Bahia: Present in Salvador

Part 2

Once again I do not wish to trouble those with limited time with a plague of tangential and extraneous information. Therefore, here is the précis of our stay in Salvador.

• We stayed with at friends friends parents house, it was good but far away
• Staying with us was the very lovely Huasae of Japan and Capoeira
• Wei Ling organised for us to study at Idioma Portuguese School, it was awesome
• I trained Capoeira with Mestre Rene of ACANNE, Huasae as well.
• Mestre Rene showed us an incredible vegetarian restaurant
• We moved to a hotel in Barra which was closer to the school
• We watched the “Balé de Folklorico”, very cool
• We attended The Opening Roda of the ACANNE event
• We met a bunch of very cool people

Two weeks in Salvador was never going to be enough time to see all that could or should be seen. It is a city with an actual real vibrant culture that is different from anywhere else. A city with energy, all kinds of energy, sometimes joyous and other times “cuidado”.

We arrived in Salvador in low spirits and the result was the city was not so welcoming, or perhaps the cheers and fireworks of Brazils final world cup match were for us and the guy that took my head scarf was just playing around.

When you are tired, rundown, and maybe on the edge of sickness, well I think you can find the worst in anyplace. Still, talking to some others, I don’t think its uncommon for Salvador to be a bit daunting first time round, it grows on you.

So, we did tolerably well then, seeing as many of the above conditions were true for us. We found our way to Andrés parents’ house and the rain did only just begin. Brazil was at that time 1 goal ahead of whoever they ended up losing too. The room was carved out of the loft with temporary walls, the loft was at the top of the house as is proper for lofts and it was a very tall and narrow house. The house sits on the side of the hill very near to the top. When I use house I am talking about a building with 4 floors that is entirely residential and is just for the family mostly. It fills a space between two streets having a door to each. Any and all windows facing out over the hill have magnificent views down the way and over the big intersection that sits beneath. We only saw this view the day we left for the loft does not have such windows.

To get to the loft there is a narrow spiral stair that climbs up 4 floors, then a narrow corridor leads down to a door and that opens to the loft. The kitchen is right there as you arrive and the shower and toilet are alongside, the rooms then begin and we had the first 2 rooms on the left. André, away in Germany, has the room down the back on the right. The last room on the left is that of another André and his wife.

It was all quite a circus when we first arrived and we, fragile creatures that we were, felt a bit shaken by the spectacle.

After Brazil had done and lost its game and some time after that even, we ventured out into the streets for our first look around Salvador. All old buildings and cobbled streets is what it is. It was on that outing that my headscarf was grabbed and I had to step up and get it back. I contrasted the word please with as dark an expression as a week of bad weather and tens of thousands kilometres could furnish. I think it was the please that got him to return my headscarf, I cannot glower worth any countries cent.

Huasae was cooking when we returned to “Andrés Parents house”. “Andrés Parents house” is what we called it, or home, which is where you lay your head, the heart being technically where it belongs or metaphorically with me wife, so in that sense, it was also home for those 5 days.

To reduce the burden of writing “Andrés Parents house” as often as I will need to use it I will refer to it as the “Loft”, a title it has just now earned as we never called it such in Salvador. Fuasae was staying in Andrés room (back corner on the right).

Back to Fuasae who by now had made a wonderful first impression. We talked for awhile in Portuguese, that being the language we have in common and Salvador began to feel less grim, less trying. We could see now that the darkness that comes with Brazilian Futebol Defeats and a week of riding through rain would soon give way.

Before The Week Starts

We had two days, that being how many days there are in a Brazilian weekend, before we were to begin class. We had many tasks to accomplish, a list outlining them, a pen, and so we set to box ticking.

Here is a rough of that list:

1. Visit the language school down in Barra
2. Check out other accommodation options
3. Check out somewhere to train Capoeira
4. Find some good vege lunch

Wei Ling finds all the best language schools, she is very good. Idioma was chosen based on its nice website and good price (a good price is a low price). We had decided, as it was quite far from The Loft,  to go scope out the school.

I wanted some Capoeira while in Salvador (“the home of Capoeira”), and as Huasae is a Capoeista (a player of Capoeira), and had been studing with Mestre Rene (of ACANNE), and as Huasae was heading down to visit Mestre Rene (at the ACANNE academy), we decided to tag along as the academy was on the way to the school.

We walked out of “Santo Antonio” through “Pelourinho” to “Centro”. Salvador is built over several ridges that make a peninsular separating the Baía Dos Todos Santos  from the Atlantic. The inward side has all the famous bits and is on a ridge looking out over towards Ilha Itaparica, the largest of the bays islands.

