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The historical center of Salvador is very quaint, with most of the interesting sites located in Cidade Alta (Upper City) - not that we were allowed to venture anywhere else as it was too dangerous to walk outside of this area. We have an excellent view of Pelirinhou from our pousada, with its multi-coloured buildings and mutliple church towers. Scott, Angelica and I attended a candomblé ceremony (which is an Afro-Brazilian religion with African roots) at a terreira (candomblé temple). The ceremony was conducted in a small hall in the house (the temple was actually somebody's home as well), which would comfortably accommodate 30, but we had about 100 people crammed into that small space: between worshippers, dancers and a small handful of us visitors. In the first 2 hours, the dancers sang and danced around in a circle, evoking the spirits. Fireworks were set off periodically during the ceremony. The second part of the ceremony involved a few dancers dressing up as Oxeiras (deity - they have more than 20 gods, each with their own domain, eg. God of Fire, God of Wind and Thunder, God of Diseases, etc). A few of the worshippers would go into a trance, whereby a spirit would enter them. The spirits represent ancestors who would interact with the worshippers through these ceremonies to provide guidance, and resolve disputes among the present living. Fascinating!!! Our guide, Louis, passed out briefly as he watched the ceremony - he explained later that he was previously a candomblé medium. During the ceremony he had gone into a trance, which made him feel nauseus and dizzy. The sceptics amongst us believed it was the lack of ventilation in the room that caused him to pass out - as that was exactly how I was feeling myself.
The next evening we watched a performance by Balé Folcloria de Bahia - a folk dance troupe - where they performed various dances from the candomblé ceremony, the capoeira, a sugar harvest dance, and a cheeky samba dance. The costumes were colourful and flamboyant, the choreography was brilliant, and the music and dance utterly enjoyable!
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