The two lives of Pineapple

In case you never got to see a real pineapple growing.... Here, they can be both breakfast and landscaping!

Rock samba

This little scene was our background music for our day in Imbaccai, just North of Praia do Forte. A small river meets the ocean here, and it is dotted with barracas and bahianas with acaraje. Most of them have tables in the river and people sit partially submerged, eating a drinking. On this section of the river, there was a large rocky area, which was covered with people with drums and shakers playing some kind of samba for everyone's enjoyment. It was like a large jam session.

Occupation

On our way through Canela/Graça yesterday, we passed through the UFBA area and came across this building. It is the dean's office, I believe. More information can be found here. Most federal things here are doomed to have strikes, be closed at odd hours, etc. I can think of at least 3 times since I moved here that I have heard that the teachers of UFBA have been on strike for one reason or another, usually having to do with benefits and pay I assume. It seems the students are fed up with something (according to the website, it has something to do with "political student assistance" but I am not really clear on it) and so have taken over this building in protest. You can't see well, but the Brasilian flag's "ordem e progresso" have been replaced by "vergonha e desumanidade" and there is something about "robam" taped over one of the stars.

Verticalization

If you have driven around big cities, you have probably found that not all neighborhoods are created equal. There is generally a section of tall buildings, some shorter suburbs, and then houses in the outskirts. In really big cities, maybe you have seen mostly high rises like this one.

In fact, here in Salvador, the city was built, then grew, then rebuilt in it's new borders, then grew, and so we have several places that contain the tall tall buildings with almost every other kind of neighborhood in between. Our new epicenter for tall buildings in the last 5 to 7 years has been Pituba. Just since 2003 or so a few dozen new apartment buildings have sprung up, all high rises selling views of the ocean (at least until the next high rise is built in front of it). This has a way of wreaking havoc on the already established environment, causing massive heat bubbles where no ocean breeze can pass, or strange traffic flow because of increased rich commuters. Unsurprisingly, people generally do not want to see it happen to their nice-non-high-rise neighborhoods. There was recently a protest not far from the site of where this photo was taken, in Patamares, against the "verticalization" of the area. At the moment, this is the only high rise in the area - so marked as of yet that you can actually see the shadow it casts on google maps (search for Patamares, Salvador, Bahia, Brasil), while no other building in the area casts such shadow. There are signs announcing the planned construction of at least 2 other buildings just on this street, so it's a valid concern. But of course, why have a bunch of open land when you can build huge buildings on it...


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