Agua de coco y Suco de acai

Reporting in from Salvador de Bahia. We got here yesterday around lunch time, via plane from Rio, with a stop over in Belo Horizonte.

Our second day in Rio was pretty quiet, we went around travel agencies trying to book our ticket to Salvador. When that was done, we headed down to the beach with Will and some friends,

had our first coconut (you first drink the water- agua de coco-, and then you get them to cut it up for you - which they do by very skillfully swinging around a machete- and you eat the inside, yumm!) For dinner we went to the centre of Rio, in the area of Lapa, and then on to a Samba party in another neighbourhood, after a highly "eventfull" taxi drive, which left me and Maisie quite unsure about getting into taxis in Brazil.

All in all Rio was nice, although it's a very strange city, too big to even begin to fathom how everything works, although it definitely involves a more than healthy amount of corruption...

In Salvador me, Maisie and Omar are all staying at Anderson's (our Mestre from Barcelona who has moved back to Brazil) house in the bario of Cosme, somewhat of a



"dodgy" neighboorhood as you can call it. Salvador has been a mixture of emotions so far, although the vibe is of a more geniune place than Rio. I fell inlove with Pelourinho, the centre of the city, with its colourful Colonial buildings

, the chilled out vibe, the chatty people in the streets.

However we're constantly being warned to be careful, and this brings a rather sinister vibe to it all. What was completely heartbraking was witnessing first hand the horrible reality of street children... Children that are probably orphans, addicted to crack, so skinny you wonder how they're still walking, asking you to buy them something to eat, while you sit there drinking fruit juice and eating cake. We've all heard about them, watched documentaries, but seeing it, was something I clearly was not prepared for...

Yesterday we went to Mestre Morraes roda, which was really interesting to watch, and we also cought a bit of the late Mestre Joao Pequenho's roda. I also met Mestre Boca Rica, another legend of capoeira angola, who is also an incredible singer and berimbau player, and in fact sings one of my favourite capoeira songs, so I was extremely starstruck upon being in his presence, and was too shy to ask for a photo.

Today has been quite chilled, we wanted to go to la isla de Itaparica for the roda of Angoleiro's do Mar, but we got up a bit too late (9:30 on a Sunday is apparently too late) so we didn't make it. Instead we walked arount the center for a bit, and then went down to the beach to meet Anderson.


Then when the tide became so high there was practically no space for our towels anymore we came back to Anderson's, where his family made us yummy food. We'll soon be going to a street roda, and in fact I think we're about to do a little training with Anderson (it's been way too long, and I'm sure we will get kicked in the face a lot!)

We're staying in Salvador until Tuesday probably, and then heading to Permangola near Valenca. Can't wait! Will write soon again x

We made it!

Yes we did!

Above, my first photo of South America!

In the end, the whole crossing borders was a piece of cake, really not worthy of all the stress I went through, and all the buying of bus tickets and reserving planes. I was almost about to be like "are you SURE you don't want to see my ticket out of Brazil? Go on, just take a look, it's very pretty!" But they were highly uninterested, and vaguely puzzled about what the hell a 'Cyprus' was, so after figuring out that it is indeed, a real country, they just stamped my passport and let me through.

It was one of the most surreal/exciting moments of my life! I met Maisie in arrivals, who had been waiting for a good number of hours and we set off straight away to get the bus into town. It took about an hour, but we finally got to our friend Will's neighborhood, and after a quick bite to eat and a beer, we were finally in his flat and both of us exhausted and ready to go to sleep!

Today we went for a walk around Copacabana, found a map, bought a sim card, and of course, headed down to the beach! There we found Sesi and we made the mistake of deciding that 11-2 is the best time to get a tan. I ended up with a mild sunstroke, and Maisie has burn patches in various areas of her body.

We then went to a Kabula training, which was really cool, with Bicicleta and Mestre Carlao, and did a small roda at the end.

All in all, a very good first day!

Tomorrow we're probably heading to Salvador, to see the rest of la familia angolera, although we are not looking forward to the 28 hour bus journey! Has to be done though!

Route

On a brighter note, here's the initial plan for the route:


View Larger Map

T-2 days

So it's Friday evening. On Sunday evening I set off for Barcelona, and on Wednesday I'm flying to Brazil. I'm pretty much shitting my pants at the moment, and it's not only nerves about the trip, it's mostly because of visas and Brazil. Apparently they've become really strict with letting people into the country, and since my return ticket is for after 5 months, and my flight will leave from Colombia, I have no proof that I'll leave Brazil before my three months (allowed time according to my visa) will be over. So.. it's been a long journey trying to buy a cheap bus ticket showing that I'll be crossing the border before my three months are over, but that's been practically impossible due to the way their system works for buying a bus ticket online... You have to have this thing called a CPF (something like an identity number) and you don't have that unless you're Brazilian, or live in Brazil (ingenious!) so it's just been impossible. It looks like I'm going to have to buy a refundable plane ticket, although it would not be fun if I lost my money! This visa to Brazil has already cost me about 100euros!

Ok so, moral of the story, Brazil + visa = not a nice combination. I'd suggest flying into another country instead!