After adding some punctuation, the banner on the left reads 'Exigimos nossos direitos de ir e vir. Asfalto já BR-400', which means 'We demand our rights to come and go. Asphalt now (for) BR-400'. Basically they were protesting about the lack of paving of the BR-400 highway, which one of the other passengers explained to me was one of these roads down below the main highway, which they were also blockading. For some reason they'd decided to take out their frustration by inconveniencing us and anyone else who happened to be travelling along that stretch of road on that Monday morning.
The protesters seemed to be having a great time, playing loud music and letting off the occasional firework, and meanwhile the queues of vehicles were growing ever longer in both directions. After several hours the police turned up, and at about 10:30am they finally managed to get the protesters to clear one of the hard shoulders, allowing traffic to pass. I don't know if the protest was successful, but I'm sure that at least some asphalt will have to be provided now, if only to fix the damage they did to the road by lighting fires on it.
The delay added five hours to what was already scheduled to be a 14-hour bus journey, and in the end I didn't arrive at my hostel in Salvador until 3pm, which was 23 hours after I left Olinda. I'd only allowed myself two days to see Salvador, so having lost most of Monday I now didn't have much time at all.
So I went straight out to see the sights of the Pelourinho, which is Salvador's historic centre. Salvador is the biggest centre of Afro-Brazilian culture in the country, with over 80% of the population descended from African slaves. The African influence is apparent everywhere in the Pelourinho, in the street food, the women in traditional African dress, the African music, and the performances of capoeira. The capoeira was particularly impressive - I didn't really understand what it was before, but I do now, and these guys were quite amazing gymnasts.
Walking around the Pelourinho I saw the usual assortment of colonial churches, such as the Cathedral, Igreja de São Francisco, and the similarly named Igreja da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco. I was able to go inside the last of these, and the church was looking very smart, as it was obviously being prepared for a wedding. There was a museum attached, many of whose rooms were decorated with Portuguese azulejo tiles like these ones. I also saw lots of other examples of colonial architecture, for example here, here and below.
In the evening I went for a meal and a few beers with Bert, who's a Belgian guy that I'd met in the dorm in my hostel. Salvador is Bert's final destination of a six-month trip around South America that's been very similar to mine, and he's also the first person I've met who's been to Paraguay, which is where I'm planning to go after Brazil. He told me that from what he'd seen of Paraguay, it's hardly worth going there. This isn't exactly surprising news, and I'll still go there despite what he says (I need to go in that direction anyway if I'm going to visit Iguazu Falls), but now I think I'll spend some extra time in Brazil, and cut my time in Paraguay down to the minimum.
Today I saw a bit more of the Pelourinho, although it's Independence Day today in Brazil, which meant that a lot of things were closed, so it wasn't the ideal day to be doing that. I also went for a ride on the Elevador Lacerda, which is an art deco lift linking the Pelourinho, which is located on a cliff above the sea, with the Cidade Baixa (Low City), which contains the city's commercial centre and port.
Tuesday evening is the big party night of the week in the Pelourinho, so a lot of live music has been going on this evening, and I went to take a look at a free concert that was being held in the Terreiro de Jesus, which is one of the Pelourinho's main squares. I didn't stay for long, partly because it's been raining almost non-stop this evening, but also because Salvador is one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil, and I didn't feel very safe. In fact Bert told me that a man tried to rob him this evening, so it quite clearly isn't safe here at all.
Tomorrow morning I'm catching a flight to Rio. I'd hoped to do this whole trip without flying, but in this case there was hardly any price difference between going by plane and going by bus, and when you consider that the flight takes two hours, but the bus takes between 24 and 28 hours, it wasn't a hard decision to make.
... have you seen the plane yet though!?
ReplyDeleteWhat are you getting at? Yes, I've seen the plane and it was very nice. By the way, it's your move.
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