Hallooo,
Hope all well. A slightly late email this week because we've been traipsing round sunny Salvador all day.
We left Indaiatuba after a fraught few days in which a flash flood and a malfunctioning flush mechanism left our living room underwater twice in quick succession, and mad children routinely invaded our kitchen looking for Halloween sweets (this eventually gave way to more organized trick or treating in the neighbourhood, which was quite sweet). On the plus side, we managed to reign in Berry, although apparently she has since escaped under the in-laws watch, so maybe not. And I snuck away to the cinema on Saturday, for the first time in literally years, to watch "Dune" on a massive screen, which was good sandy fun.
On Sunday we went to Viracopos, our local airport, and got the plane to Salvador with the squad of Bahia's #2 football team (not something to shout about according to folks here, but still...), for smoky cinnamon cocktails overlooking the Bay at sunset. The next day we got up at the crack of dawn to raid the hotel breakfast buffet and get a coach to Madre de Deus, deep in the heart of Petrobras refinery territory, where a man and his boat shepherded us around Ilha dos Frades all day. We found a deserted beach, I ordered crab and had to smash it to pieces before sucking the meat out of its legs (quite a grueling eating experience to be honest), and we watched the sun go down in the middle of the bay before heading home, as our cabbie told us about a mad 3-day wedding he got roped into in Angola.
Today we were bundled into a minivan and shown around Salvador itself, along the Carnaval procession route and the bohemian neighbourhood, to a series of forts and coconut stalls, followed by the main covered market and up the Lacerda Elevator, into a church literally covered in gold, and on to a restaurant where I had a whirlwind tour of Bahian cuisine, through the Michael Jackson square, cocoa nibs ice cream, then home. We said "mum would love it here" at multiple points throughout the trip, for what it's worth. And bits reminded me of Antibes! Particularly the forts.
Tomorrow we're off bright and early across the bay, then down the coast by bus to another remote island, then back again on Saturday to get the flight home. Hopefully speak at some point before then!
Ciao for now,
Ilha dos Freds
PS: have eaten lots of amusingly-named dishes so far ("acarajé", "vatapá", etc) but I have my eyes on something called "frango atropelado", literally "chicken that's been run over [by a van]"...
