December 06, 2008 – Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

We were scheduled to dock at 11:00 but had favorable winds and good working engines so we approached the harbor at 9:30 and were cleared to leave the ship by 10:30. I used the morning free time to work on my photo site http://bittl2008discoverycruise.shutterfly.com which for some reason didn’t upload the new albums from the work page. I finally got that worked out, but Shutterfly ignored my instructions to arrange albums with newest first and instead arranged them alphabetically. It looks as if the new additions will be at the front of the group. Anyway, the safari pictures and all the other ports are now available for viewing.

Salvador was the first capital of Brazil from the 1500’s until Rio replaced it in the 1700’s. It was the closest port to Western Africa and therefore was the hub for the slave trade from the 16th until mid 18th centuries. It’s Brazil’s 3rd largest city and the most African influenced which is evidenced by the clothing, music, dance and food. The city is built on 2 levels with the original slave market at sea level now being a market, Mercado Modelo, at the base of an elevator which goes to the upper level. Approaching the harbor we could see a lot of modern buildings & skyscrapers on the lower level. The upper level is a UNESCO designated site and is filled with Portuguese architecture dating from the 1500’s. It is said that Salvador has 360 churches, one for each day of the year. The old city is quite interesting to explore with narrow cobblestone streets going up and down. We did quite a lot of walking around before stopping at my favorite restaurant here Da Da. The Bahian food is unique and quite tasty and we had the sea crab stew that is made with a type of palm oil and some other ingredients that I can’t pronounce or spell and is served with rice. I had told several other people about Da Da and all said it was one of the best off ship meals of the cruise. We walked around the city some more, took the elevator back down to the market level and had a caipirinha (Brazil’s national drink) and walked back to the ship. We sailed at 4:00, heading for Fortaleza with a sea day in between. The after dinner show was an English piano vocalist who put on a very spirited show that kept the audience awake.