Sorry about that, the next week was longer than I thought. Apart from laziness and lethargy after flu the reason was that I had two articles planned in my mind – Salvador and Corrruption; both were going to have some quite rude things to say and I chickened out.

The other reason to write again is to welcome Fred who I met recently. He is American and commutes to work in the USA but has a Brazilian wife and step-daughter in Vitória. He is going to write some articles for the blog. They should be an interesting contrast – seeing things from an American rather than European point of view.

If you look up you will see there is a new “about this blog” tag at the top of the page, take a look, especially if you do not know what a RSS feed is.

Salvador
It is a fascinating city with a strong African culture and tradition. The Pelourinho area is the old slave quarter and traditional centre of the city. Apart from the beaches we did not find much else of tourist interest. The name comes from the whipping post where the slaves were punished.

The sounds of drums are everywhere, the day we arrived there was a concert in the main square of the Pelourinho with Olodum playing.
It was to celebrate the the 20016 World Cup being held in Brazil. I think they find something to celebrate every weekend. About 100 drummers, maybe 75 girl dancers and a crowd packed in like sardines in a tin.

Olodum is part a drumming group, part a social welfare organisation, part political and part a youth club. It seems to be at the heart of everything that goes on in the Pelourhino. You cannot move without seeing their logo, a lopsided colourful version of the CND “ban the bomb” symbol. Impromptu groups of half a dozen eight year olds practice in the middle of the road. there are teen bands, youth bands female bands and probably pensioner ones too.

Closely related to drumming is the Candomblé religion with its variety of gods, especially Oxala. There are plenty of opportunities to watch their ceremonies but we did not on the grounds that it would be either a tourist rip-off or an intrusion into a serious spiritual affair.

It really is quite spectacular and quite different to anything else I have seen anywhere in the world. The Pelhourinho has the advantage of 100 years of neglect. This means that it has missed most of the ravages of modern civilisation and gives the modern world an insight into the way things were. The only place I have seen a similar thing is Tallinn in Estonia where time stood still during the years as a Russian satellite and is now reborn as a prosperous tourist city.

This brings me to the complaints. It is dirty, the facilities are poor and it is very dangerous.

When we arrived in Salvador we went to a small branch of a bank. Instead of the usual two or three armed guards with their hands on their holstered pistols there were eight guards all holding short barreled shotguns and looking very alert. I have no idea how well trained they are but would not like to be anywhere near when they start shooting. In our hotel one person was telling how her tourist bus from the airport was hijacked and everyone had to hand over all valuables. A few minutes later a rather breathless young man burst through the front door having escaped from an attempt to rob him. There are a lot of beggars and some are very persistent. If the authorities are going to succeed in their plan for mass tourism they are going to have to take security much more seriously.

We try to stay at the cheaper end of the hotel market. We must have looked at ten Pousadas (like a Spanish Hostal). They were very cheap (too cheap at R$50/60), smelly, damp mouldy bathrooms, dirty, in serious need of a coat of paint and poor electric wiring. We are not fussy people but were shocked. We tried to find better places but could only find rather classy four and five star hotels at R$400/600. Eventually we found a very nice youth hostal at R$110 for a double room Laranjeiras Hostel this was well run, clean and reasonably comfortable.

The third complaint is the tourist product. It has been a World Heritage site since 1985 but needs a lot of investment. Bahia is famous for its cuisine but we could not find any restaurants offering it. There are stalls selling acarajé a sort of bun made of ground black-eyed beans deep fried and then stuffed with a spicy mixture of prawns, tomato, palm oil and cashews. We did find one restaurant advertising Bahian food on Saturdays. We arrived at 2.30 and were told that it had finished for the day. There is a lot of poor quality tourist stuff for sale but if they are to improve the industry they will have to offer better quality arts and crafts. A large part of the charm is the architecture but so much of it is falling to pieces. There are some restoration projects but my feeling is too little, too late.
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The danger, of course, is that if they sanitise the area they will destroy the atmosphere. It is because the Pelhourinho is a residential area for some of the poorest people in the city with a unique culture that it is so interesting. If they are moved out to the suburbs and bused in to provide entertainment in a clean shiny new tourist ghetto the attraction will go. The tourist authorities will have a difficult job to find the right balance.

The Pelourinho is on my list of “must visit places” for a visitor to Brazil. One or two nights there is probably enough and a couple of days on the beach in one of the nearby islands. But be careful, especially after dark and in quiet places.

Our next trip is to Fortaleza.
It is 2300 km north of here on the most eastern tip of Brazil. It is the State capital of Ceará. The metropolitan area is 3.4 million and it has a reputation as a party city. It is the nearest point to Europe (7,000 km to London) and has a thriving international tourist business. We go for ten days on 3rd September and ten days after we return i go back to Europe.

This week nothing much happened so I will just point out a few things they do differently here. Some are better, some worse and some just different. Some are quite important and others trivial and they are in no particular order.

