Video of Praia 24 horas

Here is a short video of last night's event, shot by my partner in all things Bahia, featuring me in the water. Unfortunately there was no music being played at the time.

Beaches open 24 hours

A news article led us to the "Praia 24 horas" event, last night in Porto da Barra. A stage was mounted in the middle of the bay inlet where the boats usually achor and a free Bossa Nova concert was given from 7pm until 2am with various artists, some well known, some just locally known. All one had to do was show up and find a place to park. There were food vendors and drink vendors and guys walking around with LED blinking toys. It was generally family friendly.




You could swim out to the stage and watch the concert treading water if you so desired, as long as you didn't try to hang on it (I actually saw a guy reprimanding some swimmers for doing this, which really surprised me since generally no one really cares if little social rules like this are broken). A large screen was mounted on the beach to show close up video feed of the singers.


You can see how far away the stage was, so this video was a nice touch. Also on the schedule were events such as an artisan fair at the Farrol, aerobics on the beach in the morning, and breakfast on Sunday. I hope this event is repeated next year - definitely worth the trip down there!

Fight global warming!

This is an interesting advertisement on the back of a bus - "Against global warming? Have a cool Skol at Amanda's". Can't think of a better way to spend a hot afternoon than that.... Well, maybe not at Amanda's - it's not on the beach.

Bananananananananana

Yes, sometimes on the side of the road, you find bananas growing. Eventually these will either be claimed and eaten, or possibly stolen and sold and then eaten. Once upon a time a branch of bananas came to our home, all green. We were told to cut some off and put them in a plastic bag to make them ripen faster. This seemed to be a good idea at the time, since we eat a lot of bananas. But they just stayed green, forever, it seemed. What eventually happened was that they all ripened at the same time so we were suddenly over run with bananas all over the house. Let this be a lesson to all who think buying a branch of bananas is a good idea.

It seems to go on forever...

For New Year's, we went to the island of Itaparica. It's a lovely little place, relatively safe, and just drive a little bit and it's like you're in the country. There are three ways to get there, if you are a commoner - take a ferry launch, take a car ferry, or drive all the way around to the bridge on the other side of the island (a 4+ hour trip on roads that cannot really be depended upon for upkeep). Most people choose the first option, as it's the cheapest (about R$6 per person; about $3 US). New Years is a popular time to go to the island, as any holiday is a popular time to travel here, and so the line to get on the ferry launch was extremely long to go to the island, but that was nothing to the size and endurance of the line to go back. We opted to stay as long as possible to try to avoid the line. These pictures were taken on the 4th of January - and the line still seemed endless. I imagine many of these people may have camped out all night to not loose their place in line, having obligations on the main land. Thank goodness we didn't.


The beginning of the line.


The middle of the line.


The end, or maybe not....

Techincal problems

I swear I will post a nice story/photo as soon as I can get the two things on the same computer and out of my head.

Fuck doors

This is a photo I have been meaning to take for a long time. Anyone familiar with Engrish.com will appreciate this post. It seems someone may have clued them in to the idea that Fuck is not the greatest name to use, because in the 3 years that have passed since I moved here, they have added an SA to the end of the name. It's still funny, but not as, since you no longer see a whole bunch of "fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,..." stretching across the packaging. Some how having a FUCKSA door is not quite as intriguing, but still the photo is worth something.

Christmas decorations

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc.... It's 85 and humid here in Bahia. I had something eloquent to say about our decorations, but I have forgotten what it was. In any case, here is one of our many Christmas trees around the city. Not many of them are real trees, in fact, most are not even trees at all, but things in the shape of trees. This one is made of light up stars and is on the Orla near Pituba.

Caldo de Cana

Mmmm, sugar water! Just what everyone finds refreshing on a hot day while walking along the beach. Quite literally, this sugar cane juice is made by shoving the whole sugar cane down a sort of wood chipper / juicer and catching the juice coming out the bottom. It's not bad, you know, tastes like sugar because that's what it is. The residual parts of the cane come out looking like wet cotton fluff. I personally prefer coconut water, but this drink is popular enough to find at least half as many caldo de cana vendors as agua de coco.

Alternative modes of transportation

Nothing really educational in this post. These kids happened to be running down the side of the road with the wheelbarrow in action. They may even be playing, although I doubt it. More likely they are off on some errand or trying to find a quicker way to get somewhere.

