Click here for current times in Salvador, Brazil, and the East Coast of the U.S.
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(note: this is one of my pre-scheduled posts set to appear at 5:00am EST each morning I am in a port city. I will post follow-up information about each trip once I am able to get back on the computer.)
The ship is scheduled to arrive at 0700 in Salvador, Brazil.
We will be in Brazil for the next 5 days.
This is the trip I will be going on today...
Walking Tour of Historic Salvador (Time: 1330 - 1630)
Description:
This three-hour guided walking tour departs from the dock and proceeds in the Lacerda Elevator to the old Jesuit Square in the Old City. Stroll through the cobblestone streets of this delightful area and visit some of the historical points of interest including the Sao Francisco Church and Pelourinho Square. Pelourinho means 'whipping post,' and Pelourinho Square is the site where slaves were tortured and sold. (Each group of 20 will have a local guide. Please note church interiors are closed to the public during Carnival.) (PRICE: $13.00)
Some links relating to today's trips...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Brazil
- http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/southamerica/a/BraSalvador.htm
Update:
Today we arrived in Salvador very early. I have been getting in the habit of staying up late, teaching my classes, taking a nap, maybe going to dinner and then staying up late again and maybe sleeping a few more hours at night. Last night wasn't an exception to this. I could not get to sleep. I think part of it was that I knew we were going to arrive early in Brazil so part of me wanted to see the city as we arrived. Essentially, I stayed up all night last night (despite intending to try to sleep for a few hours) and by around 5 am I thought it was pointless to sleep at that point since the television channel with the ship's course indicated that we were essentially in the All Saint's Bay area that we would traverse in order to dock at around 7 am. At that point, I decided to go up to Deck 7 and see what I could see.
some longer video I took of the ship approaching Salvador, Brazil
(click here for bigger version of the video)
approaching Salvador, Brazil on the ship
me approaching Salvador, Brazil on the ship
approaching Salvador, Brazil on the ship
approaching Salvador, Brazil, on the ship
There were already a number of students out there (around 10 - 15 people) who were looking at the city from afar, despite the poor visibility. The main thing I heard people say at that point was that they weren't expecting to see some taller buildings. I wasn't really either for some reason. Essentially the city is divided into a lower portion and an upper portion. The ship docks in the lower portion and you have to take an elevator (it's free during Carneval) that takes you up to the upper part of the city.
As time went on, more and more people emerged onto the deck. Since the front deck of the ship is just next to the faculty/staff lounge, I was able to go inside there for a bit when it got windy and when I noticed they had coffee out. I guess they have coffee out every morning, but I've never gone in there that early before. I got a cup of coffee and then went out the door on the deck again as if to tell the students "Ha! I'm allowed in that lounge to get free coffee and you aren't!" No one seemed to notice though but I felt special anyway. It doesn't take much to excite me.
I got a few people to take photos of me on the deck with the city in the background as we approached. Simon and Anne-Claire came out on deck at one point and I got a photo of them.
politics professor Simon and his wife Anne-Claire approaching Salvador, Brazil, on the ship
As we approached the city, people noted that they could hear music coming form the city. It was about 6 am at that point and it shouldn't have been a surprise to them - it is Carneval. The party lasts all night.
We docked at around 7 am and went through the same procedure as in Puerto Rico. Customs officials came aboard and were set up in the faculty/staff lounge. We were called to come get our passports and to meet with an official face-to-face so that the ship could officially be cleared. Faculty and staff are the first group called up to get their passports so it's nice to not have to wait. After that, students are called up based on their residence hallway (ie. The Bering Sea, the Yellow Sea, etc.). Going through customs was quick though - they just look at your passport and didn't seem to ask anyone any questions.
After doing that, I went down to eat breakfast with some of the other faculty as we waited for all the students to get processed. I went back to my room after that to wait for the announcement that would be made to tell people to come to the diplomatic briefing that would occur in the Union. The entire ship attended that (again, with some people watching in the satellite classrooms) and an American woman who has worked in Brazil for over 20 years gave a lackluster talk that I think bored most people because she didn't really inform anyone of anything we hadn’t heard already. She was also asking people to tell her a list of problems in Brazil which didn’t really work well because she wasn’t a dynamic speaker and you can’t really effectively do a question-answer type of interaction with an audience that large.
