Pelourinho - Historic City Center

We are staying in hotel "Cruz do Pascoal" in the historic city center in Salvador, which was opened shortly before football world championship 2014. The whole city is preparing for the big street carnival, which starts on 12th of February. Wooden plates protect the monuments and fountains, the streets have the typical carnival decorations with flags garlands and many stages are built. Even though the official carnival did not start yet, you can hear drums from early in the morning until late at night. Different drumming schools practice on the streets and present themselves, as there is a possibility to join different groups during the carnival.

We are glad, that we are staying in the historic city center, as it is quiet safe and we have many nice cafes and restaurants around us. When we go out, we only take some cash we need, otherwise you need to take good care of your belongings like cameras and phones and avoid empty streets, especially on Sundays when the shops are closed and when there are less people on the streets. To go to the city center of Salvador we took a bus, which cost three Real, around one Euro. It is a cheap way to move around, but you have to know which direction you have to go, as at the bus station there is no information about that. Everything is more chaotic, even the way a bus driver drives, so you have to hold on pretty strong on something. Our guide told us, that the most robberies happen at the bus stations, so going by bus it is even more important to take less valuable stuff with you. From the airport to the hotel we took a taxi, which is the safest way to go, when you carry all the things with you. It is also important to have some change, as the taxi and bus drivers tend to give you less money back, if they don’t have the change. And usually they don’t have any change.                     

Salvador is the city of Capoeira and percussion and there are many schools for that, especially in the historic center Pelourinho. Capoeira is something for people with more flexibility, so we decided to take percussion lessons. We are taking group lessons once or twice a day for 1,5h. It's nice, that people with different levels can drum together and try different percussion instruments. Our teacher Macambira keeps saying that we have to feel the beat and energy in our bodies, unfortunately the only beat we feel is "Klumpakojis".