Salvador: A City of Colors

May, 2014

Salvador de Bahia. Compared to our little island in the south of Brazil, Salvador is another world. With a strong Afro-brazilian culture, the city is very different from Floripa which has a more European influence. The buildings in the center of the city are all painted in bright beautiful colors, you just can't help but smile with all of the happy colors around you and the markets are super vibrant with tons of art, Afro Brazilian masks and drumming. Have I sold you yet?

Salvador is how I originally imagined all of Brazil to be (before I realized how massive the country is!). It is a little less developed than other parts of Brazil, filled with culture, lots of music, beaches and TONS color. You have to be a little more careful here but I immediately fell in love with the city. We walked through the narrow cobbly streets where live Capoeira was being performed, the men in all white, jamming out and practicing their moves. Id casually practice all of my moves on the outskirts of their sparring circle, doing my little jingas and kicks when nobody was looking (crazy gringa trying to fit in behind them).

The people of Salvador also clearly have good taste in music because they LOVE the king of pop aka my home boy Michael Jackson. Back in the day he shot his music video "They don't really care about us" in the main square of the city. We met a Bahian man who was so excited to tell us about the day that MJ surprised the city and showed up in the streets of Salvador to film his music video. This man whipped out an old magazine article from the 90s with a huge photo of MJ, grabbing his crotch (well, obviously), and in the very back of the photo was the Bahian man beaming from ear to ear. He said it was a memory he would never forget. Inspired, I moon walked across the streets of Salvi for the rest of the day just to commemorate the king. Check out this link to see the Michael Jackson video and all of the action! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q

All in all Salvador was fantastic, a truly unique city with beautiful people, rich Afro-Brazilian food, amazing vibrant art and tons of live MUSIC day and night. If you want to do a little dance, make a little love and get down tonight...hit up Salvador. Plus the World Cup games there are going to be CRAY so buy your tickets amigos and I'll meet you back there for round two!