Thursday, December 9, 1999
It is day 20, almost three weeks into our around the world voyage. We have sailed 5,187 nautical miles and have reached the coast of South America, the city of Salvador, Bahia, our first port on the continent-in Brazil.
It's amazing to discover that Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world! It is 3.2 square million square miles, just slightly smaller than the entire United States. Salvador is the former capital city, and when I look out my porthole at dawn I see strange lights bobbing up and almost able to be touched. This is a very strange sensation---I'm almost getting used to looking out my porthole at dawn, to see a gray mist rising over a never ending sea, or sunlight pouring into the stateroom and foamy waves rising as far as I can see.
The lights are a welcome surprise. I look closer. Ocean Explorer I is docked right up against the street, and you can step out into the heart of the old city. I can see the rich 15 and 16th century architecture that Salvador is known for. We are told that this is the most well-preserved example of the colonization of Brazil, and I see that this is true.
There are cathedrals, narrow cobblestone streets and colorful buildings in the old town, and as we begin our tour, we can see many modern buildings, beautiful sculptures and geometric designs in concrete structures along the ocean highway.
But I'm much more interested in food than architecture today-I'm taking what turns out to be a leisurely six-hour tour concentrating on "Bahian Cuisine." This will be a peek into the "culinary wonders of Bahia," and this represents the "real" Brazilian cooking. Raimundo, our guide, is a gem; he loves food, loves to cook it, and is planning to do all his own cooking at a party for 200 he is planning for December 31, to celebrate the coming of a new millennium and his grandmother's 100th birthday, he tells us.
He takes us to Ceasa, the central fruit and vegetable market and walks us around to learn about the ingredients used to prepare Bahian cuisine---we will sample these dishes in a couple of hours at a Brazilian feast. We hear about such strange things as acaraje, abara and vatapa, the "famous" malagueta pimenta hot sauce.
He shows us brilliant red fresh fish caught nearby and beautiful fruits and vegetables of all sorts. We're more than ready when we reach DADA, a breezy open air Bahian restaurant on the oceanfront.
We start with the Brazilian national drink, made from fresh limes-with mounds of tiny lime slices filling the bottom of a tall glass with sugar, crushed ice and cachaca---the "aguardente" distilled from sugar cane. WOW!
We didn't care what came next after testing that drink. A fabulous Brazilian meal followed-- shrimp, fish, and crab dishes, along with manioc, the traditional Brazilian food-- (a yellow glue like-consistency), and another type of manioc shredded for sprinkling on the rice. Four deserts followed, two of very sweet coconut pudding like dishes, another that I called rice pudding , and a final fruit dessert similar to the inside of cherry pie and tasting like a cross between cherries and plums. It took several hours to recover-- mostly from the aperitif!
Salvador is a city of many colors of people and place, rich in Bahian history and culture; it's the most African of Brazilian cities, and for centuries was the center of the slave trade in Brazil. It was a logical end to our voyage following in the path of the slave trade. Back on the ship a local folklore group presented a program highlighting the African heritage in Brazil-a dancing troupe in costumes of feathers, masks, ribbons, strands and strings, dancing, chanting,and tossing lit torches, (which scared me to death on a ship with this captive audience).
Yesterday's adventure ended with a trip to H. Stern-the worldwide Brazilian based gem company. I watched in fascination as any number of fellow passengers purchased veddy expensive, gems ensconced in earrings, rings, and necklaces, rubies, emeralds, diamond studded, the finest gold. One woman I know bought matching ring, earrings, and gold pendant costing almost $7,000 dollars. She didn't have enough cash with her so she took the saleslady back to the ship to open her safe deposit box!
Actually, if you opened my safe deposit box, you'd find an equally big bundle of bills---only mine would be in Chilean pesos---I have a bundle of 136,000 pesos I carried in my money belt all the way to the ship---I exchanged them in Washington to spend in Chile as I travel with my son Steve But that two inch bundle is equivalent to exactly $300 in American dollars!
Money is a constant irritant here---that is changing money. We wanted postcards in Salvador but in the market couldn't use an American dollar to buy them. So our gracious guide Raimondo stopped somewhere, got back on the bus with lots of reals (Brazilian money) and exchanged dollars for reals for those who wanted them. It's confusing because they seem to pronounce this money something like "heyow". Later I bought six postcards and took it on faith when I gave the girl 10 reals in a bill and got God knows what in several other bills for change. I'm already on my fourth currency!
I go now get ready to dock in Rio and take off for my trip to Iguazu Falls and the Amazon jungle!
