Salvador, 1er-8 Aout 2009 - 1st-8th August 2009

Salvador, 1st – 8th August

We land in Salvador at 7.30pm Saturday evening and take a bus as planned to the Barra neighbourhood, on the seafront and here where we have rented an apartment for a week.
The apartment is as we expected, fully equipped kitchen, bathroom, living room, separate bedroom, all very clean. The only glitch in the deal is the view, sold as ‘sea view’ from the living room, which there is if you’re on the tiny balcony bending over the rails and turn your head 90 degrees to the left. Also the common areas of the building are really kind of falling apart ... it’s not exactly what it describes on the website, but good enough.
We’re happy though, the sun’s out and it’s hot here after all, which is something we’ve been dreaming of for a while. It’s almost 10pm, we hungry, and so we decide to make our way to the area of Barra where the bars and restaurants can be found for food and a beer, of course.

The next day, it’s Sunday, and our only mission for the day is to find a supermarket so as to fill the fridge to the brim ... something we have not had the pleasure of doing since mid-April. That day we don’t do much more than shopping and cooking 

We the spend the rest of the week (in no particular order) eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the beach...we loved the little restaurant – bar in Barra (opposite Barravento) that served freshly prepared whole crabs with your beer ... what a treat!

We also really liked our visit to Project Tamar which aims at preserving the natural state of beaches that are prime location for the reproduction of turtles, Praia do Forte being one of them. South of Praia do Forte we soaked in the sun on an almost deserted beach named Praia do Flamego. Another highlight of the week was meeting Henrique (the brother of the guy we rented the apartment from), who owns a travel agent just down the road (www.voamais.com). Henrique took us out on the Friday night to discover a really cool place in Rio Vermelho: La Borracharia, a tyre repair garage by day that transforms into a nightclub come the time ... brilliant!
However, there is one other thing that we will never be able to thank Henrique enough for; having persuaded us to go to Itacare for a few days in the south of the state of Bahia (not far from Ilheus). This is our next destination. We take the bus at 11pm on Saturday 8th August, and arrive there at 8am the next day (via a bus change in Ilheus at 6am).

Salvador was great, a rather ugly city with old big concrete blocks, but teh beaches are wonderful, the people are beautiful, and there is a wonderfully cool buzzing atmosphere that makes you feel good just walking down the street.
For the pictures of Salvador, click here.


Salvador, 1er-8 Aout 2009

Nous atterrissons a Salvador vers 19h30 et prenons comme prévu un bus qui nous emmène a Barra, quartier de Salvador en bord de mer ou nous avons loue un appartement pour la semaine.
L’appartement est conforme a ce que nous attendions, cuisine équipée, salle de bain, chambre séparée, salon, le tout très propre. Le seul hic c’est la vue, du balcon il faut tourner la tête à un bon 90 degrés sur la gauche pour voir l’océan, et les parties communes de l’immeuble sont vraiment défraichies ; pas vraiment ce qui est décrit dans l’annonce.
Ce n’est pas grave, il fait enfin chaud et ca nous en rêvions depuis maintenant quelque temps. Nous filons directement vers le coin de Barra ou se trouvent restaurants et cafés afin de diner et prendre un verre.

Le lendemain, dimanche, c’est mission courses pour remplir le frigo, chose que nous n’avons maintenant plus fait depuis mi avril. On ne fait pas grand chose ce jour a part des courses et cuisiner...
Nous passons le reste de la semaine a (dans le désordre) manger, boire, dormir et aller a la plage… on a adore le petit restau de Barra (en face du Barravento) qui sert des crabes a gogo et ne désemplit jamais.
Nous avons beaucoup apprécié la visite du projet Tamar qui vise a préserver les plages de reproduction des tortues marines (Praia do Forte), une plage quasi déserte au sud de Praia do Forte, la plage de Flamengo et avons fait la rencontre d’Henrique (dont le frère nous a louer l’appartement) qui tient une agence de voyage (www.voamais.com) et qui nous a fait découvrir un endroit vraiment génial a Rio Vermelho : La Borracharia, un garage de réparation de pneus le jour qui se transforme en club la nuit… exceptionnel.

Mais on ne remerciera jamais assez Henrique pour une chose (a part la soirée a la Borracharia), nous avoir convaincu d’aller passer quelques jours a Itacare dans le sud de Bahia (pas loin d’Ilhéus). C’est notre prochaine destination. On va prendre le bus le samedi 8 au soir vers 11h et arriver la bas à 8h du mat (via un changement a 6h a Ilhéus).

Pour les photos de Salvador c’est par la.