Perspectivo

Havana, La Paz, Cuzco, Calli, Quito all share some qualities with Salvador, Bahia. There is a great colonial part of town, with the euro~influence, in this case Portuguese of course. It´s a huge city with over 2.5 million people, and quite spread out, even though many parts are dense. The hood we are staying in is a very happening place with lots of Brazilian tourist here for the holidays (Porto de Barra). They love the beach and it´s jam packed each day. Kinda reminds me of the SF Tenderloin on the Lahina, Maui waterfront. I know that sounds odd, but it´s a fair description. A bit gritty, but I gotta give credit to the daily effort that municipal workers put in. The beaches are occupied from early morning until well after midnight, and these guys come around at about 11 pm to pick up trash on the beach, racking it all up and really nit picking up all the crap from the day. Then, around midnight, a giant water truck with a high pressure hose comes around and cleans the sidewalk. Construction work was happening at 2 am on some new beach club/hotel we walked by last night. Other than the holiday, it seems Tuesday is the happening night. Near the historic district, called Pelourinho, there are some famous samba groups that perform and the streets are packed with revelers. Little cobblestone streets with cool cafes have nice outdoor music until late at night. We know that we are only seeing little bits and pieces of this town, but we came here to relax and dint want to pack in too much hustle bustle tourism. The other day, I had a great wreck dive with awesome visibility. We are going to spend New Year´s Eve on a boat that our B ´n B host has chartered with about 35 others, watching fireworks off the beach. We are actually just getting warmed up, in terms of relaxing. On the 2nd, we are heading to a beach resort south of Recife, and I believe it will be considerably quieter. It´s been fun here in Salvador (Jaime wants to move here) and we´d like to return. Anyone want to invest in a pousda that we can share and have a place to land for Carnaval? If you want to know more, check the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Brazil I hope to post again, sooner than later, but don´t hold yer breath. Welcome to 2007! Love, Burr Oh, by the way, luadumel means honeymoon in Portuguese