Salvador da Bahia

As we continued north passing 13 degrees south of the equator, we had a leisurely start to the day since we weren’t going to be in port until mid-afternoon. The brisk head wind has stubbornly continued and the ship is still doing some pitching and rolling, but Dawn has been able to abandon her sea bands. Following breakfast, Dawn & I did the walk of the drunken sailor as we zigzagged our way around the exercise track. Finally at 3:00 p.m. we pulled into the dock at Salvador, a city of 2 ½ million people – third largest in Brazil. We are taking an Oceania tour here, but it will be an abbreviated one, due to our late arrival.

The first sight we had, was of a very modern city with many skyscrapers. This is the new and thriving middle class of Salvador. But Salvador has a dark history because they were originally the destination port for slaves being brought from Africa. Because of the millions of slaves imported, this area is still very rich in Black history. The unfortunate part of this is, despite the abolition of slavery in 1888, blacks still make up the poorest element of Salvador and due to their “Let’s live today because there is no future” attitude, there is a huge cocaine problem in this community.

Our dock location in Salvador was not what one would call rejuvenated. The entire port region could be nicely razed and it would be no great loss. We were on an Oceania cruise tour today, which was predominantly a walking tour of the historic centre called the Pelourinho. Here black ladies in fancy hoop skirts greeted us. This dress pays homage to the freedom of slaves, when black woman could finally dress like Western women.

Along our tour route, we entered the Church of St. Francis. This place is a baroque/ rococo mix and is probably the most ornate and busy interior of a church that we have ever seen. Of course the main decoration here was gold leaf, so the interior literally shimmers.

Before I take you into the heart of the Pelourinho, I’m going to stop for today, since tomorrow we will be at sea again and I can do part 2 of our visit to Salvador. This actually works because we don’t leave Salvador until tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m.