Horses Xing

Not that you would ever see a sign indicating that anywhere around here. Although I was unaware of it at the time I was living in the States, there is some kind of law prohibiting farm animals inside city limits. I never thought much about it, but it would seem rather striking to see chickens and pigs wandering around down town Lansing or Grand Rapids. There is no such law here, however, and I would be hard pressed to think of a day that I have gone out on the street here and not see at least one rooster on the sidewalk or a horse tied up on the side of the road, nibbling the grass. The farther outside the city you go, the less restrained the animals are, until you start finding them wandering around on the road, just waiting to scare the bajeezes out of you as you come around a sharp turn. I only hit one deer with my car in MI and I cannot imagine the damage a full grown horse would do to the tiny cars we drive around here. Luckily, the pot holes are so bad in most of the roads, the speeds you need to drive at will most likely allow you to stop in time.

In the middle of nowhere

These photos are more of the Praia do Forte area. We happen to have some friends who live there - not in the main store littered walking area plaza, but across the highway and back up the back roads a ways. This is the main stretch of road to get to and from their house. Most of the rest of it is more the state of a two-track, complete with pot holes and large ponds in the middle of it (see below). I would say this would be a good place to buy a small lot and retire to, but development has picked up so much that I doubt it would be quite this nice and secluded 10 years from now.

Moto-Taxi

Outside of the big city area of Salvador, taxis are far and few between. It just is not cost effective to run a large taxi service with cars in areas where people don't need to take transportation to many places during the day. What you end up with, then, are motorcycle taxis, which will take you short distances on the back of a motor bike for a relatively low cost. This particular stand is in Praia do Forte, right in the middle of the public walking area full of little shops and restaurants. There isn't much to do in Praia except walk around and window shop, go to the beach, or go to the TAMAR area. If you get sick of one beach, you can take a moto-taxi to another one. In the mean time, the drivers can sit here on their nice covered platform and drink beer.

Maintenance

Obviously, all lights need to be changed once in a while. You know, the ones in your house are so easy to do, but what about your friendly neighborhood traffic light? I know these things need to be fixed once in a while, yet I could not think of any time in my memory that I actually SAW one being worked on, or a light bulb being changed, or anything, in the States. It was just like some kind of magical state that they remained in perfect working order, always.

Not here. This scene is taking place during the end of rush hour here, on one of the only TWO major routs to get ANYWHERE>>> The Orla. And not only did they decide to do this one particular light (I cannot recall if it was burned out, but it might have been) at this time, but they proceeded to do the rest of them in this stretch over the next several days, always it seems, at the same time. Just to give any non-locals a perspective : This is a two lane in each direction road that runs along the ocean - no way to turn off or go around. One lane was completely blocked by this truck.

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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A valid, sad reason

Granted, this shot is over a month old. I delayed posting it out of respect for who ever was at the end of this long line of cars that we sat in for almost an hour. It is not uncommon to get stuck in long lines of traffic that seem to appear for no reason at all, or because of some political type reason, like a blitz. This was our encounter on Paralella late one night. Often this stretch is plagued with traffic like this because of either the FTC college site or the Wet and Wild concert venue. We figured that was probably the case when we got stuck in this line, but as we finally got to the end we started to smell a horrible stench, and came upon a body in the middle of the stretch of 4-6 lanes of traffic, covered with a sheet. It was rather shocking, even though this is not the first dead body in a road I have seen in my life. And considering it was stinking so badly, I imagine it had been there for some time. Apparently only the morgue can come to remove a body, and there is some paperwork involved, so the long line of cars probably continued to pass it for some time after we did, waiting for the red tape to be cut. For a few nights after we passed it, I couldn't sleep well, and kept seeing the strange position of the legs in my head. Rather awful, and yet so much a part of this reality.

Morning Rituals

7 AM is a very busy time here in Salvador - people on their way to work, kids on their way to school, and delivery trucks are out in storm, leaving their goods where ever they are needed, often in the middle of major traffic routes.

Here, for example, is our coconut distribution service. Besides the local kids who collect them and sell them individually, there are companies that "harvest" the coconuts and bring them into the city in big trucks that may have "DISK côco" painted on them (DISK is what you call truck delivery; we have DISK banana, DISK sugar cane, DISK gas...). Unfortunately, as traffic was moving, you can just barely see there are two guys with large metal shopping carts, loading up coconuts to take to their stands which I assume must be somewhere nearby. This particular delivery was being made near a bus stop on Tancredo Neves Ave, one of the main veins (even shown on Googlemaps as a yellow road, so you know it's a serious route) of the city. Not that we would be concerned about traffic slowing....

Water doesn't grow on tress, but we have DISK water as well. This truck is loaded every day from the distribution center building, or maybe vice versa, I have never been sure. Nice clean water, coming out of nice blue bottles. Yet not more than 50 yards from this nice clean water waiting to arrive in your home, is a small river that is so full of garbage and sewage that you can barely walk past it without passing out from the fumes on a hot day. And, I might add, it is populated by dwellings of the lower class who must be immune to the smell by now. At least this DISK, on Orla - another major route to everywhere, parks on the sidewalk instead of in the road...