Drumming Salvador and relaxing Morro de São Paulo

Salvador

As mentioned in our previous post, we had first thought that we would go to Salvador one day earlier. But then we started to look what there is to do and see in Salvador and actually – not very much. Also, there were so many warnings on where not to go to avoid being robbed or mugged that it didn’t really feel like a welcoming city. That was one reason why we stayed one night longer in the cozy Lencois 😉

We searched where to stay in Salvador and we got basically two results: 1) Barra, the southern part of Salvador with beach access or 2) Pelourinho, their historic part of the city with colorful buildings. We had seen some beaches along our road trip, so we decided to stay in Pelourinho.

Street view in Pelourinho

The historic Pelourinho doesn’t cover a very large area. One can walk through the safe streets in few hours. One could see immediately where the touristic area ends – that’s where the buildings are in terrible shape and you definitely don’t want to walk there during night time. In a matter of fact, our receptionist at Studio do Carmo Boutique Hotel told that during the evening/night time we should only walk the main street up and down and by no means take a left or right. For us Finns it felt strange and not very pleasant. But we managed to keep us on the right streets (where there were cops standing in each corner for security!) and nothing happened to us. 😊

Views just around the corner were all like this.

Our HUGE room 😤 We were supposed to get a smaller one but it was under maintenance. Suits us!

During our day time in Salvador we mainly walked on the streets and looked into different stores, watched how people interacted with each other and listened to and watched different drum groups called 'olodum' practicing for their shows. We bought also some coconut-lime lemonade and especially Edda found it delicious! We bought it two times during one day 😃

Delicious coconut-lime lemonade! Wonder how they make it... 😋

The state of Bahia is well-known of its gemstones. We walked pass several gemstone stores and decided to pop into one of them. The salesman spoke good English and told us which stones were most typical in Bahia and which ones are more rarely found (and more expensive, like the aquamarine). Edda found one ring that called her name and the salesman gave us an offer that we took 😛 The ring was too big so they had to make it smaller. We got to see where all the stones were cut and jewelries made. It was a nice experience to see everything!

Edda looking carefully through all stones 😉

Artist at his work

We also visited ‘Elevador Lacerda’ that is one of the main tourist attractions. It cost only 0,15 reals to come in (apprx. 0,045 $) and there is a short “bridge” from where one sees a bit more of the city. The main idea is to get from an upper level street to the harbor area and back. We went down and paid the 0,15 reals again to come up. Well, not very fascinating, but worth the money, heh. 😛

Our hotel was on the main street and well-located. The down-fall was that there were some stairs right in front of the hotel and different bands played whole day and until late night on the top of the stairs. So, we had practically a live band in our room… We had also some difficulties communicating with the hotel staff because they didn’t speak any English (again).  When we tried to book some boat tickets to Morro de São Paulo, instead of max. 5 minutes discussing, it took 20 minutes with Google translate. We were quite tired of using our time in basic discussions that turned into very difficult ones. Ush!

This is where different bands played. View from our balcony.

Morro de São Paulo

We had read and heard that Morro de São Paulo should be something quite amazing so we decided to go there and stay four nights. Morro de São Paulo is a part of a bigger island, Ilha de Tinharé, a 2,5 hour boat trip from Salvador. We did some research on where to stay: there are four beaches to choose from. 

• Beach number one is closest to the harbor. It is also where the centrum is and most of the shops and some restaurants are located on the main street.
• Beach number two has all the restaurants and bars. This is also a popular beach for sunbathing and hanging around in the ocean.
• Beach number three has also restaurants but it starts to be a bit more quiet.
• Beach number four is 5 km long and has some resorts and maybe more expensive hotels. The beach is the quietest of all.

We stayed at Pousada Nativo, located perfectly at beach number one with just a few minutes’ walk to beach number two.

Our room at Pousada Nativo

Breakfast/hang-around area

But let’s return a bit to the part where we bought our tickets to Morro de São Paulo. As mentioned, we had some language issues with the hotel’s receptionist. We told her that we wanted to buy a boat ticket to the island. After a lengthy discussion, she told us that she had reserved our tickets. Perfect. The next day we were picked up by Cassi Turismo and at their office we found out that it was not the 2,5-hour boat trip but a boat-bus-boat transfer instead, and it would take 1 – 1,5 hours more. Damn. Well, the trip went alright, if we don’t think about a bus that smelled like urine, that stopped two times because ‘something broke’ or because it had to go and buy more gasoline (!!).

When we arrived to the island, there were many men shouting ‘taxi, taxi, taxi’. The entire island is forbidden for cars, so it was not a regular taxi they were offering. The men were there with their wheelbarrows to transport our luggage. We didn’t know entirely how far our guesthouse was and everyone said that the hills are really difficult to go with luggage so we paid a boy 15 reals to take Markus’ huge bag 😛 But had we known how close by our accommodation was, we hadn’t taken a “taxi”.

Our pousada was quite alright if you think about the location and privacy. Even if we were right at the main street, we didn’t hear any noise from the restaurants or pedestrians during the nights. It was lovely to be able to sleep without earplugs, especially after Salvador’s busy nightlife! Our room was okay, but what bothered us was really stinky towels 😡 Yuk! But the “main guy” who worked there was friendly and tried to help us with our questions (mainly in Spanish).

Street view in Morro de São Paulo

We were a bit unlucky with the weather – during our stay it rained every day :p But we did have time to do some snorkeling, stand-up-paddling and enjoy the beaches. This is where Edda went to the ocean first time after her kitesurfing accident, after an about 3 weeks’ break! On one evening we walked to a nearby light house from which one could see a sunset on the other side and the beaches on the other. It was just a short walk and one gets nice views from there. During the days one could do zip-lining from the light house to the ocean.

Sea urchin "walking"

Beach #2

View from the other side of the lighthouse

And from the other side

We tested a few restaurants and our favorite was Capoeira, in the end of beach 2. They had sushi and other Asian food and we found it quite good. It was nice to sit on the beach with candle lights on all tables in every restaurant. One waiter at Capoeira, Eros, spoke English and served us on two nights. It was fun to talk with him – he is from Spain but traveling around and we even tried to teach him “Bon Appétit” in Finnish. His reaction was hilarious when we said “hyvää ruokahalua” 😅 The sidewalks were also filled with stands with fruits and alcohol. People sold drinks made of different fruits and alcohol by request. We saw that there were cashew fruits available and had to try them. We had heard in Costa Rica that they would be sweet and delicious so we ordered a drink with cashew fruit and lime. Aaaaandddd…. it was TERRIBLE! Yak! 😧

What kind of mix would you like tonight?

Then our time at the island became to its end (and the sun started to shine, damn it!). This time we took the 2,5-hour catamaran trip straight to Salvador. Well, the ocean didn’t really stay still and there were quite many throwing up! Edda didn’t feel well either (actually, it’s still swinging in her head when writing this text), but managed not to throw up, yeay!

View of Salvador on our way back

We see pictures of Christmas preparations on social media every day. It feels so strange – like advertising Christmas at mid-summer. Well, we are trying to find a tiny bit of Christmas and are on our way to Penedo now. First we wait about 3,5 hours until we can go to check in (it is 00.01 right now) and try to stay awake. Then we have a flight from Salvador to Rio in the morning (apparently no breakfast, since GOL airlines) and then we navigate ourselves to a bus station from where we take a bus to Penedo. We have booked an Airbnb house that even has a sauna! We will write about Penedo and our Christmas in Brazil in our next post! 😃

Christmas decorations in Salvador