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WELCOME TO MY WORLD OF SALVADOR DA BAHIA
Dique de Tororo, Salvador Bahia
Majority intentionally shy away from the truth because of its bitterness, but "Just Bahia" opens you to the good, bad and ugly realities of Salvador da Bahia - Brazil, through pictures, current events, religious practices, festivals, food, politics, sports, tourism, business, travel, Portuguese learning, social life and additional facts that travelers should know about the state. The style and English that will be used in all the articles on this site will be simple, articulate and explanatory, in order to carry along a non-English speaking reader.
Click to enlarge the pictures



Salvador, does this city ring a bell? When one talks about this city, what immediately
comes to mind is the "Republic
of El Salvador"
the Spanish speaking country situated on the pacific coast of Central America.
A brief visit to this Africanized city hangs one in the balance in terms of
decision making of either staying back or returning to wherever one is from.
But, having paid a second, third and fourth visit….. What follows next is an
indecisive feeling of staying back para sempre .
Salvador which is pronounced in full as São
Salvador da Baía de Todos os Santos,
meaning "Holy Savior of the Bay
of All Saints" is the third
largest city in Brazil and
the capital of the northeastern state of Bahia.
The city was for a long time also known as Bahia, and appears under that name
"Salvador da Bahia". With a population of almost 3 million
inhabitants, it is ranked the city that has the highest BLACK population on
planet earth after Lagos
the commercial nerve center of Nigeria.
This old city, one of Brazil's
cultural highlights was founded in 1549. As the first capital of the country,
it has played host to legends like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Rev. Jesse
Jackson, Spike Lee, Danny Glover, and star actor Morgan Freeman who comes back and forth. It is a
birthplace and home to top Brazilian celebrities making waves in the
international entertainment circle. The likes of Grammy Award winner and former Minister for Culture Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Dorival Caymmi,
Gal Costa, Ivete Sangalo (3 time winner of best Brazilian music award), Daniela Mercury, Carlinhos Brown to mention but a
few.
If beaches are your desire, the only difficulty in Salvador
is choice. This is also applicable in the area of beautiful women and handsome men.
Bahia is the center of cultural and religious syncretism in Brazil.
The vibrant African influence in the areas of religion and culture including
food, music and dress codes have been richly preserved that its traces could be
noticed in every nook and cranny of the city.
In addition, the elements of catholicism brought by the Portuguese colony, the
Tupinaba Indians beliefs and the religions of the Africans have blended to
create a fascinating religious experience. If you enjoy partying and hanging
around crowds, no where comes close to Salvador
during carnival. Carnival in Salvador
is not nubile women in feathers high up on floaters dancing in a surrounded
enclosed stadium like you have in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo; it is you out
there, doing it on the streets until you drop.
Having looked at some of the goodies that this exotic tropical city
offers, one will almost forget that majority of its inhabitants are languishing
in abject penury. Unemployment is the order of the day in this city,
manipulation by political office holders is visibly seen and physically felt by
the people, the gap between the well to do and the poor can be easily
noticed, the bureaucratic and sluggish nature of handling general issues reigns
supreme, spitting on sight is considered normal, jumping the line in
supermarkets, malls, banks etc are day to day activities, blasting music
as loud as ever in private cars, homes and street bars is considered cool,
reckless driving and breaking traffic rules are daily routines, waiting at the
bus stations on weekends for hours can be a pain in the neck, calling ones house
and authoritatively asking "who is speaking" is habitual, standing
one up or coming extremely late for an appointment without any notification is
no big deal, wearing skimpy clothes and exhibiting ones protruding stomach when
pregnant is a part of the open culture. Whichever way you want to criticize the
life style of Baianos, you should have it at the back of your mind that
every country and people have their flaws and shortcomings. So let's simply
stick to the maxim that "nobody is perfect".
If there is one thing that is unbeatably impressive about this great
people of Bahia,
it is the simple fact that they are not only amazingly creative, but receptive,
hospitable and highly accommodating.
Mark Stevenson Fuo
Welcomes you to dtruth.
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