Sunday, October 22, 2006

Salvador, Ramiro, Ainhoa & Niall (14-18/Oct/06)

Valença, Brazil

Ramiro, our mate in Salvador (there perfecting his percussion skills), received a nice early morning call from us at 7am on a Saturday morning. He put on a brave face and showed us around his house & neighbourhood. Then we went off for a small walk into the historic centre, Pelourinho. It's a really pretty area of cobbled streets and colonial houses, buildings and churches. Didn't spend too much time as Ainhoa & Niall were arriving the next day from Madrid and we'd see it all together. After lunch we were so knackered we needed a short siesta before heading out again for beers & to see a local salsa band (Ramiro's neighbourhood is full of musicians from all over South America).

Next day we headed for the local beach. Not as wonderful as all the other's we've seen, but not bad for a city beach. It was a bit packed because it was Sunday, but we had a nice relaxed day while we waited for Ainhoa & Niall's flight to arrive that night. Went to their hotel to wait for them, and had a great little party without emptying too much out of the mini-bar (thanks to the booze brought over from Spain). Turns out Ainhoa & Niall are getting married! As we were pretty drunk, tired, far away from Ramiro's, and because it was a 5* we slept on the second bed and then slunk out the next morning.

To ease the jet lag, the next day we all went to the city beach again. Needed sunglasses to block out the glare from Ainhoa & Niall's white skins. The started calling me Cuban. That evening Ramiro took us to a Candomble ceremony. Candomble is a hodge-podge of various African religions plus a bit of Christian influences. Ramiro goes every week to do some "trainspotting" (in clubbing circles this refers to spending the entire night next to the DJ watching and learning his techniques): he watches and learns from the various bongo-type drum players. The ceremony consists of men playing rhythmical music and women dancing. One by one the women (and sometimes members of the public) fall into a trance and are taken away and dressed up to represent the spirit that has possesed them. We only saw this first part as Niall was falling asleep. Or, more probably, into a trance. Apparently afterwards the women reappear, dressed up, and there is more dancing. The whole thing lasts about 4h!

Next day we went to a nicer beach, a few miles North of Salvador. Nice but still not amazing. That night we were supposed to go out in Pelourinho, as Tuesday nights are the big night, with loads of live bands in the streets & a lot of caipirinhas. We only saw a few seconds of the various bands on our way to our meeting point with A&N, waited for an hour, and then phoned the hotel. Turns out Ainhoa was ill. Oh well, at least we got a glimpse of the party.

Our last day in Salvador we went to a nearby island called Itaparica. Pretty OK beach, but dirty and with scummy water. A bit pointless really. Spent the evening round Pelourinho and got an early night in preparation for the early rise for the ferry next day.

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