I’m back in Salvador. Arrived with no plans for accommodations…ran into Lourdes walking down the street, Lourdes, my Brazilian friend…who within moments found me a room for $7 a night, just downstairs from my English friend Helena. Yes, in the same neighborhood where I watched a gang try to mug Helena and another gang protect her. "Salvador")
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 "Salvador")
I am now on the most beautiful tropical island off the coast of Salvador, Brazil…In a pousada overlooking the ocean for $30 a night! Including a bountiful breakfast. Just a 2 hour boat ride to Salvador. No motor vehicles, only sandy streets. And filled with interesting foreigners from around the world.
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Salvador, Brazil. Download.
Video! Watch the video a martial art/dance which originated with the slaves as a secret ritual. Download and play “Capoeira” video. (10 mb)
Capoeira, the popular acrobatic dance, was developed by the slaves in Brazil as a tool of insurrection against their masters. When it was prohibited from the slave barracks, the slaves moved it to the forest. To disguise their intentions, they turned it into an acrobatic dance with fluid, circular movements, the fighters playful and respectful.
The clapping of hands and plucking of the berimbau, a one-stringed musical instrument made from a gourd and a rod, originally served to alert fighters to the approach of the boss. Later it was incorporated into the dance to maintain the rhythm. Semicircles of spectator-musicians sing an initial chula before the fight and provide the percussion during the fight.
Goddess dance in Morro Sau Paulo, island 2 hour boat ride off coast of Salvador, Brazil. Download.
 "Salvador")
Like a pack of dogs they appeared circling, surrounding us under the halogen lights, then with lightening speed, surrounding Helena and just as quickly, another pack coming to our rescue to chase them away. They barked and snarled, but within seconds the attackers had withdrawn into the dark alleys of Salvador. When Helena was safely behind her gate the dark angels of her hood disappeared into the night. My friend Eris and I strode up the now quiet street, me shocked into silence over what I had just seen. My first gang sighting.
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Days pick up momentum and a peculiar quality of poignancy.
I go home in less than two weeks.
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 "Salvador")
8/6/04
Dear Kathryn,
I am in Salvador!
Looking forward to seeing you. Be prepared to have your senses jangled in every sense of the word - mostly good and always amazing.
 "Olinda, Belize")
Ok, so the “hole” had its good points.
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Like Saddam Hussein, I crawled out, unkempt, squinting against the glare of the sun.
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