Bahia, Capoeira, and Sudaka

Finally, in Brazil! The past six days on the boat have been loooong...apparently Semester at Sea is trying to change its image and this year, they are making the classes a lot harder. WTF mate?! Yeah, so I´m doing a hell of a lot more reading than I want to be, and am actually going to every class, which is more than can be said for my time at Stanford. Anyway, it´s good to be in port again.

Yesterday was fricken´ sweet. Salvador is a cool city, and I think in the one day I have here, I got a good idea of what was going on. Took a huge elevator to the upper city, called the Pelorino. From up top, you could get an amazing view of the whole city and the port. Had a traditional lunch of acaraje, a dish made of fried black bean husks and stuffed with hot peppers and shrimp...not my absolute favorite, but pretty good. Also tried Caipirinhia, which is an amazing drink a lot like a Mojito, but tastier and stronger. A few of these through the afternoon made the day much more intresting to say the least. Wandered around up top and bought some souveniers, including a CD of a local Samba band called Olodum. This stuff is awesome, Ill play it for you guys when I get home. After exploring the upper city, we went back down the elevator to the Market Modelo, a huuge indoor/outdoor local market with every type of souvenir you could ever want. I bought a hand drum used in traditional Capoeira, which I am totally gonna rock out on the deck when we set sail. The only problem I had with Salvador was that I don´t speak a WORD of Portuguese, and most people here speak ONLY Portuguese. It is NOTHING like Spanish, which I tried repeatedly. I feel that I could have had a richer experience overall if I had been able to communicate with more than just simple hand gestures. Oh well.

Everywhere you go, there are people practicing Capoeira, the local dance/martial arts style. It is so fucking cool. Musicians around the circle keep the beat with drums and tambourines and an instrument called the Birembau , which is a one-stringed instrument that is slapped kind of like a Bass. The Capoeira is very fluid, there is no contact, and everyone is always moving, standing on their heads, cartwheeling...these people are incredibly strong and incredibly flexible. I watched a bunch, and want to learn more.

That night, we went to a welcome reception at a nearby university. I thought it was gonna be a chance for us to mingle with Brazilian students, but mostly it was just a big party for us. There was another Capoeira demonstration--I jumped in at the end and learned some basic moves. Then there was a mock Carnival ceremony, with lots of drumking and dancing. But the absolute coolest part of the night was this percussion group called Sudaka. There are no words to explain how hard this concert rocked. There were four guys, all playing different instruments with an electronica background. I have never danced so hard. Absolutely unbefuckinglievable...the first thing I am doing when I get home is ordering this CD .

So Day 1 in Brazil was a huge success. Today, I head off for the Amazon Jungle, which should be really cool. I hope we see some crazy animals, maybe even an anaconda.