We are staying in the Barra beach neighborhood, which has a newly renovated beachfront promenade and tons of tourists (thanks in part to Fifa's fan fest located here though i think is normally very popular anyway). After a quick lunch and a nice walk along the beachfront, we headed into the historic downtown area (the Pelourinho). Salvador was where Brazil brought in the African slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the African culture remains strong in this area. We noticed it in the artwork, drum lines, and dancing we saw in the Pelo neighborhood.
Pelo is a Unesco heritage site, and they've spent a lot of money restoring the area in the last 20 years. The hard work definitely shows, as many buildings are in great shape. They're all very colorful. Pelo also has several squares which feel very European. They're full of cafes and restaurants, and jam packed with people.
Stopped into a few churches here: one built by the Jesuits (how could all of us Ignatius grads resist?) and another described as one of the most beautiful baroque churches in all of Brazil. I'll let you decide based on this pic below if you agree with that statement. Suffice to say, it's not my taste at all.
Sao Francisco was built with slave labor, and the sculpting of some of the statues is suspect at best (Lonely Planet said it was the slaves' rebellion against not being able to practice their religion but being forced to build a Catholic church). Apparently some of the cherubs were given extremely large, um, male parts. Later, church officials went in and made some modifications for the sake of modesty. You'll note the cherub below now has no male parts (they're visibly removed). Others are covered by foliage. It was, to say the least, a very interesting church. And that doesn't even get into the scary museum attached to it next door.
The best part of Pelo may be all of the colorful decorations left over from the festival of Sao Joao which just ended a few days ago. The neighborhood is bursting with colorful flags, artwork, lanterns, and sculptures. Major kudos to Salvador for throwing what looks like a helluva party (we hear their Carnaval is also quite good).
Finished our day with a beautiful subset and dinner chatting with some Americans fans heading to Tuesday's game (two of them have been based in Salvador so this will be their first USA game; these two brothers have now attended 6 straight world cups!). We've seen enough US fans around town (and few Belgian fans) that we feel we are leaving the team with continued strong fan support for their Round of 16 game. We did get to pass the stadium here in our taxi, and we all sent good USA mojo into the stadium as we drove by.
Erin is off to Turkey early tomorrow morning. Beth, Nancy and I have most of the day to enjoy Salvador before heading back to Chicago tomorrow night. We're planning to head to Fan Fest to watch the big Brazil v Chile match tomorrow. We figured we started the trip watching Brazil at Fan Fest in Rio, so it's only fitting to bookend with another Brazilian game at Salvador's Fan Fest.
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