On the Tuesday after a total of 33 hours on 3 different buses we finally made is to Salvador, a journey like this makes you really appreciate trains and low budget airlines! On arrival we were greeted by live music and crowds of dancing people in the streets as well as groups dancing along behind African drummers who were running all over the town. The smells of sizzling meats wafting off the street vendor BBQ´s would be enough to turn a long term vegetarian into a meat eating machine! We dumped our bags in hostel and headed out to get stuck into the action with a beer in one hand and a sizzling meat skewer in the other dancing up the streets of the Pelourinho until the early hours of the morning, what a way to kick start a visit to Salvador.

The Hostel we stayed at was called Galleria 13, it was a pretty small place but they had an amzing all you can eat breakfast buffet until 12pm (so effectivly it was breakfast and lunch if you timed it right) with scrabbled egg and sausage as well as fruit, bread and cerial, traveller luxury. The hostel also did free Caipirinha hour from 5pm so of course we couldn´t miss out! My favourite residents at Galleria 13 were Zulu and Corinthian, Zulu was a huge Brazilian Bulldog who was almost my height when he stood on his back legs and Corinthian was his little buddy who was about a 5th of the size but who was also the boss. Brazilian Bulldog are apparently band in most countries for being violent but I don´t think I have every met a soppier oaf ever. When Zulu tries to play he forgets his size and practically bulldozes into walls, plant pots and anything else within range (note to self - playing with foreign dogs will get me into trouble 1 day!).

On the Wednesday we were woken up to the sound of the local dance schools holding lessons for their students, Salvador is the most musical place I have ever been, it´s great. Out side each dance school there is a lady in traditional African dress with a huge dome shape skirt and lots of Afro-Brazilian jewelery. We were lucky enough to be staying righ next to the most famouse dance school in Brazil called Oledum, no ´gringos´are aloud to enter this school.

There is a lot of history around Salvador most of which comes from the African slaves that were brought here in the 1500´s onwards. The religious history of ´Condomble´ is a big focus of the city because it is still practiced in some areas today. Condomble is a mixture of rituals and beliefs from african culture combined with the figureheads from Catholicism. The Africans gave their gods Catholic names to fool the Catholic missionaries into believing that they had been converted and therefore aviod punishments such as being whipped on a ´Pelourinho´, the whipping posts that give this area its´name.

There were also lots of great museums in Salvador that showed all the gods of the Condomble beliefs and well as lots of ancient Amazonian artifacs. There was also recreations of the worlds oldest cave drawings that were found in the Bahia province, it is just an incredieble place and I recomend that anyone who comes to Brazil makes a visit to Salvador, especially on a Tuesday :-)