Vibrant northeastern Brazil has a spirit all its own

The rhythms of dance permeate life in vibrant Salvador.

By Janet Eastman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:00 AM PDT, August 20, 2006

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There is nothing bland about Brazil's original capital, Salvador da Bahia. This northeastern coastal city rivals Rio de Janeiro with its kaleidoscope-hued Carnival floats and old Lisbon with its pastel Baroque buildings.

Tourists — mostly from Europe, but increasingly from the United States — arrive in ho-hum khaki shorts and white T-shirts, but soon sport banana-yellow soccer jerseys. On their heads, multicolored hair bands hold tidy new braids in place, and bare wrists are quickly layered with pink, orange and purple "good-wishes" ribbons.

FOR THE RECORD:

Salvador, Brazil: A Travel section article Sunday about Salvador said the population of the Brazilian city was 39 million. The city has a population of about 2.5 million. A photo caption accompanying the same article referred to Itapagipe as an island. Itapagipe is a peninsula.

Late last summer, I spent five days here with American college professors and students traveling the world aboard a cruise ship with the academic program Semester at Sea.

After being told to watch our cameras and wallets because of street crime, my friends and I raced down the gangway of our ship, the Explorer, and within minutes were submerged in the rainbow of colors painted on storefronts in city squares and later those painted on bars and hotels along the glistening coastline.

During the day, we bargained over strands of bright blue beads and paintings that made Picasso's look pale. One night, we flooded the lighted squares in the old part of the city. A little tipsy from caipirinhas, a lime drink made with high-octane sugarcane alcohol, we tried to samba alongside Brazilians, known for their party spirit.

Nearly 39 million people live in Salvador, also called Bahia; it's the largest city in northeastern Brazil. A vibrant African culture prevails. Most residents are descendants of the 3 1/2 million Africans brought to these shores as slaves to harvest diamonds, gold, coffee, sugar and tobacco for Portuguese settlers.

The city's colonial charm has been battered over time, and repairs on rundown buildings and pitted cobblestone streets are slowly being made, but original structures have been preserved. Ceiling, walls, columns and arches of the 18th century São Francisco Church are still coated in gold, a shining reminder of the city's importance as Brazil's capital from 1549 to 1763.

"It's paradise," said Gail Austin, an administrator with the University of Pittsburgh, who honeymooned here with her husband, