DAY 49 Mar 2 - Salvadore da Behia, Brazil

Salvador de Bahia (in English: "Holy Savior of All Saints' Bay") is a city on the north east coast of Brazil and the capital of the north eastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival.

The first colonial capital of Brazil, the city is one of the oldest in the country and in the New World. For a long time, it was also known as Bahia, and appears under that name on many maps and books from before the mid-20th century.

Salvador is the third most populous Brazilian city, after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and it is the ninth most populous city in Latin America, after Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and Caracas.

The city of Salvador is notable in Brazil for its cuisine, music and architecture, and its metropolitan area is the wealthiest in Brazil's Northeast, its poorest region.

Over 80% of the population of metropolitan region of Salvador has Black African ancestry. The African influence in many cultural aspects of the city makes it the centre of Afro-Brazilian culture and this reflects in turn a curious situation in which African-associated cultural practices are celebrated, but Black Bahians face major discrimination.

The historical centre of Salvador, frequently called the Pelourinho, is renowned for its Portuguese colonial architecture with historical monuments dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries and has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.

It is located on a small, roughly triangular peninsula that separates Todos os Santos Bay from the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay, which gets its name from having been discovered on All Saints' Day forms a natural harbour.

Salvador is a major export port, lying at the heart of the Recôncavo Baiano, a rich agricultural and industrial region encompassing the northern portion of coastal Bahia. The local terrain is diverse ranging from flat to rolling to hills and low mountains.

A particularly notable feature is the escarpment that divides Salvador into the Cidade Alta ("Upper Town" - rest of the city) and the Cidade Baixa ("Lower Town" - north west region of the city), the former some 275 feet above the latter, with the city's cathedral and most administrative buildings standing on the higher ground. An elevator (the first installed in Brazil), known as Elevador Lacerda, has connected the two sections since 1873, having since undergone several upgrades.

The Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport connects Salvador with Brazilian cities and also operates international flights, and the city is home to the Federal University of Bahia.

It was beautiful morning as we continued up the Southern Atlantic and round Brazil’s coastline.

I was up on deck by 6 o’clock, coffee in hand, enjoying seeing the sun come up and reflect off the blue sea. Today was going to be very hot I could tell.

Our a/c had not worked all night and the cabin was far from cool when I left it with Maria still fast asleep. I didn’t put the cooling fan on in case of waking her.

Very soon the local pilot boat delivered the Captain’s assistant for this port, to the ship.

As we slowed down we passed some interesting scenery on the mainland.

I have never seen so many church spires in my life.

From our distance of a few miles out they looked magnificent set against the early morning sky. The architecture was obviously old, probably several hundred years, and reflected the grandeur of the Portuguese colonial days in Brazil. These were without doubt God-fearing people.

It would be interesting to see some of the churches that this City was famous for first hand, once we were docked.

It was said that the saints shown in the churches were usually coloured reflecting the fact that 80% of the local population were black or descendents of slaves.

As we now passed along the coast line of the City of Salvador we had our first view of the unique funicular railway that takes people from the lower part of the City to the higher ground above. We would later be traveling on one of their funicular trains.

It was now time for Maria to arise and she was soon on the balcony taking in Salvador’s skyline as we came into the docks where we would remain until 11.00 tonight.

Maria was very disappointed that our cabin was still so warm. We then utilized the portable fan to attempt to bring some cooler air into the cabin although there was a slight breeze from the balcony. I took the opportunity of again speaking to our Concierge ladies about the intolerable situation with the a/c and they said they would monitor it during the day and hopefully things would improve.

H. Stern, the International Jewelers, were running a shuttle bus from the ship up to the center of the City, to the old main square.

By 10.30 we were there exploring these fantastic religious monuments of bye gone days.

Our first visit was to the Church of St. Francis of Bahia.
This wonder-fully old building dated back to its origins of 1635. Attached to the actual church was a remarkable museum showing many interesting facets from earlier days.

