We had a relaxed evening with Rod, driving around Rio in the early evening and he showed us Barra. Another part of Rio directly next to the beach but more modern than Copacabana. We ended having dinner at ‘Outback’ which is an American chain for Steaks. Shared ribs with Rod (honestly they can’t compete with the ones at Strandcafe), and then the three of us shared a ‘Thunder’. Which was Wow!
Then back to the hostel and Rod left us at the corner since our street was packed again with party revelers. Apparently it is also the center for the gay community which explains the uninhibited behavior. Personally I found it quite romantic, Sylvia didn’t think so.
This morning Rod was there again, even before the agreed time, to take us to the airport. I heard it is very unusual to be on time, cause Brazilian time is always plus 20 minutes.
So now we are sitting at the airport waiting to board our plane to Salvador where we will spent the night.
We made it to Salvador with a 30 min delay and at 13:45 we checked into our hotel, the lovely Pousada Villa Carmo.
What a relief to have our own room, a bathroom to ourselves and so on. Still no AC, but a fan on the ceiling. After the last couple of nights, I am not going to complain.
We left our luggage in the room and walked two minutes to the center, called Pelourinho. The old part looks a bit like in Cuba, houses in pastel colors and baroque style. All very nice to look at, but we needed some food after the crackers and the processed cheese on the plane. So we made a stop to have some Moqueca. This is a traditional Brazilian dish made with coconut milk and palm oil. Sylvia had the vegetarian version and I took fish.
Most astonishing was the beer which came in it’s own cooler.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around and with Sylvia eating Acai, her new favorite dish. I think it is made of berries from a palm tree and sweetened with guarana sirup. It tastes a bit like blue berries, but is way healthier.
When it got dark we decided to take the elevator to the lower part of the city. After having arrived there we were told by a woman who saw us that we would better leave. Definitely not the right place to be after dark for tourists. We heeded her advice and went back upstairs.
There we went for a Caipirinha and a juice and enjoyed some kind of a parade including lots of drummers and people dressed as the devil. Whatever reason was behind it..it was entertaining.
Will call it a night. Yours, Pollybert
Ich liebe Deine Reiseberichte ! Dickes Bussi aus Wien !