We will be arriving at Salvador De Bahia at 1pm today and sail again at 10pm tonight. The first Portuguese established Salvador in 1549. It was the first capital of Brazil and remained so until 1763. Many Dutch and Jewish settlers entered Brazil here in the 17th and 19th centuries. Brazil had few indigenous people for the Portuguese to use as laborers so they brought over slaves from Africa to work on their plantations. This is why about 70% of the people here are descendants of African slaves and hence black. Brazilian music and dancing, the samba, came with them from Africa. Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil (2.5 million people) behind Sao Paulo and Rio. Salvador is second in Brazilian tourism behind Rio. Ford has a large car manufacturing plant here and Monsanto manufactures raw materials for its Roundup (herbicide) production line. The port exports fruit and agricultural products. The Salvador coastline is the longest for cities in Brazil with 50 miles of beaches. The beaches range from calm inlets, ideal for swimming, diving, sailing, and underwater fishing, as well as open ocean inlets with strong waves used for surfing. The city is on two levels: lower, where the commercial part of the city is, and upper part, where the Cathedral and administrative building are. There is a huge elevator near where our ship will be docked that will take you the 236 feet between the lower city square to the upper square in 20 seconds.
It is now 6:15pm and back from our "Highlights of Salvador and Walking Tour" which lasted from 1 to 5pm. We did not arrive at dock until about 12:30. Another cruise ship arrived right behind us so it was a big mess with both ships dumping passengers at same time for tours. Our tour guide spoke good English but bus was not as nice as others in Brazil and PA was not loud enough. He talked constantly for 4 hours!! We did bus tour of newer part of the city and then along city coast to view some beach areas. Then on to the old city where we got off bus for a 2 1/2 hour walking tour. In Terry Breen's lecture yesterday she told us that this city has 365 churches, one for every day of the year. I believe her. No matter where we went we were in eye sight of a church. We went inside two of them. The first was called, The Cathedral. Built by the Jesuits in 1600's. The second was very neat inside. It was called, The Church of Sao Francisco, and took 50 years to complete. The opulent interior features cedar woodcarvings covered with gold leaf, and was beautiful. On we went walking down the rugged cobblestone streets in the heat. Actually not bad heat as we generally could stay in the shade and there was a breeze. The buildings of the old city are very colorful as is from the Dutch influence.
Tonight there is another "dinner under the stars" up on pool deck but again we will be staying in the air conditioned Compass Rose restaurant. The ship is not sailing until 10pm. We are dining with the Scarborough's, an older couple who sit at a table close to ours every night. We always stop by and say hello to them. They are from South Carolina and are really sweethearts. He is 91. Ok, gotta run. Rebecca is ready for a glass of wine.
