Vitoria and Salvador de Bahia

Since I left off my last post with a promise of information on Vitoria , I will start there.

I have VERY little to say about Vitoria because we ended up not getting off the ship. The ship's tours had not sounded too exciting so we did not sign up for any of them. We thought we'd be able to get off and just walk around on our own. However, where we docked was a huge very commercial area-- not a charming seaside town you could stroll through. It was very hot (90') and although it never did rain, it looked like it was going to do so at any minute. There didn't look to be anything nice to walk to and we didn't want to do a taxi. So, we spent a relaxing day on board.

Our next stop was Salvador in the state of Bahia. It was a great city-- an upper and lower city with lots of colorful "colonial" buildings. We had an absolutely wonderful guide named Gabriela. She had the perfect amount of information and history without being boring. We saw the most famous churches and cathedrals ---(photos below). We went to the best ice cream store in the city (lunch) and walked the beautiful beaches.

We drove to the historical upper city and then got out and walked down to the bottom. The churches were gorgeous --- in particular the Franciscan church.. We drove by the new 75,000 seat soccer stadium which will be open next month. They are hosting the Federation Cup in June.

The beaches are lovely. It is quite amazing though, to see lovely residential buildings and right next door are "slums". Actually, they call them "invasions".. They are land owned by the government that poor people have "invaded" and built homes on. The government doesn't want to displace them because they have no place to relocate the families. Thus, the "invasions" are everywhere-- including right next door to say, the private Yacht Club" ---- ( a source of great annoyance were told!)

After we came back to the ship, there was a local Brazilian dance troop that came aboard to do a show. They were a lot of fun to watch.

Salvador has a high percentage of black people due to the huge slave trade here for the sugar cane and coffee plantations. They were freed in a revolution in the 1880's but there is a STRONG African influence in the city...One of the photos below will be of the very elaborate interior of the Franciscan church. It was the only church that allowed black people inside. They had to enter through a separate door in the back and they were under a balcony where the wealthy could not see them. That area was very plain with none of the elaborate decoration that the rest of the church has. It seems America was not the only country that had these issues.

The last photo will be of "Pedro"--- we discovered him in our suite last night. His wife, Rosalinda, was next door on Duffy's bed! We were assured in a note that they were vegetarians!