Hello again! I´m falling behind on these already! I blame slow internet connections...

Anyway, Salvador. We arrived on Thursday morning to blazing sunshine and boiling temperatures, carrying backpacks and wearing jeans. Not pleasant! A long bus ride took us to the area of Barra where Myra´s friend Oscar lives, who has kindly let us stay in his appartment. And whats a location! 10 steps from a beautiful beach.

Compared to Rio, Salvador is like a different country, if not a different continent. The whole look and feel of the city is like Africa. Not surprising given that 80% of the population is black. The colour divide is very noticeable here; even on the beach, the majority of the sunbathers are "white" Brazilians whereas all the workers walking around selling food and jewellery etc. are black.

We spent our first day here sightseeing, visiting the old town. The city has an abundance of beautiful old colonial buildings but mostly they have fallen into disrepair. It still has an elegance about it but it feels negelected. We visited an interesting museum of African artefacts and plenty of churches. Beautiful but very *bling*! We also went to the market square which used to be the slave market. It is a little harder to walk around the city than Rio as there is a constant flow of street sellers trying to get your custom. It is very touristy despite being the low season. I think this area is generally avoided by most locals unless they are going in the evening for a particular event.

Our second day was spent on the beach, relaxing and drinking caipirinhas and fresh coconuts! When in Rome... Look out for the pictures of Myra and I looking stylish.

Our last day we spent with Oscar, who took us to the famous church of Bonfim. It has a fanatical following in the state of Bahia and people travel from all over to visit. They write and send photographs of thanks when their prayers have been answered. It is also customary, when recovering from an operation, to send a plastic mould of the organ that was operated on! They have a room to the side of the church dedicated to these photos, letters and plastic limbs, hanging from the ceiling! The photo doesn´t do it justice.. We also took a ferry across the bay to have lunch in a famous fish restaurant (yum) and then have ice-cream (yum yum). In the evening we went to a concert - a guy called Marcelo Camelo who used to be in a band called Los Hermanos. It was good fun and the crowd loved it! It was in a fantastic outdoor theatre and the atmosphere was brilliant.

We had to rush home after the concert to pick up our stuff and head to the rodoviaria to catch our night bus to Lencois. Updates from there to follow!