Salvador

Like I said we are now in Salvador, Brazil (not El Salvador).  We flew here Monday afternoon from Sao Paulo, it is one of only two flights we are planning on making in South America (the other being in about 5 weeks when we fly from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the South tip of South America).  We decided to fly here because of the price/time ratio and from here on out we are heading south until we have to end up in Florianopolis for Carnival.  The flight was pretty nice, great airline (TAM-Brazil).  On a domestic flight of only 2.5 hours we received a hot meal and they also had the new touch screens on every seat where you can choose from loads of movies and tv shows.  It was great for a domestic flight, i think the only US based airline comparable is JetBlue. 

After landing in Salvador we took a bus in town and watched the beautiful beaches the entire time until we got in to the city center.  Salvador is in a state known as Bahia (click on the link to see where it is on a map of Brazil).  The State is mainly known for being the heartland of Afro-Brazilian culture as Salvador was the main location for importing slaves into Brazil.    It seems like a completely different country compared to Sao Paulo.  The buildings are all built in a classic colonial style and the streets are filled with African influenced music. 

Great Colonial Architecture (the street leading to our hostel)

More Colonial Architecture

Yesterday, we went to the Afro-Brazilian Musuem and learned about how the African god structure has all influenced the descendents of the slaves today.  That even though most Brazilians in this region of African descent might consider themselves "catholic" overall they truly still follow and worship in different ways the African gods there descendents brought over during the colonial period.  The museum has a treasure of both African and Afro-Brazilian relics.  Even though this area still has a strong influence of the African heritage of mosts of its residence you can`t go anywhere without seeing the influence that Catholicism and  Portugal had here.  There are beautiful churches everywhere including one  that almost the entire church is painted in gold leaf. 

Inside of Gold Leafed Church

Besides that Emily and I just enjoyed the great weather on the coast here and walked around.  Tuesday night is also the big party night here where the city hosts two major parties one was kind of near our hostel and the entire party was held on a large/wide staircase leading upto one of the churches in town.  The music was great and the whole atmosphere was amazing where both locals and tourists (many Brazilians from other areas included) just join in and dance (sorry no pictures of it, it was to crowded of an area to bring my camera). 

View of the Upper City of Salvador from the Lower City

View of the Lower City and Marina (the yellowish looking building is this huge `tourisy` market

On a complete side note, I know running in to Israelis was going to happen everywhere throughout South America but my first run-in was kind of weird.  Yesterday I was wearing a shirt from the end of my medics course in the army.  A girl who was sleeping in the same room as Emily and I asked me in English where I got the shirt.  So I replied in Hebrew that I was in the IDF.  So confused she asked why I was speaking English all the time.  So I told her my story.  In the end she was also a medic in the army and actually taught at the medics base new medics.  She was in the same exact course as my teacher when they were becoming medics and knew each other well.  The odd part of the whole story was about 30 minutes before this conversation happened my teacher from my medics course who I haven`t talked to since the course ended randomly IMed me on facebook to talk.

Tonight we are taking an overnight bus ride about 12 hours south of here to a beach town called Arraial da Ajuda (still in the State of Bahia).  Probably won`t be much to update, we are just planning on sitting on the beach all day and enjoying the small town.