Salvador Bahia Brazil
I’m on sabbatical in Salvador Bahia Brazil, hence the relative silence around here since July. I’m still in that vertiginous space of confusion which comes with changing place, time zones, cultures and languages. Where? Salvador is a major tourism destination, with a stable climate of sunny days in the 20s celsius (70s-80s farenheit), the colonial capital under the Portuguese with a unique Afro-Brazilian culture which is a legacy of the slave trade. With 80 baroque churches the colonial centre is a world heritage site, and just up the coast the majority of the world’s species of sea turtles can be found off of perfect white white white sand beaches. And I haven’t even gotten to Brazil’s most famous Carnaval yet - the biggest party on the planet.
But forget looking for an American Express office. One could reverse the signs often put out for tourists: ‘English is not spoken here’. Salvador (pop. +-3 million) is off the tourist map for most European travellers and for North Americans in particular. Air travel to this city in the middle of the Brazilian coastline is generally roundabout, via Sao Paulo far to the south, or via Recife far to the North where charters land Europeans in tropical beach resorts.
Salvador is Brazil’s black vatican, an African metropole stuck in the body of a peripheral Latin American city. It is a confounding mix of inadequate infrastructure, disrepair, tropical ‘lenteur’, and out-of-control high rise density and exuberant architecture. Here, money buys a North American lifestyle-bubble, but locally the poverty rate is probably higher that the 20% of Brazilians who make less than $60 Canadian per month. Labour is so cheap, the middle class have their maids wash clothes by hand rather than buy a washing machine. Friendly smiles, a relaxed, body-centred culture and relative lack of tourist touts have as their foil the poverty of miles of favellas and desperate petty thieves. These jumbled nighbourhoods, the close proximity of rich and poor, seem a Brazilian trademark. Private security, gated developments, fences and cameras are the late twentieth century technologies of this economic ‘co-habitation’. The sound of music - a major objective of life in Salvador - crosses property lines. Live or recorded it is usually amplified late into the evenings and easily penetrates windows . Who needs a stereo?! Divisions in the mind are less easy to plumb.
October 11th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Why is it assumed that English is a universal language? Why don’t tourists try to approach their destinations by learning a bit of the native tongue? It is sometimes forgotten that the tourist is an outsider, and that the “adaptation” to the new environment should run on his own… Regards to all
October 11th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
There are lot of things to say about Salvador. Good things, and lots of bad things… You really need that tour! It’s a “big” city, and you haven’t seen half of the favelas! To know Salvador, you have to look it through a native eyes, so you can reach the places that we really don’t speak english!
Anyway, I really hope that you’re enjoying this chaotic, insane city. I hope that in a few months some little things make sense for you.
Nice post!
October 16th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Hi Rob,
Hope you enjoy this spetacular city. Do not forget to give a go in the food, specially made by Dada, the chef that has a restaurant at pelourinho. She is an artist.
Best regards.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:15 am
Berlitz’ Brazilian Phrasebook is essential in Salvador. I am taking Portuguese - also essential in Salvador. Its difficult to reach Salvador from English-speaking countries. Almost no English is spoken and people are not used to hearing foreigners mangle Portuguese: the city expects no English-speaking tourists (even though it is an economic opportunity). Nor is Salvador competitive with other subtopical destinations. It feels like Salvador fell off the map of English, after the British gave up on their Bahia and San Franscisco railroad venture and left only their in the British Cemetery in Barra. Being off the map, a Place on the Margin, unfortunately doesn’t mean that the city and its residents the negative effects of the negative terms of globalization imposed as part of the conditions of Empire (translated, which is related to my point, as Império, de Michael Hardt e Antonio Negri, Ed.Record, 2001 (tradução de Berilo Vargas).
November 21st, 2006 at 2:50 pm
You do make Salvador sound like a bit of a backwater, and it isn’t. It was, of course, Brazil’s first capital and still one of the larger cities. I’d have to dispute with you the “absence” of both American and European tourists; I saw many during my trips there, including a large number of Israelis. It’s particularly a destination for African-Americans.
Re the language: my Portuguese is hardly perfect, but most people were quite willing to help and didn’t seem unued to hearing other tongues.
Finally–I envy you being there! Salvador is a place that I deeply love, and I hope you come to love it too.