Wednesday, September 11th, 2019 - Salvador de Bahia

I am totally thrilled, the breakfast here is amazing!!! Pancakes, baked bananas, lots of different pastries and plenty of exotic fruits...the usual white bread rolls, sausage and cheese as well as some sweet spreads were also available, of course. And if that's not enough, you can also have a tapioca pancake of your choice, for example with cheese or banana, freshly prepared. I am in breakfast heaven. Although I have to admit that I find the milk in Brazil a bit unusual, as it has a very strong taste.

After breakfast, we made our way to Pelourinho, which is the old town of Salvador. The neighborhood is characterized by colorful houses, villas and churches, and a very rough cobblestone pavement. Almost all streets were paved with these stones by slave workers in painstaking manual labor during colonial times.

Info: The city of Salvador de Bahia was once the capital of Brazil. From here, most of the slaves who were shipped from Africa across the sea were sold to wealthy Brazilians.

In addition to the usual shops, which all sold the same souvenirs, we also came across a small weekly market. Here, there were Brazilian sweets, hammocks, and all sorts of knick-knacks.

Our path led us to an elevator, which is also used as a daily means of transportation by the locals and connects the upper old town with the harbor. We bought two tickets from a very unenthusiastic lady for just a few cents and squeezed ourselves together with countless other people into a rather outdated elevator. A porter operated the antique contraption and in no time at all, we were many, many meters further down in the harbor area and arrived at our destination, the 'Market'.

Well, dear travel diary, what can I say, here too there was, of course, the same tourist junk for sale at every stand. And this was spread over two floors. 

Starving from the day, we went to eat at a Brazilian restaurant in the evening and of course, I promptly ordered the wrong thing. 

My 'sun-ripened meat with beans and cassava fries' was anything but tasty. The meat was very tough, the green beans had a very special taste, and the only really delicious thing were the fried cassava wedges. On the other hand, Thorsten's beef fillet with mashed potatoes was delicious.

Summary of the day: the old town is beautiful, away from the main streets, you can still find real Brazilian life in the many small alleys, and even in the dark, Pelourinho is still very safe.