Salvador

Hola Bloggers,

We are now in Salvador - about a 2 hour flight north of Rio. This is where we have come for carnival as its supposed to be less commercialised than the Rio one. As soon as we arrived the sun was beating down which was very welcome after the rain in Rio! Jo had been sat next to a guy from Santiago Chile on the plane so when I caught up with her at the baggage reclaim we had a third member to our party. We shared a taxi with him into the Barra area where we were both staying. The traffic was very heavy coming into town and once we got here we realised that carnival fever was already underway. Everyone was rushing around with bags of ice on their heads and cans of beer stacked up on their shoulders. They were running backwards and forwards from shop to make shift market stall to stock up. It seemed like everyone was tryng to make some money at carnival by selling whatever they could think of fom the roadside - mainly beers and water. Empty pots of paint were being fashioned into barbeques and all manner of things were being cooked up and sold to passers by.

Our apartment is really nice. Spacious and airy and with hot running water (a treat after the last place!). Well I say hot - more like scolding. Its either burn yourself or freeze yourself. I choose to burn myself - just because I can and I was sick of the ice cold water in Rio. It was manageable when it was hot and you were coming in from the beach but when it was raining it was just like torture.

To be honest, this part of Salvador (Barra) is not very nice at all. Well, being kind to it, maybe it will look better when its not carnival time. Most decent shop fronts are all boarded up - so that the revellers don`t smash them in. It just makes it look like a massive building site though. The streets are dirty as well due to all the make shift market stalls and millions of people. We had planned on basking in the sun during the day and partying at night but the strip of beach here is really horrible. Its got dark sand that looks like its got oil or pollution or something streaked through it and it stinks! We couldn`t even bring ourselves to sit on it. We went and sat on a grassy hill at the side of the beach for an hour. But the hill was actually more like a mountian and you just kept sliding down on your bum - couldn`t stay in one place. So that didn`t work. Only one thing for it - shopping!

The first night of carnival we bought tickets for a bar on the front row by the see where you would be able to sit at the window of the bar (no glass) and get a front seat to the floats pasing by but be safe from the crushing of the masses down below. This worked really well - plus they sold pizza and gave us 5 free beers each with the ticket. Result. It only cost 14 pounds. The tickets to follow behind the floats were about 100 pounds and you`d have to keep walking (dancing) for hours and hours and hours behind your float. We much prefered our option.

Well we saw all sorts from the safety of our veranda at the bar. It made Notting Hill Carnival in London look like a kid's tea party. Its much bigger here. The transvestites are worth a mention. They were out in their full glory. I can`t quite understand one element of this circle of society though - can anyone help me? I can totaly understand that there are trasnvestites - people who feel like a woman trapped in a man`s body and want to live and look like a woman. I get that bit. I can also totally understand gay people. I can also totally follow why a transvestite would want to date a man - because they think they are a woman. BUT what I don`t understand is why a gay man would want to date a transvestite. Surely if you are gay then you like men. Ok the trasvestite is a man underneath but if you fancy men why do you go after one that looks like a woman - it doesn`t make sense to me. Its like a woman wanting to date a man who dresses as a woman - it just doesn`t happen does it. I'm confused.

There are some fantastic dancers here. I couldn`t mimick them if I tried becauase you need to have an almighty backside really to be able to do the moves that they show off. The kids are great too. You see them as young as five really bumping and grinding. Its strange though because the moves that they do here are very sexual and you wonder if the kids quite understand what they are simulating with their gyrations.

It seems to be quite normal to beckong someone over for a kiss as well. So many boys were waving to us from the street and asking us for kisses. They don`t just mean a peck on the cheek either! You can watch them go along and choose who they want then say thankyou and move along dancing - hillarious!

Wonder what I will see tonight - night three

Lots of love

S xx