On the road
Traffic lights have two red lights; presumably to allow for a broken bulb.
Cats eyes (the studs in the road) are four times the size of European ones. They really do encourage lane discipline as nobody wants to drive over them.
Speed bumps (known here as suspension breakers) are like mini mountains and often quite well concealed. I think that these account for the almost complete absence of low slung sports cars.
Speed cameras are everywhere. On the edge of town they are just before traffic lights, at the lights and again 100 metres later. Speed up to almost catch the lights on green and you can get three fines in 20 seconds.

In the shops
Pharmacies will often deliver medicines at trivial cost. They open seven days a week and late in the evening, there seems to be one in every street competing strongly on price. Not many medicines seem to need prescriptions. Judging from the number of pharmacies and the queues in some it is safe to assume that Brazilians really like medicine.
Supermarkets always have someone at the till to put your shopping into bags. Often they will also push the trolley to the car. Usually there is free coffee (near the coffee shelves) and often also cheese, salami and other promoted products.
Tradesmen have little shops and can fix watches, phones, printers, TVs, washing machines, toasters and all the things Europeans tend to throw away when they break after the guarantee period finishes. You can buy the exact number of screws you need at the screw shop. It can be cheaper to get a dress made to measure than buy a known brand.

Apartment blocks
Security is paramount and almost all the buildings in middle class areas have 24 hour guards and high walls. Nobody gets in or out without the guard’s permission.
Shared facilities are common here. Flavia’s apartment, like mine in Spain, is around 30 years old and has much more land than more modern blocks. The neighbours share a basketball court, two barbecue areas, pool and changing rooms, beach volleyball (which is a bit derelict) and a room for parties and meetings. The underground garage has an area for storing bikes and a compressor for tyres and lilos. Newer buildings often have no land at all but the ground and first floors have barbecues, party rooms, gymnasium, sauna etc.
Apartment sizes are much larger than in Europe. 120 square metres is small and 150 to 200 is very common. Penthouses are as large as 600. There are some smaller apartments but not many.
Maids room and service area and kitchen. Often take up to 50 metres (my apartment in Spain is 75 metres) They all have a large cupboard without windows called the maid’s room. Even a London estate agent would be too embarrassed to call it a bedroom. There is a tiny bathroom with a shower over the lavatory. There is also a large scullery with laundry sink, washing machine, clothes line tumble dryer etc. Nobody I have met has a resident maid and it does strike me as a terrible waste of space.
A chimney over a metre square goes up the centre of the buildings and internal bathrooms have windows into the chimney. Some people have also put in windows from the kitchen. This can add up to a very interesting combination of sounds and smells wafting between apartments. The bathroom door must always be kept closed!
Dogs and cats are allowed but their feet must not touch communal areas. They have to be carried from the apartment front door to the street. This accounts for the large numbers of toy Poodles and absence of Great Danes. The Brazilian pet owners are much better than Europeans at clearing up the mess their dogs make on the pavements.

Bureaucracy
It is terrible! A bit like Spain 20 years ago (and England in 10 years’ time?). So far I have not had much to do with it but recently read that it takes 50 pieces of paper to start a new business and you should allow six months for the formalities. According to a TV program this week many legal processes are still open 20 years after starting

Food
Staples are rice and beans. Flavia says that it is correct to serve rice at any meal unless pasta is served. I think I would add that it is probably also correct to eat beans whenever rice is served unless fish is part of the dish. Bread is mostly eaten for breakfast in little french rolls. If you can afford it it is with butter cheese and ham. Plenty of potatoes are sold but french fries are not often served in restaurants. My roast potatoes (with beef and yorkshire pudding) went down very well.
Restaurants In previous posts I have talked about self service restaurants which I love. Mostly these are open for lunch only. In the evenings they become conventional restaurants or cafe/bars. A meal is often three times the price we pay for lunch for two and is big enough for three or even four people. This is very restricting when you are a couple. If there are more people you have to all agree on what to eat. Smaller portions are often available but it is not cheaper to have two small portions than one mega-meal

That is it for this week. sorry, no pics as I could not think of much that would go with this article. We have just booked two weeks vacation in Salvador, Bahia starting on 31st May. This is a very interesting city, the third biggest in Brazil with wonderful beaches all around and beaten for life, music and art only by Rio.

Manioc in the market

It is also called cassava, mandioca, cassava or, in Brazil aipim. It is a staple food here and is incredibly versatile. In London is is available in the areas where there are people of West Indian or African descent. I have often seen it but not did know what it was or how to cook it. Maybe i can start a new foodie fashion in the UK.

The British eat cassava without knowing it as it is used to make both arrowroot (for thickening sauces) and the milk pudding tapioca.

The manioc plant

Manioc has a very high starch and calorie content but is not rich in vitamins. It is gluten free which is a major advantage as so many people seem to have allergies. In Brazil every food label is marked as either containing gluten or not containing gluten. It is very easily digestible. Depending on the country it is grown and the particular strain of the plant there can be high levels of cyanide in manioc and then it needs careful handling. The leaves cannot be eaten raw due to the presence of cyanide but they are a good source of protein. I have not heard of Brazilians eating the leaves.

