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The Pelourinho
We decided to spend another day or so back in Salvador as when we were here for carnaval we had stayed in the beach district and not in the historic part, the Pelourinho. We left the hostel at around lunchtime today. We had read about a restaurant in the lonely planet where you could go to have a big Brazilian buffet for lunch and try all the regional foods. There was a lot of choice, some were hits... some not so much, but we definitely left with full tummies. To help our lunch settle we wandered the cobbled streets and soaked up the history. This small part of Salvador reminded us of the town of Olinda, further north up the coast. We browsed some little shops selling everything from tacky tourist souvenirs to beautiful paintings. Afterwards we made our way to a large church. We were interested in visiting this place because the book said that slaves were forced to be build it and so in revenge they had disfigured some of the cherubs decorating the inside. Some of them were very ugly or had bulging breasts and bellies implying they were pregnant. We were a bit confused as to where the entrance was but found it eventually. As we looked around the church we convinced ourselves we could see these distortions and we found the place very interesting. But as we exited we saw a sign for the church next door, the actual church we were looking for. Turns out we were in the wrong one altogether - oops! Still interesting to look around though. We returned to the hostel and had a bit of time to relax and a free caipirinha in caipirinha hour.
We had booked to go to a candomblé ceremony that night so we got picked up in a car from the hostel. Candomblé is an afro-brazilian religion brought over by Africans enslaved in Brazil from 1549-1888. The ritual we watched was a ceremony for the fire god. It was held in what looked like a house in a residential neighborhood but inside were seats around the outside of a hall. Women and men had to sit on separate sides and we were told to wear something white. The ritual consisted of women dressed in big white skirts and lots of jewellery dancing around a centerpiece. There was lots of singing, chanting and percussion. Male priests dressed all in white also chanted from the sidelines. Now and again one of the dancers would let out a loud groan, there eyes would roll back and they would enter a trance-like state. When this happened the other dancers would sit them down, remove some of their dangly jewellry, tie their shawls around their waists and then they would all carry on dancing. It was quite surreal to watch. I personally found it a bit unnerving and a slightly demonic when the people became possessed - they groaned as if in pain and it made me jump. Towards the end of the ceremony the entranced people left the room and returned in costumes, the women as queens and princesses and the men as kings and princes. By this point we had been in the ceremony for 3 hours so we went outside to get some fresh air. The ceremony continued for about another 20 minutes and then finished. Afterwards, food and drinks were shared among everyone and we headed back to our hostel. We hadn't fancied the food at the ceremony so we walked down the road for a late night pizza and then headed to bed. It had been an interesting day in the Pelourinho and we were glad we got to see this other side of Salvador.
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