been here two days and already a crazy weekend

Daniella took me to what I guess you would call a bloc party yesterday, in a neighborhood that could best be described as "like Compton". I of course was a) the only white guy, b) the only person who didn't speak Portuguese, and c) the only person with my mouth open the entire time, for numerous reasons. We were there for maybe an hour before some HUGE dudes came by, one of them with dreds and tons of tattoos, and they sat down right next to us. The big guy with the tattoos asked me where I was from, and I told him I was from America. I should point out that as far as I can tell right now, there are many tourists from South America (Argentina, etc.) and Europe (Germany, Spain, etc.) in Salvador, but very, very few Americans. For this reason I'm finding that I tend to generate a bit of a spectacle when I say I'm American. Most people can tell I'm not from around here, but they don't know for sure where (Italian? Spanish? they say). I'm thinking in some of these cases it may be best to just say yes rather than correct them, and pray they can't speak Italian or Spanish or whatever.

Anyway, the house with the dreds shakes my hand, nearly palming my entire arm in doing so since his hands are so big. He knew some English because apparently he practices / works / teaches Capoeira (the local traditional martial arts / dance from Africa and slavery times) in Pelhourinho, which is the major historical and tourist area. The smallest of his two buddies, who still outweighed me by probably 50 pounds without a shred of fat on his body, spoke (in Portuguese) with what sounded like a lisp and gave me his phone number to call in case I wanted to learn Capoeira, which of course I do, but from what Dani says maybe not from these guys "because they may want to hob (rob) you".

So the guy with the dreds then asks if I want to smoke a joint, which I said no to, but which I took as an offer of friendship. Later Dani pulled me aside and said she thought these guys were drug dealers (to which my answer was "yeah, so?") and that they were bad people. I didn't put the two together but whatever. She said she thought they were wanting to sell us drugs, which if they were would definitely knock them down on the coolness scale.

I caught one of this guy's other boys checking out this one Brasiliera who was wearing next to nothing and nearly coming out of her dress, and we met eyes for a second. He gave me the thumbs up and I smiled and nodded and we both laughed hard.

I should also mentioned that they served Feijouada at the party, which is a sort of bean stew with chunks of pork and pork fat, spices, etc., and rice and salad. I've had it before in New York with black beans, which was good. This was made with white beans by one of the friends of the girl whose birthday party (and apartment) it was, and it was awesome.