Raine's Roads Travelled: Don't worry, they don't carry guns!

Whilst I was a little sad to be leaving Buenos last Friday I was excited to be meeting up with Abs again and to be going to Brazil.

The flight to Sao Paulo was uneventful - my favourite kind of flight! I arrived a few hours before Abby and Sarah and had planned to go for a bit of a wander, but it's the rainy season and it rained (a lot) when I arrived so I didn't get to explore as planned.

On Saturday after Sarah had checked in for her flight to the UK and we'd said our goodbyes, Abby and I boarded our flight to Salvador in the Bahia region. A lot of people had told us that they loved Salvador but I have to say the drive from the airport through some very deprived looking areas didn't endear me to the place...

We arrived at our hostel Galeria 13 and were greeted by Paulo the very dour owner of the hostel who originates from Norwich, I can only imagine that Paulo Martinho was once Paul Martin. Paulo gave us a brief intro to the city using a map of the area marking on it where we should go and circling a place where we absolutely shouldn't go, to quote Paul(o) "you will get robbed by the kids on crack - but you won't get shot, don't worry they don't carry guns".... What?!?! It's fair to say I wasn't falling in love with Salvador.

Strange to think that Salvador is known as Brazil's capital of happiness, it's fair to say I wasn't feeling particularly happy. However, as is often the case, once we'd been for a walk and got our bearings I was feeling a lot more comfortable. The part of Salvador that we were staying in, Pelourinho, is another UNESCO world heritage site and a couple of streets have beautifully maintained colourful buildings lining them, unfortunately though so much of the rest of the city is dreadfully run down.

Such a contrast between the high road and
the low road.

Preparing for the street party

There was a music festival on while we were there and having missed carnival in the other places we'd visited this felt like an extension of the celebrations and having spent two nights listening to some really great (and some not so great) music on the streets of Salvador I have to say that my impression of the city was greatly improved.