Dont believe the hype

The Budget tour passed trough Salvador several days before my arrival and had plenty of warnings for me.  One of the new guys who joined in Rio supposedly got held up at knife point three times in three days.  Another girl said that she had never been as afraid in her life as she did during her time in Salvador.  The lonely planet also said that if you are going to get mugged or pick pocketed in Brazil it will most likely happen in Salvador.  So with all of these warnings I was feeling pretty timid at 1:00am as I disembarked my first and probably only flight inside south america from Rio to Salvador.  I met up Tash and Tim at the airport which was nice because it was a long way out of town and taxi fares are very expensive in Brazil.

Contrary to the reports we had heard we had a pleasant and crime free stay in Salvador.  I took the friendly hostel hosts advice and stayed to certain areas but I felt comfortable walking around town with my camera out during the day.

If you are planning to come here make sure you are here on a Tuesday.   Every Tuesday night there is a big street party on a long wide stairwell in front of a church in the center of town.  We had not heard this and arrived very late Tuesday and missed the big party.  I heard lots about it and saw lots of pictures but I wasn't prepared to hang around for a week for the next one.

At about 2.5 Million people Salvador is one of the bigger cities in Brazil.  I only saw a small portion of it in the historical town center.   This was a beautiful colonial area plastered with bright pastel colored building and magnificent churches.  Another interesting part of Salvador is that a there is a massive elevator which is used extensively by locals and tourists to get down to the waterfront.

We went to a live Brazilian show called Mama Africa that had rave reviews from everyone staying in the hostel.  There were lots of fit figures sparsely covered by carnival like costumes making inhuman dance moves for 50 minutes.  I though the dancing was very impressive but the whole coordination of the spectacle was not nearly as professional as something I would have seen at home.  Everyone else thought it was amazing.

I didn't bother with the beaches in Salvador because I would be seeing a lot up the coast so I left the number one tourist destination after only three nights.