Well after arriving,  we have been busy every day.  It’s so hot 35+ everyday and the marina is very hot, so everything is an effort and done at snail’s pace.  The area we are in is safe during the day but we have been told to take taxis everywhere at night.  Salvador De Bahia is where the Portuguese first brought the slaves from Africa to South America. The African influence is all around, there are armed police and tourist security on every corner, which makes you feel safer.  It’s hard to get money out, the machines in the banks only seem to work sometimes, we have a daily visit to HSBC to see if we are lucky and unfortunately we are limited to a small amount of Real’s everyday because of the security risk..  We have been told not to carry bags, no watches, no camera, no jewelry and only carry small amounts of money.  So we have no pictures yet of this area.  Good place to be…. 

Out of the low town it is great, we catch the elevator to the high town, which is lovely, old churches and a big square where there is music every night.  We saw a children’s choir one evening, they were singing on a stage, with children also in the windows of the building behind the stage all swaying and singing Christmas carols in Portuguese, but still the same songs, Slade – Merry Christmas, silent night etc. 

We had a shopping fix at shopping Salvador, which had everything so I bought a new pair of sandals and David some light weight white shirts and Christmas presents.  We also went to a Deli at Perrini Graca and got some nice Christmas food. Smoked salmon, gammon, Brazilian beef fillet which is gorgeous, sprouts and Di, packed us up a surprise box for Christmas which had Cranberry sauce, stuffing, crackers, gravy and a Christmas pudding which was fabulous, thanks Di.

I will get some pictures of our trip and post when we get back from the River, we are going anchoring for a week over Christmas until the New Year to see more of the area.

Love Suzanne & David xx