Last Sunday I saw a performance by a Brazilian singer called Alessandra Leao at the Tropentheater in Amsterdam. Coming from the state of Pernambuco in the Northeast of Brazil, she gave a great show with the support of three percussionists and three guitarists, and, not to forget, her amazing voice. Her music is meant to combine the traditional and modern elements of the Northeastern Brazilian music, and gorgeous as that theater is, I wish I could just dance to her music, I think I wouldn't have sat down for the whole hour and a half.
I've never been to Pernambuco, though I would love to travel through more of the Northeast of Brazil, but till now the closest I got to there was Bahia, just to the south of Pernambuco. It would be difficult for me of course to draw comparisons between the two states as I haven't been to Pernambuco or the rest of the Northeast, but I believe that having sampled some Bahian culture I can imagine a bit of what lays in store if you venture up north from Salvador, the capital of Bahia. Alessandra Leao's performance being the starting point for this post, I would actually like to talk a bit more about Bahia, which is an extremely popular place to visit among the travelers to Brazil, and I've been lucky enough to be among them.
Salvador, the fast-beating heart of Bahia
Salvador da Bahia is a city that leaves a lasting impression, similar in that respect to Rio de Janeiro. It has fascinating history as it was the first place in Brazil to have been colonized by the Portuguese, and for many years it was the center and capital of the newly emerging country under European colonial rule as well as the center of the slave trade. The majority of the residents of the city have African roots, and the city is bursting with the Afro-European influences of its past. It has a beautiful, extremely colourful city center called Pelourinho, with the buildings and churches built in Portuguese style adorning the steep cobbled streets. (They are so steep and cobbled that walking up and down wearing even havaianas was a challenge, let alone the heels the Brazilian girls fancy so much). Pelourinho is famous for its Tuesday party nights, when the best percussion band in the world, Olodum, takes on these very steep cobbled streets to beat out the kind of rhythms on their drums that won't leave you standing still (despite the cobbles). Olodum are accompanied by a couple of dancers who show the rest of the crowd how to dance to the music, and there are several lines of locals and tourists following them. Do you remember Michael Jackson's video for 'They don't care about us?' Yep, that's Pelourinho, and it's Olodum.
Salvador is no less famous for its amazing shows of capoeira; one night we went to see a Bahian folklore dance show in Pelourinho, and it was absolutely smashing. It wasn't just capoeira, but also candomblé, which is a popular Brazilian religion (like a cult I suppose), and some samba too, I believe. But omg, the dancing was amazing, and so was the capoeira. And well, those young capoeira guys sure know what they're worth, which was easy to tell just by the way they stood outside after the performance. Tall, dark and handsome (literally), and amazing dancers in addition, their testosterone levels must be particularly high after each performance, especially as they can see the girls eyeing them afterwards. (As a note, the guys perform without shirts for much of the time. A week later, when we were back in Pelo, our hostel owner kept encouraging all the girls to go see the show because of all the male performers).
Yes, Bahia is a magnificent center of culture, music and dancing. Quite a few famous Brazilian writers and musicians come from Bahia, including Jorge Amado, one of the best known Brazilian writers (whose most well known work 'Dona Flor and her two husbands', which takes place in Bahia, is waiting on my book shelf for me to be read), and Ivete Sangalo, the queen of Brazilian axé music, and as many of you would already know, one of my favourite singers now ;) Ivete's music is known to boom out at Carnaval, and I could honestly dance to her music for four days straight, as they probably do in Salvador, to which she seems quite faithful when it comes to Carnaval. Some of her songs, too, specifically refer to Salvador, especially with relation to Carnaval and dancing at Pelourinho; for instance in one song she sings, "Come, my love, come to Olodum, and let's dance together at Pelo"... can you guess that she's a proud baiana (Bahian woman)?
Somewhere I heard, or read, that except for Rio, where samba is the deal, the rest of Brazil dances Carnaval to axé, so it's no wonder that Ivete has such musical status in Brazil. Some of her music plays in the Brazilian film Ó Pai Ó, which takes place during Carnaval in Salvador, the film I saw at the Amsterdam open-air film festival in August last year, a week after I was back from Brazil, and only recently after the trip to Bahia. Imagine what it was like for me to watch that film, recognizing all those cobbled streets and colourful buildings in Pelourinho, with all that music and dancing...