Santo Antonio is the barrio (neighbourhood) where you can find “Andrés Parents house”. It is up from Pelourinho (the famous part) and is mostly indistinguishable from it except that it is regarded as safer and nicer. It is named after the Fort, Forte Santo Antonio. Salvador has plenty of forts and for every fort it has plenty more churches. Apparently all the forts are connected by secret passageways! Or, perhaps that is the churches?

Pelourinho is, by the standards of Central/South American colonial cities, very cool. Built atop the ridge but dripping off the sides with steep cobbled streets, stairs, elevators, and has “churches with plazas” everywhere. The buildings are built “one becomes the next” and are brightly painted. The 3 or so stories of each seem to lean in, for seemingly narrow streets. It is picturesque. It even has a reputation for petty crime to keep you alert and looking.

Further down the ridge is “centro” or “Commercial” which has less for the tourist and more for the local. Starting from “Praça de Se” it is also home to cobbled streets, churches and the like, but they share with office buildings and shops here. The ACANNE academy and Mestre Rene is off down a side street (see the Pelourinho paragraph above for a description of the street, but remove the bright paint, and add the term gritty).

After meeting up with Mestre Rene at the academy and organising to do some training, he showed us a good place for lunch and even now the thought of it makes my mouth water. Called Happy Valley Brazil or the African Place…

After lunch we braved the public transport to find our way down past Barra, then back to Barra. Barra is the neighbourhood at the very end of the ridge and the peninsular where the bay opens out to the sea. It is named after the lighthouse fort, “Barra de Farol”. There are several other forts scattered around the neighbourhood. Once upon a time the bay was an extremely wealthy sugar producing region for the Portuguese, the forts kept the bay safe. Now it is more upmarket residential and shopping area. On a rainy Saturday in place was lonesome and dreary. Luckily I have seen the place in good weather since. It has lovely promenades along the beaches and with the forts and churches and things, its lovely. However that first time with the rain blowing in… dreary.

We didn’t find anywhere to stay, we couldn’t even find anywhere, we found one but it was closed! We gave up on those dreary rain swept streets, returned to the loft and ventured no further that weekend.

Week 1

Wei Ling was in a different class from I. She began right away with Book 2, where we were on Book 1. Book 1 is nicer, so that was fine by me. Our teachers were awesome, my teacher was Kelly.

The commute had been something of an adventure. We caught the bus without difficultly but had trouble getting much past the ticket vendor as the bus was over full. We squeezed down the isle a few rows then turned to face the window for an hour. Every stop while people squeezed down the isle behind us we continued to stare out the window, that being what everyone does on the crowded buses of Salvador.

That night I went to my first Capoeira Training. I had been thinking of this for all the duration of the past year and before. To train Capoeira in Salvador!

It went well.

The next day I could barely move, I was so stiff and sore. I hobbled down to catch the bus behind Wei Ling. The following day was worse. I didn’t ease up till the weekend.

I had thought that a year of cycling would make me fit; that my poorly defined 6 pack was proof of my condition. The truth is, I was fit. I was “Cycling Fit” and I while that is, no question, a kind of fitness, it is not the same as “Capoeira Fit”. The next day I could barely move, I wasn’t that tired, just very sore and inflexible.

That next day, after class, we went to look for accommodation. We found it at the top of 3 flights of stairs!

The next morning we loaded up the bikes and were moved in before class. The thing was, cycling was no trouble, and I was fine to cycle. Walking was the problem. As a side note going up stairs was also fine. Going down, Agony!

A 3 Day Head Cold

Well that was that really. I recovered for the weekend. Wei Ling went through a bad spell not long after. Being a guy I took it the worse of the two of us.

Time Flies By

The weekend was great with us meeting friends from school Magnus and Jasmine, by chance as we headed back to the vege place. We took in a movie, went to a show, all on the same night! Wei Ling worked on her applications, I read Tom Sawyer. The second and last week started.

There were social lunches, capoeira trainings, Portuguese learned; Salvador was friendly, lovely, not so rainy. Yes, all in all it was a wonderful week.

The Last Day

The last day was a farewell to new friends, the school, and a Roda. Two weeks is long enough to make new friends, to begin to feel that you can speak a language.

That evening we returned to ACANNE for the weekly Roda. A Roda is the name given to the making of Capoeira. It involves people making music and song, people making a circle and singing, and the people making movement and playing in the circle. Roda means circle.

This Roda was also the Opening Roda for the ACANNE event, an event that was to last for 2 weeks. I would have liked to be there for it all; however, I want to reach Rio the more and now time is limited.

It was a great big roda with the room full of people and all kinds of people. More Mestres of Capoeira than I have ever seen in a place and everyone making great music and movement.

After the Capoeira there was Samba de Roda, similar to Capoeira, but more dance and less game.

After that it just became a party.

Saturday Morning

After two weeks in Salvador, I hope to return one day, maybe many times.

We packed the bags, took them down to the bikes, took the bikes to the port, and took a boat to the island.

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