Fried The boiled chunks are dropped into hot fat for a couple of minutes.
There are many ways of preparing manioc and these are some of the ways I have eaten it here:

Boiled After peeling and cutting into chunks around five to ten centimeters long it is boiled for around 20 minutes and served much like boiled potato. Tough internal strands running the length of the root must be removed.

Mashed Take the boiled potato above and mash it. It is very good combined with mashed potato.

Manioc cake

Farofa Is lightly roasted coarse flour. It is sold already prepared and looks similar to bread crumbs. It is added to all sorts of meat and bean dishes. As street food, cooked kebabs are dipped in a yoghourt dressing and then farofa sprinkled over.

Flour It is used as as a thickener for soups and sauces.

Bread I have not tasted it yet but it looks good.

Bolos de Aipim are cakes and are guaranteed to send Flavia into ecstasy.

So if anyone reading this has any recipes or favourite dishes please tell us about it.

On Saturday morning we went to the city centre to visit the Cathedral which did not impress me at all.  It looks like a giant command module of an Apollo space craft. Star Trek fans will know what I mean when I say that it comes from the Klingon school of architecture.  The inside was better but I found the place very depressing. In fact I preferred the distorted reflection of the cathedral on a neighbouring office block.

We then took the Santa Teresa Tram to the same area that we had lunch yesterday.  It is probably as near to a favela that a tourist can go in safety. This was a wonderful ride and is not to be missed. Do not be put off by the tram’s dilapidated appearance and the poverty of some of the passengers (I kept a close grip on my valuables). This is daily transport for many people and is not a tourist attraction. The European Health and safety people would have a nightmare with the open sides, overloading and passengers jumping on and off the moving tram.

The tram is supposed to be limited to 32 people; in spite of going considerably over this number the schedule of a tram every 30 minutes means that there can be long queues.

A couple of hours was spent wandering around various cultural  centres and a stroll around the Rua do Ouvidor area where we had a drink and listened to a samba band playing in the street. Yet again I was struck by the fact that hardly anyone seems to dance. The customers of half a dozen bars listened to the music,  eating and drinking while the shoeshine boys and other hustlers looked for an opportunity to earn a few Reais.

Around 4pm Rafael and his girlfriend Claudia picked us up and we went for lunch in Bar Lagoa restaurant overlooking the lake Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. Three had perfectly cooked and very tender fillet mignon and Rafael went for the steak tartare. I do not object to eating the meat raw – even mixed with raw egg and other ingredients. What put me off is that the large plate arrived with nothing other than the tartare. It would have been much more appealing half the size but with some french fries and salad.  A couple of hours later we left having damaged our wallets severely.

After a rest and a change of  clothes we hit the Santo Scenarum, this time a different building very close to the one we went to on Thursday. We arrived at 21.30 and found that we had to pay $15 dollars admission at the weekend. Three drinks each and the bill for two came to $55 – we are moving in the fast lane.  In fact it was not that bad value.  This place was twice the gigantic size of the other branch. Two seven member tango bands rotated and there was a very large disco area. Someone said that there were 800 customers there and 180 staff. The decorations did not have the religious theme but were just as surreal.  The value for money was confirmed when we left at midnight and discovered a queue four deep stretching 500 metres.

An early start on Friday and the two of us took a taxi to the Sugar Loaf Mountain The two cable car trips cost around $30 each person which shocked the Brazilians. Being used to European prices I thought that it was reasonable value as the ride and view are spectacular. It is not as high as the Statue of Christ the Redeemer but its location is so good that the view is even better. You can see most of the city, especially beaches like Copacabana and Ipanema which are close. Again we had wonderful weather which makes a big difference. We spent three hours here just marveling at the landscape.

At the bottom we went for a long walk along the Pista Cláudio Coutinho which is a small peninsula which doubles as a military base and a nature reserve. It appeared to be a circular route but the path stopped at the halfway point and we retraced our footsteps. It was very quiet and peaceful but with excelent security so we felt quite safe.

Rafael picked us up  in the afternoon and we explored some of the hills. We wandered around and he showed us all sorts of interesting places. On one of the hills we came across a lake surrounded by tropical jungle. A lot of these areas are protected as part of a National Park. Travelling around the city is not nearly as difficult as you would think as a lot of the hills have tunnels going through them more or less at sea level.

In the Santa Teresa area are a number of simple but very interesting restaurants offering food from the Bahía area. We had a very good lunch there. At first sight the prices looked a bit high but on enquiry the waiter agreed that a single portion might be enough for three. In fact the three of us could not eat it all and Flavia and I did not eat again that day. These portion sizes are fairly typical so do not be shy about ordering a single dish between several people. You can always order more if it is not enough.The problem is finding a dish that all of you want to eat.

We spent a quiet evening and had an early night.