One of the central, and steepest, streets of Pelourinho :p
There is a lot to say about Salvador, Bahia, and our trip there in general, and I don't want to sound like a tour guide. But certainly, this is a place worth visiting in Brazil, though as a foreign girl you have to prepare yourself, because it's not just the handsome capoeira boys who show off high testosterone levels in Salvador. At times the male attention was quite intense, actually, even though there are so many other gringa's around, as the place is such a tourist bomb, that you'd think the men wouldn't bother you much. Not that I was particularly bothered, but after being touched by random men in the streets a few times, with the accompanying 'Ei, lindaaa' (hey, beautiful), you think, huh. In another place, like Holland, I'd be like, 'why are you touching me??' but in Brazil, after a while I just kinda got used to being ready for almost anything of that sort ;)
In Brazil, you can expect much attention from men as a girl, and in a city like this it is particularly true as the men did seem to think quite a bit of themselves, hahaha. Oh, and did I mention that their women are really beautiful, and their curves would make even Beyoncé jealous? One of the most culturally rich states in Brazil, no wonder there is a saying that goes along the lines of 'Que o que o baiana tem?' (What oh what does a Bahian have?)
About playing 'fortress' on the beach
And of course, there are the beaches in Salvador, too :p It's a big city, with at least a million people, and Pelo is just a small part of it. Much of the city is very modern, surrounded by beaches as well as high-rises in addition to the old colonial center. One afternoon, we took a bus along the city coast in the opposite direction from the city center, to check out this apparently great beach an hour's ride away. I suppose the beach itself was pretty great, but once we actually arrived there after an hour on the bus, the darkening skies have opened to leave us little choice but try to find a place to hide in one of the beach restaurants. As you can imagine, many people had the same idea, and Bryley, Yuen and I ended up fashioning a little beach umbrella fortress out on the deck of the restaurant, with the kind help of one of waiters. And actually, that was fuuuun, like playing house, or in this case house caught up in a (small) storm on the beach, as little kids :) And since we haven't had lunch yet, this was the perfect time for it, so we ordered this huge oven-prepared fish with a bunch of side-dishes. It was a pretty good afternoon given that we rode out to this beach a million light years away from the city, got caught in the rain and didn't actually get to lie on the beach or swim. And the trip back on the bus was also accompanied by rain. But I did enjoy the trip there anyways, because most of it takes you along the seaside, which is a great way to see more of the place.
Our awesome little fortress on the beach!! :)
Caipirinhas vs. football
Bryley, Yuen and me traveled to Salvador with the three of us and first stayed in a hostel near the beach in the neighbourhood called Barra for a few nights, including a forró dance party at a club we went to with a bunch of people on a bus they arranged (I don't remember anymore exactly how they arranged it or who was in that group), which was fun but ended up with two of the super-drunk French guys leaving the place before us and there was this whole issue at the door because the security wouldn't let us leave because of it since they hadn't paid. Luckily we could go before it got too long, and the next day the guys turned out to still be alive and unharmed after all (as they stumbled out so drunk and just went off in a random direction at night in Salvador, which isn't recommended).
By the time we got to this trip, I had developed a sort of habit of having a caipirinha almost daily (at least when traveling!!), without which something seemed to miss from my daily ratio (oops!). But think about it, it's like the French and wine, isn't it... hahaha. Don't worry I've dropped the habit a long time ago. But in Salvador, too, we went out with the three of us girls to have some cocktails at a bar in a whole bar-party area a walking distance from our beach hostel, where we joined all the many Brazilians whose eyes were on the game between two Brazilian football teams. I remember having a caipirinha with strawberries that night... OMG, so good! And it's just so much fun to be out at a bar sipping your caipirinha during a game, with all these Brazilians going crazy supporting these - to me, random - teams. Somehow I never have this feeling when there is a TV on with a football game at a (usually Irish) bar in Holland.
Oh, and there was this random party that we ventured into one of the nights, where the thing that springs to mind first was that one of the guys that was circling around us wouldn't believe I was from Minas Gerais, because apparently I 'don't look Brazilian'. Whatever happened to the Brazilian ethnic and cultural variety? Melting pot, and all that? Boo. Oh well, haha.
We spent a few days in Salvador after which we headed to a nearby island called Morro de Sao Paulo with our new friend Silvana, returning back to Salvador for a day at the end of our trip. But I will tell you about Morro de Sao Paulo next time, as well as the night of eleven caipirinhas... as a result of joined effort, mind you! Haha ;)
Beijo!
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