Salvador!

 Flying into Salvador

I arrived in Salvador with a whole day to kill before meeting my new host, Fabi! With her advice, I took  a bus to her  favorite  beach in town, Villas do Atlântico. Hiking down  the beautiful  beach with all of my backpacking bags in tow  brough me to a little beachside hut named Barraca Odoyá (the  goddess   of  the  sea's tent).  The people there were very  nice and let  me stowe  my bags  behind  the counter all  day until   5pm while I  lounged on the beach. I made some good  headway on my tan that day :)

The  next day  was  a huge day. The  girls arrived from the airport  in the morning  after traveling for about 24 hours. I'm sorry to  say  they didn't get much  rest. That  night  we went  to  a pre-carnaval bloco, which  is a huge group  party featuring a bataria (group of drummers) parading  down the street  with a large  crowd of partyers, spectators, drinkers, etc  in  their wake. We paid  to be part of  the party  with the  bateria, which means  we wore  the  shirts  of the  band. It was worth the money as the partygoers in  the ropes with the shirts got a  safe  comfortable place  to  be with and around  the band, instead of  on  the other  side of the ropes with annoying drunks  and  very pushy cat-calling brazillian men!

We altered our shirts  to make our  own personalized spin on  things. And  because they were made of 100%  polyester, which is  murder in this climate. Thanks Fabi for  the great  recommendation!

 All the girls!

 Fabi, you're the best!

 Cue bad-ass music... here come the gringas!

With the bloco.

 We just found out that we may be albe to reuse  our  shirts for the  first day of  Carnaval here before leaving. The name  of the band is "Habeas Copos" which  is a brazillian play on words coming from "Habeas  Corpus", the right to a trial, and "copos", or  cups... of alcahol by implication :)

By  the way, this  Habeas  Copos Banda  started at midnight.  We were out dancing on  the streets till 5am.  Immediately after  this ended  with the  people  becoming  more drunk  and rowdy throughout  the night,  we took a bus (they  start  running at  5am) to  Rio Vermelho (red river) for  a  completely  different change  of scene  to watch  the sunrise  and  the beginnings of  the Festa de Iemanja.

Sunrise over the waters of Rio Vermelho

This beautiful  religious  festival honors  the  goddess of the sea.  Worshipers  make their  way down to the sea wearing all  white and bringing  gifts of flowers,  champagne, and  other things to honor and thank the sea goddess. The people  take  boats out  to  the sea to make  their  offerings. The  mood  here  was  sacred, respectful, open, beautiful,  and  welcoming. It was such a stark contrast from the night  before that  it instantly grounded me and  made me want to stay. I watched the sunrise, sang some songs I had learned thanks  to Vanessa Lindberg :),  recieved a blessing which  included rice for my head, popcorn rubbed  on my arms, a white  chalk like  powderfor my chest  and back, and substantial  yanking on my arms  :). I understood  parts of the blessing, calling for  health, safety, wealth, and general happiness. The old  woman who gave to me was wisened and ancient. It felt  very personal, curious, and good  all at once.

 After the blessing you wash in the sea of Iemanja.

Often this is accompanied by a realization.

 Flowers as offerings

 The boats used to take worshipers out with offerings.

Erin was the only one who brought the traditional white top,

but people were welcoming of us none the less.

I got the feeling that no one here judged our way of

being when we are present and respectful.

These  girls are troopers, I can't believe  they stayed  up all night on  a flight  after a day of travel, then be  out and about all day... then  stay up all  night to  samba  through  the  streets  and then catch  a religious  festival at dawn, all without a proper  sleep! Don´t worry, we caught  up later!