Decided to be adventurous and head out to new beach, Ponta Areia, on the island across the bay from Salvador, called Itaparica. Walked across the cobblestones down the hill, through the squares and down the streets. The buildings are all old colonial style and painted in bright pastel colors that might make you think of the Carribean.
We live in the heart of the restored old district, called the Pelourinho (which means whipping post because its the area they brought the slaves into after leaving the ships. They were whipped here, and then put up for auction). Salvador is the port through which all slaves were brought from Africa to Brazil. That is history now, but the slave culture has been preserved quite well in this town, and here Brazilians are 70% black, more than in the southern areas of the country evidently.
Now there are quaint signs hanging over doorways to announce restaurants or crafts and artisan shops. As in most towns that are visited by cruise ships, however, most of the shops carry the same stuff: colorful paintings of the area, strings of multicolored beads (most of which are actually acai berries), earrings and bracelets made from telephone wire (please don’t ask me to explain that one, but they’ve been in both cities), statues of African women, some with hair like they’ve stuck a finger in a socket and the usual boxes and t-shirts. Some of the restaurants are staffed by women wearing traditional slave garb, which looks like a hoop skirt, but instead of being the traditional shape like in Gone With The Wind, looks like it has only the top part of the hoop, almost like a round disc shape underneath at the top, then hangs straight down from there. Perhaps it’s the style,but perhaps only a cooler shortcut to achieve the same effect.
Back to our day….we end up at the elevador, which is exactly what it sounds like. Evidently, many years ago, something (an earthquake?) happened and part of the city ended upmsplitting off and is quite a bit lower, by the water, than the rest. So at the edge, there is an elevator with takes you down from the upper to lower level. We ride down for the exorbitant price of $0.10, then walk through the town to a beautiful blue building to catch the ferry over to the island, which takes about 40 minutes.
Then a cab ride to the beach. Super-wide beach, but after our experience yesterday, we know that that will change in the afternoon!
The scene at this beach is way different. No umbrella and chair rental, just the little plastic tables, chair and umbrellas stationed in front of the little shack restaurants. We plop down at the one our driver recommended and set up camp. Up and down the beach, it’s pretty much the same scene. About fifty feet out, there are about six sloops anchored, each with a party going on. Sunday is a busy day at the beach!
Taking a stroll along the sand, we see a car pulled up to the edge of the sand, trunk open, with a stereo speaker setup that is booming music to the whole area, something we see a couple more times in the streets of the town. Valerie is convinced that Brazilians must be deaf because of the volume of the throbbing beat every time. It is rather obnoxious.
Our driver returns a little before the appointed time, and we are happy for that. There’s a long line we wait in to get on the returning ferry:
and once on board, there’s a lot of shouting and clapping. Aha! There’s a flat screen with a soccer game going on…that certainly explains it.
Dinner that night is sushi at the marina. We laugh at the idea of reading a menu in Japanese and Portuguese and trying to translate both to English…although since they use the same Japanese names for the dishes, we did pretty well. Despite all the fresh fish around, we are disappointed that the rolls and sashimi don’t quite measure up, I glance at the sushi bar and point out that there’s not one Asian chef, which could be the answer. Did you know that Sao Paulo, Brazil has the largest population of Japanese outside of the country of Japan?
Back home for a quiet evening and watching Fantastic Mr. Fox, until we drift off to sleep.