Land Ahoy, Land at Last

We are in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil!  Our ship docked this morning, on time, possibly with the help of the Brazilian current and probably because of skillful engineers on board.  Once we turned south off the tip of Brazil, we caught a south flowing current which would help our speed.  Our engineers were able to fix something which gave us a bit more speed.  Technicians from the German company which made the generators is due to come aboard today with the necessary parts to bring us "up to speed." We had only been able to do 12 knots; the current and the engineers brought us up to close to 14 knots; after the repairs we should be able to cruise about 17.5 knots. Max speed is over 20 knots.

My early morning excursion was a fast walk with the Cruise Consultant from the ship to buy more yarn.  All the yarn they had was quite thin, but I bought 3 large skeins anyway.  We will probably have to use 2 strands.  For some reason, they do not knit with heavy yarn in Brazil.  Julianna's
google map said the walk would take 8 minutes, but I am sure we made it in 6.  Even in high heels, she can really move!

Salvador da Bahia was the nation's first capitol and is now the third largest city in Brazil.  It is located at the mouth of the second largest bay in the world.

An old fortress in the harbor is now a museum of Ocean liners.  We share this part of the harbor with small boats and ferries going to the other side of the bay.




Salvador is a city divided.  The area by the shore was the first area developed, so most of the buildings are older and many are abandoned.  The Portuguese influence influence shows in the buildings faced with tile and the sidewalks with designs of dark and light small paving stones, much like Lisbon, Portugal.

The upper parts of the city are reached by a tall elevator.  When our tour arrived at the base of the elevator, the line was about 3 blocks long.  Fortunately a guide came along and said the the city allows those over 65 to go to the head of the line.  Even though there were some people under 65, the average age was well over that, so our whole group bypassed the wait and took the 20 second ride without an hour wait.

Everywhere we went in the city was crowded.  There were at least 3 other cruise ships in town, including one docked just ahead of us that had over 3000 people from Italy.  This is also the summer vacation time, so families were traveling with children and students were out of school.

The original cathedral was near the elevator, but it was torn down by one of the governors, a very unpopular move.  This "broken cross" was a symbol of the unpopularity of that destruction.


The home of the medical college is on the large square.  Various churches and cathedrals were built around the central square, ornately decorated, inside and out.  Unfortunately our tour only took us by the outside, with no time to look inside.  I understand that the entire interior of one is decorated with the blue and white tiles from Portugal and another has copious amounts of gold.

Medical Collage

Entrance to the Governors
 Palace which once was a church.

The inside is decorated in gold.

 Many buildings favor bright colored exteriors.

Street performers demonstrate a style of combat involving kicks, blows and acrobatics.










Steep main streets throb with the sound of drums and music from shops and restaurants, but the side streets are much quieter.




















We did not see an American Embassy outpost (McDonald's) but Subway made it here.

Darrell took a bus tour, so I will let him tell about his tour.

I did see three McDonalds restaurants but could not get a decent picture from inside the bus which happens all the time. The bus tour enabled us to see a much wider view of the entire city as well as the many suburbs and mile after mile of sandy beaches. Suburban buildings were much larger and taller and home to many, many condos of more modern design. Some bus and subway service helps the three million plus residents get to/from work in the city. Most of the city is far more hilly than Chicago, IL which is a similar in size but Salvador has more parks and flowers than Chicago and seems much cleaner. (DZ)

These are a few of the things Darrell saw on the bus trip.