenda?” That means, “What can you recommend?”

Our waiter brought us a fish stew curry type thing and some mashed manioc and also some cornmeal on the side. From my research I have found that this is a traditional North Eastern Coast of Brazil meal. Authentic and also very popular in the restaurant from the looks of how many other people ordered it around us. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to eat the entire bowl of cornmeal that came on the side but we, or actually I, did. This may have been like a Brazilian coming to the USA and ordering a burger and then eating the entire bowl of mustard or relish that comes as a condiment. Not sure. There are hamburgers here by the way.

So the price of the meal came to exactly sixty Real which also happened to be exactly the amount of money that Kevin and I had between the two of us to the cent. This was good because we covered the price of the meal and wouldn’t be doing dishes but this also meant that we didn’t have enough money for the bus ride home.

An interesting thing to know about Salvador is that it is really hard to find an ATM. What this amounted to was me and Kevin walking around, AKA sweating around, an area with not a lot of tourist traffic looking for an ATM. We didn’t find one. Didn’t see the bus that would take us back either. Ended up catching a cab and having a hell of a time trying to communicate with the driver that we wanted to go to the famous big elevator by our hostel and also that we needed to go to the ATM before we could pay him.

Cab driver took us to various banks in the central banking area of Salvador which is a combination of multistory modern buildings and very old, some abandoned, buildings that are made of adobe looking cement. Bank holiday also makes it hard to find an open bank plus the fact that if you as an American want to use an ATM you have to find one that has a Visa symbol which not all of them have. Cabby wasn’t happy. A note about the famous elevator by our hostel is that it is just a big elevator that takes you up and down the cliffs that separate the town of Salvador from the beaches below.

There are only a couple of places where you can get up a down the cliffs and this is one of them along with another escalator type thing that we haven’t seen. Made it back, good day, exciting. That’s it for now. Ciao!