We arrived in Salvador about 10pm sunday night after a 7 hr flight from Manaus with a touchdown in Brasilia. Unfortunately our pick up failed to materialize. As is the way with Brazilians someone stopped to help us when they saw us waiting and in the end the help desk got the local tour agent on the phone who didnt have us on the list but was very apologetic and told us to take a taxi and they would sort it out in the morning. Had this been England I suspect we would have just got thru to an answer machine late sunday night.
The taxi was a hair raising white knuckle ride even by Brazilian standards with a very young driver who obviously thought he was the reincarnation of Ayrton Senna or else had borrowed the vehicle and took us along for the joy ride. We careered from lane to lane, tailgated and swerved out to overtake abruptly rarely signalling but to be fair we did stop for red lights, well some of them. It was 30km from the airport to the historic centre so it was better value than a disney ride.
Salvador is Brazil's 3rd largest city and some of the old part is very run down with crumbling old colonial houses and we drove thru some pretty empty unpromising areas until it became obvious that the driver couldnt find our pousada (small hotel/b&b).
We stopped to ask some passers by and we were at least on the right road, it was just a long road. At one point he got out to look around and ask people leaving us in the taxi with his door open and engine running. It was a relief to find it at last, one of the thin multistoreyed old houses which had been renovated. We didnt argue the £40 fare as we knew we would get it back from one of the tour companies.
The saving grace was the young guy on reception who greeted us wreathed in smiles and couldnt have been more helpful and welcoming. The lift was broken so he and Martin dragged the heavy cases up 4 flights but the room was unexpectedly bright, large and modern and it is the first hotel ever where the price of drinks in the minibar is no more than on the street, so we opened a can of beer (80p) and it all seemed so much better.