Post-Carnaval Trip to Salvador

Last Wednesday, Jimmy, Mac and I headed up to Salvador in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil. Salvador hosts the second-largest Carnival celebration in Brazil so we timed our trip to coincide with Ash Wednesday so that the noise and commotion would have ended or at least died down.

Remnants of Carnival in Salvador's Pelourinho

Salvador is hot and humid and gritty, but it's also colorful and beautiful and loud with music and full of historical buildings. A fresh coat of paint on a lot of buildings would work wonders. Salvador was the port of entry for slaves brought to Brazil, so there's still very much an African influence. There were times that Jimmy and I looked at each other and said "this feels and looks and smells like Mozambique".

We spent Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday and part of Sunday morning in the city, touring some of the historical buildings, shopping, eating and people watching. Unfortunately our hotel was not right in the historical center, named Pelourinho, so we probably didn't do as much as we should have, but we visited several churches and museums, including the cathedral, the Sao Francisco church, the slave church, the Senhor do Bom Fim Church, and the Afro-Brazilian Museum; we shopped in the Mercado Modelo; and we used the very cool cable car to descend to the Cidade Baixa and rode back up in the more modern elevator.

Cable Car Trip from Pelourinho down to Cidade Baixa - all for 2 US cents per person!

The gate leading into the Senhor do Bom Fim Church is covered with these ribbons that you can buy all over the city. People add ribbons to the gate as they pray and petition.


View of the Mercado Modelo (market) in Cidade Baixa (the lower city)

On Friday and Saturday we took day trips to Praia do Forte, which is tied for first place with Porto de Galinhas as my favorite beach in Brazil and possibly the world. Praia do Forte is about an hour's drive north of Salvador and it is simply spectacular. There are natural pools formed at low tide that are just full of all sorts of cool ocean-dwelling things like tropical fish, sea slugs, eels, octopus and other interesting sea creatures. You can rent snorkeling gear on the beach and these things are just an arm's length away. The beach itself is a spectacular coconut palm-lined stretch of white sand and crystal clear blue water. A little piece of Bahian heaven for the world to enjoy.

Beach Scene in Praia do Forte

Natural pools at low tide at Praia do Forte

Praia do Forte is home to the Tamar Project, which was started 25+ years ago to save marine turtles (TArtaruga MARinha in Portuguese, hence the name TaMar) in Brazil. The Brazilian coastline is home to five of the seven marine turtle species in the world, but for a long time, fishermen and villagers didn't care about the life of the turtle - they just wanted the eggs and would kill the turtle for the eggs. Now, in large part thanks to the Tamar folks, the fishermen and villagers are protecting the turtles, their nests and their eggs because they've been taught the turtles have more value alive than dead. Tamar works directly with the communities where it has facilities (now all along the Brazilian coast) to improve jobs, teach skills, provide income, foster education, and save turtles.

The Tamar facility is excellent and well worth a visit if you're in the area. Jimmy helped the folks there get turtle-tracking tags that are clipped to the turtles so they can monitor where the turtles go. They've found that some of "their" turtles have gone as far as Ghana and turtles tagged in Ghana have come to Brazil. By monitoring the turtles' progress via GPS, they know the turtles use the exact same "corridor" across the Atlantic, regardless of whether they're traveling east or west. Sort of like what happened in Finding Nemo when Nemo went across the turtle highway to get to Australia. Very cool.

Luciano showing off the newest Tamar "graduate" while the nest exploration continues

Because of Jimmy's involvement, we got the royal tour by Luciano. He showed us all the exhibits plus we got to visit the off-limits hospital plus Mac got to feed a turtle during the feeding time. Tamar also has a hatchery where they move endangered nests. On the day of our visit, two nests were being opened to pull out the baby turtles for release into the sea so we got to see these adorable turtles before their release. It was a completely marvelous way to spend a couple hours.

Mac feeding a turtle at the Tamar Project

Bahian coastline from airplane heading back to Sao Paulo