Cidade Baixa
Yesterday all the students and teachers at the school skipped class to go to Cidade Baixa (Lower City), the part of the city that (I think) is closer to the ocean. Cidade Alta is the rest, which includes the historic district of Pelourinho. There's an elevator called Elevador Lacerda which lifts people from Cidade Baixa to Cidade Alta, over a sketchy neighborhood. It's probably about 5 stories high and it reminds me of something out of Planet of the Apes, where you have some bizarre technological anachronism rising out of a scattered mix of sprawl and rubble.
In Cidade Baixa, there's a bunch of boat docks, slips, and all other things nautical, including nautical supply shops, which, coming from that kind of environment growing up, was a bit surreal for me. On the way there we passed a number of poorer neighborhoods, which consist largely of dense groups of shacks in varying degrees of disrepair. From what I've read, a third of the city lacks what we would consider adequate sanitation, and I'm guessing that some of the neighborhoods we passed were in this sort of condition.
On the brighter side, we stopped in the neighborhood of Rebeira at an ice cream place which claims to be the best in Salvador, complete with awards from the local restaurant review section of the newspaper. The cool thing about the ice cream there is that they had flavors that we'd never see here, like Kiwi, Guava, Passion Fruit, Mango, and a bunch of different nuts that I don't remember the name of. The guy behind the counter was frantically handing out samples of different flavors on little wooden spoons, so that by the time I was ready to order I had ten (not exaggerating) of them in my hand, and was pretty full. So I was like, OK, I'm good, let's go, but everyone else wanted to actually buy something (sigh). So I asked for Guava and Mango but somehow this got mistranslated to Kiwi and Mango, I think. It was pretty good although it was a little more on the sherbet side than I would usually get (in lieu of something more fattening :) ) I got it because one of the teachers said I couldn't get chocolate, only "frutas". Also when I got to the last 2 inches or so (sorry, 5 cm) my cone exploded and I had to stumble over and toss it in the trashcan. For some reason the folks I was with didn't even acknowledge that I spilled it all over myself, which I was very, very grateful for. They kind of just sat and stared, which was very refreshing and different from what I'm used to. In my experience people are more likely to sit and stare when you clearly need help with something, but then smother you with attention when you wish they would just look the other way. Not here. They sit and stare without prejudice to help or ignore.
We stopped also at the most famous church in Salvador, called Bonfim, where (gulp) people hang pictures of their sick or dead loved ones to solicit help from above in healing them or sending them on their way. It got pretty hair-raising in some parts. There were some very explicit photos of sick people, and hanging from the ceiling were wax casts of arms, heads, legs, etc., of aforementioned sick loved ones. On the front steps of the church that we descended on the way out, there were a number of poor, mostly elderly people asking for money, and there was one woman on the steps who looked like she had elaphantiasis in her legs, which I've heard is a problem here for people who can't afford proper health care.
Some pictures of yesterday are here.
In Cidade Baixa, there's a bunch of boat docks, slips, and all other things nautical, including nautical supply shops, which, coming from that kind of environment growing up, was a bit surreal for me. On the way there we passed a number of poorer neighborhoods, which consist largely of dense groups of shacks in varying degrees of disrepair. From what I've read, a third of the city lacks what we would consider adequate sanitation, and I'm guessing that some of the neighborhoods we passed were in this sort of condition.
On the brighter side, we stopped in the neighborhood of Rebeira at an ice cream place which claims to be the best in Salvador, complete with awards from the local restaurant review section of the newspaper. The cool thing about the ice cream there is that they had flavors that we'd never see here, like Kiwi, Guava, Passion Fruit, Mango, and a bunch of different nuts that I don't remember the name of. The guy behind the counter was frantically handing out samples of different flavors on little wooden spoons, so that by the time I was ready to order I had ten (not exaggerating) of them in my hand, and was pretty full. So I was like, OK, I'm good, let's go, but everyone else wanted to actually buy something (sigh). So I asked for Guava and Mango but somehow this got mistranslated to Kiwi and Mango, I think. It was pretty good although it was a little more on the sherbet side than I would usually get (in lieu of something more fattening :) ) I got it because one of the teachers said I couldn't get chocolate, only "frutas". Also when I got to the last 2 inches or so (sorry, 5 cm) my cone exploded and I had to stumble over and toss it in the trashcan. For some reason the folks I was with didn't even acknowledge that I spilled it all over myself, which I was very, very grateful for. They kind of just sat and stared, which was very refreshing and different from what I'm used to. In my experience people are more likely to sit and stare when you clearly need help with something, but then smother you with attention when you wish they would just look the other way. Not here. They sit and stare without prejudice to help or ignore.
We stopped also at the most famous church in Salvador, called Bonfim, where (gulp) people hang pictures of their sick or dead loved ones to solicit help from above in healing them or sending them on their way. It got pretty hair-raising in some parts. There were some very explicit photos of sick people, and hanging from the ceiling were wax casts of arms, heads, legs, etc., of aforementioned sick loved ones. On the front steps of the church that we descended on the way out, there were a number of poor, mostly elderly people asking for money, and there was one woman on the steps who looked like she had elaphantiasis in her legs, which I've heard is a problem here for people who can't afford proper health care.
Some pictures of yesterday are here.
posted by n10471 at 10:04 AM
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