Craving Salvador da Bahia – part 1

Carolan Gladden ♦ December 31, 2014 ♦ Leave a comment

I haven’t been to Brazil for years and I’d really love to return. To Bahia — it’s, the country’s African heart that beckons me. Where the Portuguese colonists’ first major sugar cultivation resulted in capture and importation of untold numbers of West Africans to serve as slaves, which means that 80% of today’s Bahia population are their descendants.

Remains of a 100-year-old sugar mill near Cachoera in Bahia, the location of that first plantation. I got to see this and a lot more thanks to inimitable tour guide Joel and his firm Sankofa.

 

The Portuguese made Salvador da Bahia the original capital of Brazil and the Governor’s Palace still functions as a government building. It was pure luck that seagulls soared by just as I shot the photo.

 

Salvador has this miraculous pastel maze of cobblestone streets cluttered with small shops, hotels, cafes, offices, not to mention centuries-old churches. The area is called the Pelourinho.

(continued to part 2)