One room was called the ‘Room of the Saints’ where the faithful could kneel and pray before one or any of the 20 to 30 displayed saints’ statues, all of which were neatly lined up around the whole room.

As previously mentioned the area where this and other churches from the early colonial days is found is called Pelourinho, the historic center of Salvador. It wasn’t difficult to see why these 17tth century buildings formed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The colourful old houses and winding cobbled streets also added a rich character to this part of town.

The churches and convents are magnificent in their gilded glory and are all decorated in the baroque style.

We were aware that some of the local ladies were dressed in highly colourful costumes that were probably the norm a few hundred years ago for the slaves that populated this area of Brazil.

One of their tasks, in attracting attention, is to lure you into a particular shop they represent. Indeed we were lured by such antics and Maria made a small purchase of some jewelry as a result.

The beautifully turned out lady soon had me introduced to her strikingly good looking daughter who I was then pleased to pose with for photographic purposes.

The whole of the center of this old part of town is decorated with all kinds of brightly coloured bits and pieces presumably as a result of carnival. A young boy came up to us and started juggling three melons, which he had perfected with some skill. His demonstration was of course rewarded with a small payment. He could even demonstrate his football skill and I think he may have been a budding Pele or Kaka!

It was now becoming uncom-fortably hot and humid and so we sought refuge somewhere for a cold beer. By chance we came across Gerry and Gary and soon hooked up with them for a refreshment followed by a lunch in a nearby restaurant, recommended to them by the local tourist center personnel.

It had been our original intention to go further a field out of town to the eatery recommended by our Brazilian lady officer who joined us for dinner the previous evening. However in view of the uncomfortable condition we were now experiencing we gave that one a miss.

The cathedral is also on this central square and like some of the surr-ounding churches, dates back to the 17th century.

It has a very ornate interior with renovation work in progress over and behind the main altar. Surprisingly the church itself seemed to have no natural ventilation and must have been very uncomfortable for the faithful on Sundays and other days of prayer.

Because we were now all in need of showers with persp-iration very visible on me at least, we decided to head back to the ship. It gave us an opportunity to take the funicular down to the lower part of the town. The cost was approximately 15 cents in US equivalent money.

On the way we walked through the old part of town admiring the wonderfully ancient architecture of many of the buildings. Unfortunately, most were in quite dilapidated states. The area was also very dirty and smelly and not somewhere one would wish to linger.

We did however see some renovation work on one building at least. This was good to see, as the facades of the buildings were rich in colonial detail if not in their colour. If the city fathers could be persuaded to take on a project for the renovation of these old buildings the city might well get a new lease of life.

As well as a funicular rail system the City also has a lift that dominates the skyline in the lower part of town by the docks. I don’t know if this is more efficient than the rail car but it is obviously well used by the locals.

We were nearly ‘home’ now but in order to reach the ship we had to pass through a large market selling all kinds of trinkets and clothes.

Maria couldn’t resist the opportunity for a bargain, so made a few small purchases here.

We really were feeling the heat now and still had a half-mile or so to navigate before arriving at the cruise line port entrance.

On reaching the ship we were dismayed to find that our cabin was still too hot despite the portable fan going at full blast. The poor old ‘Prinsendam’ has, I’m afraid, seen better days. Many people are now openly saying that they would be reluctant to take a future Grand Voyage on her as so many of its services are proving unreliable. What a shame because the Officers and Crew are all first class…. it’s just the old ship I fear.

We are moored just opposite a building that has a glass front and the ship is nicely reflected on the face of this building as shown in this picture.

As promised by Nancy of the Concierge Department, help for the a/c did arrive. We hope that the system is now fixed and our room will accordingly cool down. Only time will tell.

This evening on deck there was a good BBQ going and although we ate well at lunch time we did manage a steak and sausage that had been cooked to perfection. Ice creams were also consumed as well as a few gallons of ice cold water.

Tomorrow is a sea day and maybe a little sun bathing will be the order of the day if the sea breeze is sufficient to cool us all down.