Hot car!

Caught driving in the Pituba area, rumor has it there are only 2 of these things in Salvador.

It's 78% of what you breath

Pick your non-poison. Air, like in the States (at least in some places) is free, but Nitrogen will cost you up to R$2 extra. Supposedly it will make your tires last longer by not allowing them to heat up so much while driving all over this hot hot city in the summer - an important detail where potholes the size of the car itself are not so "news worthy" as they should be. Sounds like a good deal, right? But how much longer will your tires last? No one seems to know. Another important point - no mixing allowed: once you choose N2 as your preferred gas, you have to stick with it. If you happen to be low and go to a station that doesn't have nitrogen available, you'll have to completely drain your tires and refill them with air. The infrequency N2 pumps in the city is what prevents us from putting it to the test.

Garrafamento chato

Is it the engineers' fault? Is it the fault of building a city without urban planners? Is it our healthy economy that allows so many people the luxery of having a car? Whatever the cause, there isn't really a time you don't find this kind of traffic during a normal day. Only in the middle of the night is the road clear. And it's not just the cars - the buses are also standing room only. For lack of sidewalk , cyclists and motorcycles fly between the semi-stopped lines of cars, weaving in and out of traffic, beating the wait by a long shot. If it weren't so dangerous (would you ride a bike on the road where people made left hand turns from the right hand lane and seemed to think the white dashed lines were for decoration?), I would consider taking it up. Almost everywhere in the city has a maximum of two routes to get there. Most of these routes are shared between objectives. The other option for this route (from Rio Vermelho to Pituba) is to take the Orla, which runs the length of the ocean and is the main route to almost everywhere in the city. Although a prettier option, it's not very practical for that reason.

O Posto

I remember when I was about 8 and my grandmother drove away from a gas station in GR without her gas cap because she, GASP, had to pump her own gas. I, on the other hand, grew up having to freeze my ass off pumping my own in 20 below February weather, having one hiccup in Jersey where someone always does it for you, which at the time seemed very strange to me. Here you never pump your own gas - it's always done by uniformed gas attendents, which there are many of at each station. I suppose it's to keep you from driving off without paying, considering the price of gas here, or perhaps it's also a safety issue. Sometimes they even do the air in your tires for you, although often it's a street kid or someone of the like who mans that area.

The dreaded SETT

A vague memory of the little heart skip when you pass a cop parked on the side of the road in the States - was I speeding? did I use a blinker when I passed that car? Or when one comes up behind you and follows you for 5 miles, making no attempt to pass, just waiting for you to do something wrong. The dreaded BLACK AND WHITES. But in our lovely land here, no one worries if they are drinking and driving, speeding, or cutting someone off when a cop is around - cops have no authority to enforce traffic laws. They could of course stop you and hold you for a time, but they can't write you a ticket, make you pay a fine, or arrest you for breaking the laws of road. But look out if you see that ORANGE AND WHITE! Not only do they set up automatic radar that takes a picture of your license plate and issue you a speeding ticket, they hide at intersections where people make illegal lefts, U-turns, and issue tickets for using your cell phone while driving. They even occationally give tickets for illegal parking, although rarely during Carnaval I am told. Driver beware.

Driving off the edge

Your very own thrill ride right here in Salvador. Countless roads like this one (found in Rio Vermelho) angle down steep declines, seemingly strait into the ocean, yet at the last minute you will see there is a road to save you from certain wetness. The degree incline that some of these roads have make me worry about the longetivity of the clutch in the cars traveling up and down them, and the driver's ability to master that break/clutch bounce with use of the parking break to keep yourself from barreling backwards into the motorist behind you. If you drive here, you must, absolutely MUST be able to do this, and stand the buring smell your engine will make in the process. This is probably one of the main reasons I don't drive here. That, and the amount of these types of roads that I have seen that DO actually end with no warning, either sending the unsuspecting driver into a building, a large walled off trash heap, and in one case, a road that becomes a stairway that empties on to the sidewalk below.