By about 10 am, we were dismissed from that meeting and then an announcement came on that
said the ship was officially cleared and that we were free to leave the ship.
At that point, I went back to my cabin tried my cell phone quickly to see if I could actually reach my parents with it (the call went through and I essentially just told them “We are here and my phone works.” I told them I would try to call again just before the ship leaves Brazil again. After doing that, I was tired from being up all night and decided to take a quick nap because I only had the walking tour scheduled for today at 1:30. I slept for a few hours and then woke up shortly before having to head to the Union to join up with the group going on the walking tour.
The walking tour in general was pretty good. It lasted about 3 hours and the guide was easy to understand and gave people safety tips as to how far to go in the city and what to avoid.
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
at the top of the elevator in Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
We took the elevator up to the top part of the town and that’s where you saw people really congregating and walking around. Our guide said that the festivities during the day are geared toward children and we did, indeed, see lots of little kids dressed in feathered costumes (I saw a lot of little, little kids that were maybe 2 or 3 years old in costumes who seemed to be having fun as their parents looked over them as they got their faces painted or as the kids watched a water fountain that was in this part of town).
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
After we got off the elevator a few students wanted to purchase a beer from a guy with a cooler of beers walking around. It was painful for me to watch these kids speak in English and try to negotiate a price for the beer. They weren’t especially adept at doing so I guess and one guy who sold them a beer followed the group because he wanted more money. One of the students kept saying to the guy in English “I paid you 7 reals for 3 beers, buddy, that’s more than enough” (A real is worth about 50 cents). Our guide did some translating between the two and the vendor wanted to give the kid back his money and to take the beer back. I’m not sure what happened after that but it just seems so weird to me that these students wouldn’t just give the guy a little more money and assume that they were the one in the wrong when communicating about the price.
As we walked along, our guide pointed out a reliable store where people could exchange currency and he said he knew the owner and he was aboveboard. The Carneval atmosphere was in full effect and we soon saw groups of men dressed as women walking along in the street, singing and trying to act “tarty” for lack of a better word. Some of them would interact with the students who seemed charmed by their spectacle and the Brazilian guys would try to be flirty and pull up their shirt a little bit to show their nipple. They would then giggle and purse their lips and just try to be as over the top as possible.
Students soon began getting photos with these guys. I just stood and watched and kept wondering how long it would be before someone would take advantage of them because they let their guard down. As for me, I had on my belt pouch with a little bit of money in it, my cell phone and then I had my camera around my neck on a lanyard that I would put under my bra strap inside my shirt when I wasn’t taking a picture. It felt relatively safe at that point though because it was during the day, but I was still really conscious to not take my hand off my belt pouch and to stick with our guide.
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
At one point the guys dressed as tarty women apparently learned one of the students named and all of the sudden we heard a big chant saying “Julie! Julie! Julie!” which sounded more like “Jilly” the way they said it. These guys just kept chanting her name and the students all laughed. Upon running into this troop of guys again about 15 minutes later on another street, they recognized the girl again and again began to chant her name with glee.
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
Students also stopped to take photos of people dressed like condoms (they looked more like big ghosts). I guess they were in the crowd handing out free condoms.
people dressed as condoms in Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
At any rate, our guide showed us the street where a lot of the Carneval parades would proceed later that night and told us to stick in the bigger open area because the road ahead narrowed and it would be impossible to move if you were in the crowd later at night because the crowds all bottleneck through such small streets. I took a photo of the general open plaza area where our tour group and stopped and some other guys dressed like tarty women who were several meters away would yell “Photo! Photo! Photo!” and would then try to pose so that you would take their photo. I just smiled at them and shook my head and kept walking, but when other students would be taking a photo and the guys then shouted “Photo! Photo!” the students would gladly oblige them and take their photo and then ask someone in our tour group to take their photo with all these Carneval revelers.
