Our first day in Salvador, the capital of Bahia (Brazils African state), was spent exploring the old centre of the city seeing the cathedral, a palace, a church built by slaves and a number of other old colonial buildings. The area was full of bright colourful buildings, some of which have been beautifully restored to their former glory and some which have unfortunately been left to rot. While walking around we also saw a number of Bahian women in traditional african dress selling food and handicrafts, and as it was the state festival time we were given ribbons which you tie around your wrist for good luck. In the afternoon we took the city elevator down to the modern part of the city that is built at the foot of the cliff upon which the old city stands to visit a huge market selling lots of colourful clothes, jewellery and artwork inspired by Salvadors African heritage.

The next two days were spent on the beach making the most of the lovely hot weather and surprisingly hot sea (it was almost like a bath!) On Saturday night we went into town for dinner only to find that the restaurant we had planned on going to was shut, so we took the elevator up into the old town in search of food and found that the main squares were buzzing with people as we had stumbled into the festival celebrations. The streets were filled with food vendors and drinks stalls, stages had been put up in the different squares and bands were playing to massive crowds. We had dinner sat in a cobbled side street where a local woman cooked us a delicious Fejioda, a traditional dish made from beans and cheap cuts of meat (some pork, fat, intestines, liver & something unidentifiable!) We spent the evening in the main square soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the celebrations; we were pretty much the only gringos there and we got a real taste of Bahia.

Tomorrow we are getting a night bus to a small town called Lençois to visit the Chapada Diamantina National Park.