My trip with Erica was a bit different than my trip with Sue. Mainly, she had a shorter amount of time in Brazil and we were hoping to travel further making our schedule much busier and keeping us constantly on the go. Erica arrived on the same afternoon that Sue took off and after grabbing a pizza we spent some much-needed time catching up over cheesy slices and beers.
The next day was our only day to tour Ilhéus before taking off for the big city of Salvador the following day. We headed downtown and I showed her all of my favorite places. She took the requisite picture next to the city's pride and joy, a statue of the famed author Jorge Amado, and we even got caipirinhas at the bar where he used to come and write. After exploring all day, it wasn't hard to decide to make it an early night as the next morning we had to be up and out the door by 6:30 a.m. to make our bus at 8:00.
The bus ride to Salvador takes about 7 hours and can be a bit long and uncomfortable for the unitiated. The traffic is slow, the curves are winding, the grades are steep and countless stops are made in tiny, middle-of-nowhere towns. Erica handled it like a champ, though, and before we knew it we had reached the city of Bom Despacho and boarded the ferry for the city. On the ferry, we met a nice man while asking about the best way to get to the historical part of town where we wanted to stay. He ended up going with us all the way there and walked around the Pelorinho with us until we found a decent hostel. I was more than thrilled that we had local male company in the Pelorinho at night as it's known to be one of the most dangerous spots in Bahia.
After showers and a bit of relaxing, Erica and I had a traditional shrimp moqueca dinner with fancy drinks and then joined the throngs of tourists following the drumbeats. Erica was very lucky to be in the city for a Tuesday night which is the evening when the historical district comes alive with cultural performances, live shows, drum corps and food vendors of all kinds. We watched some of the drum corps' performances which were fantastic, danced behind some traveling dance groups, listened to some live music and attempted to samba. It was a a really fun night and a great start to our trip together.
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