Salvador to Trancoso
We are now in Trancoso after spending the last couple days in Salvador. The contrast is impressive. They dont seem to have much of that internet here, although we were assured that it might come back at some point tonight or tomorrow.
Salvador was an amazing city, but also had the feel of a city in ruins. Walking through the historic city center we were able to see many of the historic sites for which the city is known. There are endless cathedrals and small churches that have been decorated in the baroque style. To me that seems to mean that every inch has to covered in gold and nothing can left without some kind of ornamentation. It looks like a gold mine vomited all over the inside of the church. If the sunlight hit it directly the whole congregation would be blinded in an instant. But it also makes for really cool churches and they provide great variety.
Most impressive to me are the mass murals painted on the ceilings. I tried to paint the ceiling of my apartment once. I gave up after like an hour. Between craning my neck and dripping paint either in my face or on the floor, it just wasnt worth it. I am sure they may have had better technique than a paint brush and tilting your head 90 degrees, but still, 60 square meters of ceiling space would take some time.
One way to reach the city center is to take an elevator from the harbor level up to the historic district. There is a steep hillside that rises up a couple hundred meters from the sea, steep enough to prevent anything from being built on it. which is in itself impressive because it seemed that every inch of the city had been claimed for some sort of building. At harbor level there is an elevator that you can take up for $R .15, like $US .03-.04, or you can walk several kilometers around. Or you can take a taxi or bus... you take the elevator. One day we did do the walk as there are several stops along the way including a museum of modern art that although it said it was open, when we got there the only thing we saw was some kind of live art display that without labels or the ability to speak Portuguese made no sense. Later that night when reading the guide book we saw that it said, "at no time should you take the path along the water, it is dangerous at all times of the day" or something like that. I can see why. It borders a couple favelas and several of the people we passed had an overwhelming air of desperation. And there is poop everywhere, some seemed not feline or canine... But we didn't have any problems.
Anyway back at the top of the elevator you can look out across the buildings that make up the more business-ish district of Salvador. What you notice is that while they all have these amazing historic facades, a good number are missing their roofs. Above the first floor a great number of buildings are in shambles, or straight up ruins. The majority of the trees that we saw in the city were growing inside buildings that had roofs that either collapsed years ago or where removed. I say removed because looking in it didn't look like the roof caved, it just looked like it wasn't there...
The area around the hotel we stayed was really nice. It was down by the water and couple of nice beaches along a recently refinished ocean front promenade. On Saturday and Sunday there was live music, street performers and many people out enjoying the nice weather and a grassy knoll by a lighthouse that separated two beaches. It felt safe, many good cafes and restaurants and we even found a martial arts school that offered classes in muay thai, bjj, karate, capoeira, kung fu, boxing, wrestling... it keeps going and to honest seemed a little much. But we dropped in one day for a solid 2 hour workout.
The hotel itself was run by a French woman, Stephanie, who was amazing. Borderline annoyingly nice, but gave great recommendations, was very accommodating and helpful at every step.
The only downside to our stay we learned was that the city comes alive on Tuesday nights, the day that we were planning on heading out. We were able to see numerous churches and museums, a few capoeira demonstrations, ate some great food (moqueca, acaraje, and bohlinos are all really good) but if we go back we will have to make sure it includes a Tuesday night.
Our departure on Tuesday was via 12 hour bus that took 13 to Porto Seguro, a quick ferry across the river to another bus that took about 1.5 hours to reach Trancoso. The contrast between the two places (I started to write cities, but calling Trancoso a city is not right) is night and day. Trancoso is a sleeping beach town that Marina read is where rich Brazilians come to pretend they are poor. It has a beautiful coastline with white sand beaches that seem to run several miles in each direction, warm shallow waters and quiet town dominated by a central quadrado (square) that comes alive at night with ritzy restaurants and locals trying to earn a living selling anything they can.
We are now in Trancoso after spending the last couple days in Salvador. The contrast is impressive. They dont seem to have much of that internet here, although we were assured that it might come back at some point tonight or tomorrow.
Salvador was an amazing city, but also had the feel of a city in ruins. Walking through the historic city center we were able to see many of the historic sites for which the city is known. There are endless cathedrals and small churches that have been decorated in the baroque style. To me that seems to mean that every inch has to covered in gold and nothing can left without some kind of ornamentation. It looks like a gold mine vomited all over the inside of the church. If the sunlight hit it directly the whole congregation would be blinded in an instant. But it also makes for really cool churches and they provide great variety.
Most impressive to me are the mass murals painted on the ceilings. I tried to paint the ceiling of my apartment once. I gave up after like an hour. Between craning my neck and dripping paint either in my face or on the floor, it just wasnt worth it. I am sure they may have had better technique than a paint brush and tilting your head 90 degrees, but still, 60 square meters of ceiling space would take some time.
One way to reach the city center is to take an elevator from the harbor level up to the historic district. There is a steep hillside that rises up a couple hundred meters from the sea, steep enough to prevent anything from being built on it. which is in itself impressive because it seemed that every inch of the city had been claimed for some sort of building. At harbor level there is an elevator that you can take up for $R .15, like $US .03-.04, or you can walk several kilometers around. Or you can take a taxi or bus... you take the elevator. One day we did do the walk as there are several stops along the way including a museum of modern art that although it said it was open, when we got there the only thing we saw was some kind of live art display that without labels or the ability to speak Portuguese made no sense. Later that night when reading the guide book we saw that it said, "at no time should you take the path along the water, it is dangerous at all times of the day" or something like that. I can see why. It borders a couple favelas and several of the people we passed had an overwhelming air of desperation. And there is poop everywhere, some seemed not feline or canine... But we didn't have any problems.
Anyway back at the top of the elevator you can look out across the buildings that make up the more business-ish district of Salvador. What you notice is that while they all have these amazing historic facades, a good number are missing their roofs. Above the first floor a great number of buildings are in shambles, or straight up ruins. The majority of the trees that we saw in the city were growing inside buildings that had roofs that either collapsed years ago or where removed. I say removed because looking in it didn't look like the roof caved, it just looked like it wasn't there...
The area around the hotel we stayed was really nice. It was down by the water and couple of nice beaches along a recently refinished ocean front promenade. On Saturday and Sunday there was live music, street performers and many people out enjoying the nice weather and a grassy knoll by a lighthouse that separated two beaches. It felt safe, many good cafes and restaurants and we even found a martial arts school that offered classes in muay thai, bjj, karate, capoeira, kung fu, boxing, wrestling... it keeps going and to honest seemed a little much. But we dropped in one day for a solid 2 hour workout.
The hotel itself was run by a French woman, Stephanie, who was amazing. Borderline annoyingly nice, but gave great recommendations, was very accommodating and helpful at every step.
The only downside to our stay we learned was that the city comes alive on Tuesday nights, the day that we were planning on heading out. We were able to see numerous churches and museums, a few capoeira demonstrations, ate some great food (moqueca, acaraje, and bohlinos are all really good) but if we go back we will have to make sure it includes a Tuesday night.
Our departure on Tuesday was via 12 hour bus that took 13 to Porto Seguro, a quick ferry across the river to another bus that took about 1.5 hours to reach Trancoso. The contrast between the two places (I started to write cities, but calling Trancoso a city is not right) is night and day. Trancoso is a sleeping beach town that Marina read is where rich Brazilians come to pretend they are poor. It has a beautiful coastline with white sand beaches that seem to run several miles in each direction, warm shallow waters and quiet town dominated by a central quadrado (square) that comes alive at night with ritzy restaurants and locals trying to earn a living selling anything they can.
No comments:
Post a Comment