Trip to Brazil!
During the last week of May and first week of June 2001, my wife and I took a trip to Brazil to pick up our son who had served a two year L.D.S. church mission there.
Located on the east coast of Brazil, Salvador was the slave trading center during the 16th to
18th centuries. The city is heavy with colonial style buildings from that time period and was once
the capital city of Brazil.
Streets in the old part of town are narrow, usually one-way, and chaotic. Vendor shops usually
occupy the ground floor facing the streets. Here you can buy tourist trinkets and postcards,
prepared foods and drinks from cafes, phone cards (necessary for all public phones), clothes,
jewelry, caskets, banking services, music (on CDs, cassette tapes or LP vinyl records), and
even internet services.
Street vendors here are aggressive. (We learned to wag a finger in
the air, say "No" and walk away. Without the finger wag, the vendors would simply pursue you
further.)
Salvador is separated into a lower and upper city. The city is famous for the huge
elevator which link the two parts. The cost to ride a crowded elevator car is 5 cents.
The
traditions, clothing and foods in Salvador are influenced by the African slave trade
and are unique to this area. Watch for delicious spicy foods in the food stalls and Voo-Doo in
their religions.
Across the street, at the bottom of the elevator, is the old slave trading building, now home
to indoor and outdoor shopping stalls as well as a beer establishment. The basement still
contains the slave cells and a tunnel to a fort in the middle of the harbor where slaves
were off loaded.