I witnessed one girl who was apparently asked by one of the guys to put some red lipstick on him. She took the lipstick and messily put lipstick on this guy who then apparently kissed her on the check leaving a big red lipstick mark on her face.
Other things I observed about the students on the walking tour with me – some of them seemed to either be stupid or not be paying attention to what was reinforced in the Global Studies class. One student asked our guide “So what’s the deal with the cross dressing?” to which the guide said it’s just about being as over the top as possible before lent. This explanation then led a few students to say “Oh, so it’s like Mardi Gras!” I felt like shaking them and saying “yes, it’s exactly like Mardi Gras in the rationale behind it! – did you think it was a coincidence that this is all occurring at the same time of the year!?!?” One of the professors talked briefly about the history of Carneval in one of the Global Studies classes but I guess these students had been woefully unaware of the idea behind Carneval and weren’t paying attention in class that day either.
on a walking tour of Salvador, Brazil, during Carneval
At various times (during the Logistical Pre-Port and before our walking tour today) we were also told at various points that it wouldn’t be unusual for people to come up to you and to just rub your shoulder or arm to get your attention and I saw this happen to some people. Wes, the political science professor on board who is probably in his early 40s, was on the tour and some guy came up to him and rubbed his arm before Wes shook his head and kept walking. Essentially, that is the thing to do if you get approached – just keep walking and expect to get touched. I guess it is probably a lot worse when you go out at night at the crowds are jam-packed in the streets.
As the tour went on, about 70% of the students decided they didn’t want to go back to the ship so they just stayed in town. Around 4:00 pm our guide said that we would be returning to the ship and that was just fine with me because around that time it seemed to be getting more and more crowded on the streets.
some Carneval revelers in Salvador, Brazil
a view of the elevator in Salvador, Brazil
walking back to the ship in Salvador, Brazil
We got back to the ship around 4:30 pm or so and then I went up to the pool area where there is a snack bar and ordered a grilled cheese up there. I ran into the Global Nomads Group people up there (Mark, Ben and Joanna) who were also ordering some food. I asked them what they had been up to and Mark said they had gone to a favela (essentially a slum area where poor residents live). I can’t remember if they were actually going to a local school there or were just getting footage in general for a documentary they are making. In every port, they are busy working so they aren’t able to go on any trips like most of the ship is. I guess they just go to these local schools and do their live broadcasts back to classrooms in the U.S.
Apparently they will do three broadcasts from each port city. In talking to the Global Nomads Group people they said they would be going to a local event that was going to happen close to the ship that some guy they met was organizing. I guess the event is for children tonight and they were going to that and then tomorrow night there is another event that is more for adults. They said they were trying to negotiate with the guy to find out what the price would be for people from the ship to go to that. I told them that if I was around I’d go with them so depending on if I run into them again tomorrow or they leave a note on my cabin door, maybe I’ll do that. In all our briefings we’ve been told to travel in groups and it’s a good idea to have men in the group too. I guess I will see.
After eating, I went back to my room and slept. I woke up at 11 pm and just went to the pool deck again and ordered a pizza there at the snack bar (it’s like a personal size pizza and it costs $5). We pay for everything we buy on the ship with our ship ID so they swipe our card whenever we make a purchase and then the account gets settled at various points in the voyage.
Anyway, that was my day today. I got a general overview of Salvador without all the craziness that happens at night. Tomorrow I am scheduled to go to an afternoon camarote (essentially a viewing box where you are removed from the crowds and can watch various groups pass by). Maybe I’ll end up going out with a group of people (either the Global Nomads Group people or if I run into some other professors after the afternoon camarote, maybe I’ll go along with them) – if not, I’ll be back on the ship after my outing tomorrow and just not doing much! As I’m typing this in the computer lab area of the ship, I am hearing students talking around me to each other about how they came back from being out tonight and basically smell like sweat and urine. I overheard one guy say that he was groped four times tonight and that both men and women were grabbing his groin.
Global Nomads Group video of the sights and sounds of Salvador, Brazil
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