Round the World: Salvador, Brazil

Viva Brasil!! Oi! Here we are in the land of caipirinas, capoeira, beaches, samba and other fun stuff. We stayed in Salvador, Bahia for about 3 weeks keeping ourselves very busy doing most of the above...and more! Big thanks to the very cool people at Nega Maluca Guesthouse for making our stay very chilled out, hassle free and fun! We spent the majority of our 3 weeks learning the Brazilian martial art of capoeria, which apart from being really good exercise and a lot of fun, has a very interesting history. Drumming lessons at the same school with Birra were excellent and helped us understand a lot more about Afro-Brazilian culture. Through Edi (the man about town), we were introduced to a great bunch of kids also studying percussion. We volunteered to give them some English lessons during their free time and they really seemed to love it! Very sad to say good-bye to all of them. Edi also invited us to take part in an important Afro-Brazilian ceremony called candomble. A first time for all of us, we found it extremely interesting to witness people take on the spirits of their African ancestors. Tuesday nights in the Historic Centre of Salvador, Pelourinho, come alive with stages set up everywhere and groups performing all types of music from samba to reggae, and even stuff we´d never heard before. Following massive groups of percussionists around the streets in the form of a parade, was something we´ll never forget! Must make mention too of the closest thing we could get to taking part in Carnaval....the annual "Viva Gay Parade" in Salvador! Loads of semi-trailers set up to resemble night clubs with bands/DJs playing on top amongst scantilly dressed dancers, cruised around the streets while people followed behind dancing, singing and pickpocketing (don´t they Amelia?!). Good times in the Salvador. Enjoy the pics!