Salvador pictures

On friday there was a holiday here in Salvador. Independence day. I took a walk around the upper, old part of the city. See yourself here: http://sailing.smichah.de/#17.6

In the following you find some of my favourite pictures.
Salvador is a big city, over 3 mio people, most of them poor. Rich and poor live door to door which results in the contrast in buildings as you already saw in previous pictures, e.g. from Recife. But it is more extreme here.  Funny enough, as in all the cities in south america I know, the part of the poor people is the more colourful one. And the more touristy. The colours make it attractive for tourists. All of a sudden poor is "in" - and gets richer. With the funny effect that often the buildings are beautiful and colourful in the front, but poor in the back. See yourself in the pictures.

Rich is white, mostly with a bit dark blue in form of stripes. That's how all the expensive motor yachts around us look like. And the new, high tower appartment buildings of the richer people - with tiles all the way to the top. It looks like we're the only cruisers here. All the other boats are here for show, to be cleaned during the week from their paid babysitters and sometimes taken out to do what they were made for - glide through the water - by their owners and their families, friends or people who need to be impressed. Oh, and of course if they are taken out for max. 2 days (friday afternoon til sunday noon), the women need a big suitcase trolley and the guys a shopping cart full of drinks and food to sruvive this extremely rough and long trip. You sit at the bar, drink a Mojito and look at the scene. Better than a movie, I can tell you. The creme de la creme of Salvador. Thank god our boat is beautiful enough to be accepted here. Today one guy even talked to us - a richer guy who has just ordered a brand new Alubat 52. Overall there are maybe 10 sailboats here. All except for us and the 50ft Lagoon Catamaran suffer the same pain, that they are not allowed to do what they were made for but lie there fixed to a pier most days o the year. In the contrary to the motor boats the sailingboats are not inhabitet by an army of washing and repairing soldiers. They just quietly ly there, listening to the sound of the wind an imagining how it would be out there. Only the swell (waves) pushing into the harbour lets them get a sense of the free world.

Talking about exclusive boat: our little Alita is very exclusive now that I had to re-sew the whole UV-protection cover and fix some holes. I added some little funny friends. Marcus wanted the crocodiles, but they always want to eat my fish and frog:

  







Back to the town. Enjoy the pictures.

See all the tankers waiting in the background. Love this picture. Salvador and Faro de Barra to the right. 

Salvador upon arrival. 1,5 hrs to go from that point of time to the harbour around the corner

Salvador or New York? Look at the lifts going from the ocean to the high buildings through the green

House for sale

Historic center Pelourinho

Look at the loving picture in the window and the poor lonely boy lying underneath the window

View over Bahía Marina

Tree growing out of the wall. Not coming from down below.

Who wants Pop Corn?

View over the Bay to Itaparica, the island we're heading to on tuesday

Alita from above. I love being up in the mast, anjoying the most gorgeous views. I couldn't care less that the boat was constantly moving around in all directions, I really had to hold on. But I was double secured against falling down...

Hope you enjoyed the selection. Go to the photogallery to see them all
http://sailing.smichah.de/#17.6