Sketchy Salvador

Salvador (more specifically the Pelhourino) stays true to Brazil's reputation of being unsafe.  I wasn't particularly afraid of being assaulted, but remianed alert after hearing variouis accounts of pickpocketing, and seeing for myself the group of "regulars" who prey on tourists.  Perhaps my favorite stories was of the guy who scratches himself on the wrist to draw blood, then claims to have AIDS, threatening to give it to you unless you counter with a substaintial offering.  Pretty creative, I'd say.  I managed to escape such tactics, instead falling victim to a clever, friendly-seeming guy who painlessly scams you out of your money, only R$10 in my case.

 

The tourist sites in Salvador's downtown were enough to fill a day, including unsucessfully scouring the tourist market for potential gifts.  I had met four British guys and two French girls who made the time in Salvador far more exciting during trips to nearby beaches, and nightly visits to Samba and Raggae parties.

 

Following three days in Salvador, I boarded a boat for Morro de Sao Paulo, a touristy, tranquil beach town on an island just 2 hours south east of Salvador.  This place also has no roads, just sand.  In fact, the taxis which help you as you enter the island are nothing more than yellow wheelbarrels with "TAXI" written on the sides.  The place is beautiful, serene, and has far more character than Jeri did.  It would be rather romantic, as well, were I not sharing a room with two American guys that I met on the boat over here.  The two 20-yr-olds are easy-going and friendly, buy certainly live up to the "frat boy" sterotype...

 

When I met them, both were sleep deprived; one had spent the previous night doing coke, the other had gotten robbed while trashed, on his way to a hotel with a girl he'd met at the bar.  After he passed out in the hotel, she proceeded to give him several of the largest, most painful looking hickies I've ever seen.  It's a pretty funny sight, and their stories have been entertaining though borderline disturbing.  Like the fact that one of them slept with a part-time hooker during our first night on the island.  He didn't have to pay, so I guess that makes it OK?  Having subsequently been desensitized to the "shit-show" (as they call it) that is their trip in Brazil, they've been to hang out with.  Needless to say, my stories pale in comparison to theirs...

 

I leave the island tomorrow and head straight to the airport to catch a flight to Rio.  I'll be staying in the Copacabana at the same hostel as the English guys I had met in Salvador. 

 

I also just posted some more pics on shutterfly.