Misto - February 9-18 2019: Salvador, Brazil

We arrived in the Termino Nautico marina on February 10 at 6.30 am. The marina is right in the town, a short drive or walk from the old town. An elevator takes you up the steep hillside to the Old Town with its historic buildings and restaurants. We have enjoyed a number of good meals here including the local speciality of fish stew which comes still bubbling in a clay dish.

We enjoyed the WARC tour to a couple of the historic churches and the lighthouse. There are said to be so many churches in Salvador that there is one for every day of the year. On Valentine’s Day we booked a tour for dinner and to go to a folk dance show in a small local theatre. It was a lively and energetic show that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Communication here in Salvador is frankly a challenge if you do not speak Portuguese. For the first time on the WARC we are having to use google translate and a lot of sign language! The people are all very friendly and try to be helpful but there is very little English spoken. Getting around is easy and cheap though, using Uber, which seems to be used by locals and tourists alike.

We have enjoyed a couple of days cruising around the bay and visiting the island of Bom Jesus and Itapareica. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is similar to very remote areas of Portugal and Spain with. There are lots of unfinished buildings in the villages and others that are in a rather poor state of repair. None the less the places have been pretty and it has enabled us to get a little feel for the area.

We decided to go to Rio for a few days and so today we find ourselves at the airport ready to go off on a short land-based adventure. Ros went to Rio for work many years ago but Howard has never been and so it will be great to enjoy the vibrant city together.