Historic Salvador

You feel the richness of culture in Salvador, when you arrive. It's a place full of stories, that beg to be told. It was the centre of the African slave trade in the New World and the city's population is largely of African decent.

We went to the historical district a few times, the first time on a walking tour and the second time was because the area was really beautiful, and full of interesting details to photograph. The walking tour was free but we couldn't bring our camera with us because the tour included professional photographs that you could later purchase if you were interested. The photographer turned out to be a girl from Durham region, who was living in Salvador because she met a boy :-)

They took us off the beaten path, into the parts of the city that are mostly abandoned, which were safe to walk around during the day but not at night. The city is divided into the upper and lower city, with elevators that take you from one part to another. But only the Elevador Lacerda was functional. I think my favourite site from the tour was the abandoned walls of a building, the walls green with nature's touch, being used as a parking lot. So broken and yet so beautiful. After walking for a few hours in the afternoon heat, we ended the tour with drinks at a vintage coffee shop in the San Antonio neighbourhood, with a surprisingly great view of the bay at sunset.

The Pelourinho, an area within the historic district, is most frequented by tourists. The area gets its name for the small plaza where slaves were punished, the plaza of pillory. The streets get filled on Tuesday nights, when there is a concert and followed by street parties. Known as Blessed Tuesday, the concert begins after 6pm mass on the steps of Ladeiro do Carmo and singer Geronimo performs. The streets spontaneously come alive with food vendors, people selling beer and caipirinhas, and ladies selling acaraje. Acaraje is a round fritter, made of ground bean paste and fried in palm oil. It's sliced open and served with home-made chilli sauce, a medley made of okra, dried shrimps and tomato salsa. Tamil people, if this sounds like vadai to you, you are right! The Brazilian's have taken vadai to the next level and made it into a vadai sandwich. I was too busy eating to take a photo though. So between the vadai sandwich, caipirinhas and music, we had a great time!

The next time, we went to the Pelourinho with our camera. Some of the area has been restored but much of the old centre is crumbling and yet so stunningly beautiful. This time we headed towards the beaten path, to the Praca da Se and Terreiro de Jesus, two important squares, and a quick walk by the many churches and convents. Most of the churches were closed and we could only see the exteriors of them.

The Portuguese have left their mark on Sri-Lanka. We met Minnie, a friend, for drinks and ordered Bolinhos, which I thought was some type of finger food. It turned out to be fish and potato cakes, very similar to the fish cutlets we make in Sri-Lanka. They have more variety here though. You can get shrimp, fish or potato and cheese Bolinhos. Discovering these kinds of connections we have is always fun. Everyone puts their own spin on it, and this makes the world an even more interesting place to discover.