Our long awaited first stop on Semester at Sea was Salvador, Brazil. We arrived on Sunday, September 7th, were at the dock at 5:30am and anchored by 7am. It felt so weird to wake up that morning to a still ship! I looked out my window and saw industrial-like buildings. They were going to start calling students at 7:15am to get cleared by customs. They wanted to do face-to-face passport checks so we weren’t expected to be cleared for another 2-3 hours. In the end, it turned out that Brazil customs wasn’t going to do that after all, so we proceeded to pick up our passports at the faculty and staff lounge and were ready to disembark-Yay!
We disembarked the ship and were greeted by a traditional Bahian woman giving us these ribbons for our wrists. We got tons more of these while we walked around Salvador. We went through the Port of Salvador building that had an area that seemed to be designed just for Semester at Sea students. It had postcards, stamps, computers for internet use, telephones, and little souvenir and convenience stands. We were too anxious to stop and figured it was probably overpriced so we proceeded to the city.
Salvador is interesting because it has an upper and lower city. The ship’s dock and more industrial areas seemed to be in the lower city. They advised us to take the Lacerda Elevator to the upper city where most of the tourist sites were. We took a right exiting the port building and walked down this street that had a very strong smell of urine. My friends and I quickly crossed to the other side of the street to avoid the smell. We walked through some blocks where there were always taxi drivers asking us if we wanted a taxi. One taxi driver advised us to avoid where we were because there were “bandits”. They kind of scared us at the pre-port meetings telling us that Salvador is a very big city and to be careful not to look like tourist targets.
Well, we finally found the elevator to get to the upper city and found some nice architectural sites and other places. Throughout this whole time, street vendors approached us and little kids asked us for money. The vendors would put the necklaces around our necks and wouldn’t let us give it back because they really wanted us to buy the item. We quickly learned to avoid them so that this wouldn’t happen. But sometimes it was really unavoidable. The sequence of events was something I wasn’t used to. Bahian women dressed in traditional costumes would come over to pose for a photo and ask for money AFTERWARDS. Capoeira performers would also do a small performance for us pretending like it’s free and then they would ask us for money, explaining that this is what they do for a living and need the money. I felt bad walking away and ignoring them but one of my friends made the point that this is going to be happening in many of the countries we’re visiting and we can’t get haggled in each one. Also, at the Diplomatic Briefing, they told us not to give money to the children on the streets and that if we were so inclined to give money, to find an organization to donate to.
After a few of these episodes, we got hungry and asked a taxi driver where we could find a Churrasceria, a traditional Brazilian BBQ. He said there wasn’t one in the near vicinity but that he knew of a place where it was about 35 Reals for all you can eat. This is equivalent to about $20 so we thought it was worth it and hopped in. We get to the restaurant and it is this really fancy place called Boi Preto Grill where we feel very underdressed. And it was not 35 Reals but 65 Reals (about $40). But it was a really nice place where they come around and slice fresh meat and they did have a nice buffet. But as soon as I walked in I noticed a stark difference than where I had just been. Where were all the Afro-Brazilians that roamed the streets of Centro Historico and by the elevator? The servers were all dressed nicely and the people who were eating were better dressed. I wanted a more authentic dining experience but of course, the food here was delicious as well.
We finished eating and took a taxi back to the port. On the way, we saw a shopping mall called Salvador Shopping and I wanted to get a few things so we told the taxi driver to drop us off there. So he drops us off and we go inside and notice that all the shops are closed. We actually knew that it was Brazil’s Independence Day but saw that there were so many cars, we figured it was open. It is a really nice mall actually but the only things open were the movie theater and the restaurants. We browsed around the mall and then left to Centro Historico. I found this to be an interesting observation-there were so many people at this mall just walking around and relaxing even though it was closed. The aspect of time was quite different in Brazil. I’m used to being on “Go” mode all the time and Brazil was not like this at all. Everyone was just relaxing, sitting around. I observed this when I was at the Amazon as well. I’ll get to that.
We visited the town of Pelourinho that had lots of colorful establishments and souvenir stops. We noticed there was many SAS students and saw that we were close to where we started. I visited the Igreja de Sao Francisco, a church that I had seen on a postcard that had a really nice interior. We paid 3 Reals to get in and it actually had much to see. It was museum-like with a lot of rooms with many artifacts. The interior didn’t look as spectacular as the postcard but it was quite intricate and beautiful.
There were other little events but this is getting really long. We finally came back to the ship because I had a Welcome Reception with Brazilian students to attend. I saw Estefania, another girl I knew was going and asked her what she was going to wear. She was with some friends and they said they were wearing dresses so I guess this was going to be a little more formal. I rushed through dinner and got ready for the Reception. The reception was really fun!!! They had a capoeira show, an act with girls that do tricks on ribbons (like at the circus), and dancing. There was hardly any Brazilian students but Estefania, Ale, and I had a great time together! Again, there was also Bahian women dressed in the traditional dresses. They had Brazilian finger foods like grilled cheese on a stick, little shrimp things made with palm oil, and unlimited beer. So it was well worth the $60 we paid to attend.
I’m going to try to use my Internet minutes and upload some pictures so I hope it works! This is super long and that was just my first day in Brazil!
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