Salvador 1

After doing a quick tour of Recife's Boa Viagem beach, I had a shower at the hostel (but alas, relief from sweat is only short-lived in the tropics). Since I needed to dry out the towel a little, I draped it on a chair by the poolside while relaxing on another chair. The pool was full of Brazilian women hostellers, and one kid; a few families from the look of it. Eventually one of the women in the water asked me where I was from. As usual they had thought I was Japanese. She was a bank employee from São Paulo, holidaying with her mother in the northeast (possibly combining her leave with the upcoming long weekend).We chatted a while, she from the water, and me on a poolside chair. Yes, her colleagues were on strike (lots of estamos em greve signs were pasted on windows all over) but she was on holiday. She reassured me that this wouldn't affect ATM withdrawals as restocking the machines was done by a different service. It was an interesting exchange because she was using her English and I was answering in Portuguese. I daresay she was more fluent in English than I was in Portuguese.


I decided to go to the airport at 1100 even though the flight wasn't until 1548. The hostel checkout time is 1100 and I might as well wait in air-conditioning and also get lunch.


As it turned out, the flight was delayed by 2 hours. Probably due to the flow-on effects of rain in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Those poor Dutch women from Pipa were hoping for some sunshine in Rio on their last few days in Brazil. Brazilian services are a bit uncoordinated. I noticed that the monitors said the gate had been changed. I asked a Webjet attendant about this and she said, no change yet. A bit later they announced that the gate is changed, and the attendant told me, yes it's changed now.


This meant that I would get to Salvador after dark. Barra is supposed to be a fairly safe neighbourhood but still one is apprehensive about walking around with a backpack after dark. The shuttle to the city dropped me and a bunch of other backpackers off near the Barra shopping centre around 2000 and fortunately the hostel wasn't hard to find, exactly as their instructions from the website said.


I have to confess that I did nothing tourist-wise the next day, only taking advantage of the shopping centre to buy replacement thongs and to rest a bit. Also I didn't feel up to facing the Pelorinho in the old city, which is a bit trying on tourists, but that's for the next episode.