Sitting in transit at the International Airport in Los Angeles, we've just realised that the morning we told people we were landing has already passed in Australia! It seems that we forgot to add an extra 24 hours to account for passing back over the International Date Line... you'd think that we'd be pretty good at this by now! Not to worry though, a few phone calls and we have it sorted. We're still arriving home a week before we told both our parents, to surprise them, so besides our damaged egos no-one will know the difference.

The last month in Salvador has been great. Wanting a more authentic local experience than what a backpacker hostel offers, we paid to share an apartment with a local couple for the month. Julia and Fuca were amazing hosts, and although Julia was originally from New York, her Portuguese was flawless. So much so that we thought she was Brazilian for the first three days that we stayed! They had a dog called Duda and a cat called Pimenta, a kitchen for us to blend all the fresh tropical fruit up for breakfast every morning, a breezy open room to practice our Capoeira moves and an amazing rooftop terrace with views of the city! They even took us out to their newly opened tropical outdoor bar for a good night of fresh seafood and Brazilian beers! What more could we ask for?

Our priority in Salvador was to study Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art that Aidan (and more recently Jess) had practiced for so many years back home. The African slaves in Salvador developed this art-form in the 16th century as a kind of street-wise self defence. To avoid prosecution they progressively disguised it as a cultural dance with traditional music, which is how the art is known today. The two original schools of Capoeira are known as Capoeira Angola and Capoeira Regional. What we had practiced in Australia was a blend of the two, known in Salvador as Capoeira Contemporanea.

We decided since we were in the city where it all started we'd go back to the roots and try to learn some Capoeira Angola. After getting a feel for our options, we joined the Escola de Capoeira Angola da Bahia with Mestre Boca Rica. He was one of the original students of Mestre Pastinha, the founder of Capoeira Angola. At 78 years of age, Mestre Boca Rica was a musical genius and could still sport a pretty good headstand. We had to pick up Portuguese pretty quickly to understand what was going on, but our teacher, Manu Doda, was very patient and knowledgeable. He grew up in Bahia and was married to a girl from Slovenia with a little one year old boy called Or. In four weeks we got to know the whole family pretty well, including Mestre Boca Rica, and learnt as much as we could cram into four weeks about the movements, culture and traditions of Capoeira Angola.

One Sunday we joined them for the Angoleiros do Mar beach roda on the idyllic Ilha de Itaparica. It was a beautiful ferry ride across the sparkling Baia de Todos os Santos, and the island had a great laid-back vibe. After a fun roda under the shade of a coconut palm, we enjoyed a swim, some good home-cooked food and a good samba jam with the other Capoeiristas!

Towards the end of our stay in Salvador we decided to round out our Capoeducation with a few classes at Mestre Bimba's original Regional school, 'Filhos de Bimba'. Mestre Bimba was the founder of the alternative Capoeira Regional style, which is a little more acrobatic and fast-paced than Angola. The class was very energetic with a lot of axé, and for our last class we helped out with a demonstration for a film crew working on a documentary!

When we weren't practicing Capoeira we were either recovering our aching muscles or exploring the city. We were told that Salvador is one of the most violent and unsafe cities in the world, which is largely a result of an oppressive history and a poor public welfare system. We were always careful not to show any signs of wealth, and to attempt to blend in with the locals to avoid attention. Thankfully our neighbourhood in Santo Antonio was home to a very friendly community, and we felt very safe there. Still, there were parts of the city that we wouldn't dare walk at night, and sometimes even during the day.

Perhaps we were a little overconfident when we broke a few of these rules on a day trip out to the beaches at Barra with a few new friends. It was midday on a sunny Saturday, with plenty of people around. Feeling safe in a group of six gringos, we decided to check out one of the less commercial, quieter beaches. Although there were other locals sitting less than ten metres from us, after about half an hour on the beach a young guy approached the sunbathing girls. He lifted his shirt to show his concealed pistol and demanded 'dinheiro, dinheiro'. The boys, oblivious to the situation, were happily lazing in the shallow waters only meters away. Eager to speed up the girls' decision making, he pulled out his gun and started waving it around. The two girls sitting next to Jess both had their handbags out on display so took the brunt of his attention. They quickly handed over cash, grateful he had not asked for any more. Jess, turning yellow for want of breath, shook her head vigorously, having nothing valuable at hand to present. Only partly aware of the hundreds of dinheiros he now had in his hand, our 'friend' disappeared as quickly as he had come, eager to be gone before being noticed by the nearby police patrol. We were all pretty shook up over it, and the locals that were around quickly closed in to check on us, and accompany us off the beach. No one was hurt physically, but we felt pretty bad that the others had handed over cash while we lost nothing. To make up for it afterwards, we shouted everyone lunch and some cachaça fruit cocktails to lift the spirits.

None of our other friends could believe our bad luck, and were in disbelief when, a few days later, it happened again! This time we were on our way home from dinner with a few other friends. We were all chatting and all of a sudden someone was grabbing our friends' handbag. She snatched it back instinctively and, as we began to realise what was happening, closed around the attacker. Looking up to see five gringos around him, he quickly changed his mind and ran off. It was only at this point that we noticed his hand simultaneously reaching for his gun. Luckily for us, this drugged-out desperado must have decided to retreat rather than fight. Again we lost nothing, and it was all over so fast that we were barely even shaken. Both times involved handbags, quieter parts of the city and a large group of Gringos, so we swore to avoid those things for the last week and a half before we flew home!

We spent the last days visiting all the museums, churches and concerts that we'd been too busy to see already. It is the inherent African culture coming through that makes Salvador, Bahia the lively, colourful place that it is. Although the churches are Catholic they are fused with percussion, incense and underlying Candomble beliefs. There is a passion among the people for music, dance and tasty food and the majority of the population are of African descent. Salvador received more African slaves during the slave trade than any other city in the world, and despite this travesty it has meant that a unique West African culture has been isolated and re-developed with its own unique Brazilian flavour.

Just north of Salvador, along the beautiful white sanded Bahia coastline, is Praia do Forte. This old beach town is home to one of the world's major sea turtle nesting sites, protected under the Tamar project. This project was initiated in the early 80's by local environmentalists to protect the endangered turtles and their nests. Since then they have employed hundreds of local fishermen to help monitor and conserve the area. The project is a very popular tourist destination, with a large interactive education centre and lots of rescued leatherback, green, hawksbill, loggerhead and olive ridley turtles for everyone to gawk at. How could we leave Bahia without checking this out?!

It seemed very ethically and responsibly run and we had a great time gawking. We timed it well too, as it was just going into hatching season. Nests that are built in exposed or unsafe parts of the beach are routinely relocated to a private beach in front of the education centre! As the sun began to set we watched the staff help the tiny hatchlings out from a couple of their sandy nests. After they were all collected we marched down to the public beach with the rest of the tourists. Here the children were all lined up and each given their own hatchling to release into the Atlantic. It was pretty special to watch the tiny grey flippers shuffle their way down the beach towards the waves, and we savoured every moment.

It was a good month in Salvador, and a great chance to unpack our bags and have a 'holiday' from travelling before we face the responsibilities of wedding preparations and job hunting upon our return home. Many people have asked us if we're ready to finish travelling after so long, and we can say we are. It's been an amazing three-and-a-bit years and we have incredible photos and memories, not to mention life experience, for which to be grateful for. But... we are happy to say we're satisfied for now and definitely ready to start the next adventure back in Australia. Thanks for reading and we hope to see ya'll soon!