Salvador

Well, the night spent in the building site turned out to be the best night`s sleep we had in Florianopolis! Unfortunately the sash window didn`t have anything to secure it other than Nìkky`s flip-flop, which gave way, causing the window to come crashing down...ontop of Nikky`s thumb! I`m sure you must have heard the scream from Europe! The rest of the hostel certainly did at 6am! Poor Nikky now has a black thumbnail and a thumb thats an even stranger shape than it was before!

We arrived in Salvador and were greeted by a free Caipirinha (our new favourite drink!) and a BBQ in the guesthouse. Perfect! We really love Salvador. It seems to have a lot more spirit than any of the other places we`ve been so far.

We went into the old town today and, following the advice of Russel (our friendly english guesthouse owner), removed all jewellery, watches, wallets and cameras before going there. This is beacuse the city has a huge drug problem and the junkies all live on the edges of the old town. Hence no photos on this post (we took a disposable camera, so will have to develop the pictures the old fashioned way). A little nervous at first, we gingerly stepped onto a bus. It was total mayem on the way! People everywhere, selling anything you can imagine on the streets! But we soon got used to the way of things, especially the beggars who kept trying to steal our Cokes!

The town was stunning. Full of old squares with colourful old colonial churches, people doing Capoeira on the streets and the sound of drums drifiting through the cobble-stone streets! We also had the tastiest meal yet in the whole of Brazil! It was a seafood stew, with prawns and coconut milk called Mucequa. Tasty! So far all the food here has been bland, but I guess the African influence up here has not just brought spirit and drumming, but spices too!

We are off to an island called Boipeba tomorrow morning. It`s very isolated and hard to get to. We have to take 2 boats, a bus, a taxi and a tractor (!!) to get there! Once we are there we will have our own bungalow right on the beach...or so the website says! We will come back to Salvador before we fly back to Rio, so if we don`t have an internet connection on the island you`ll just have to wait!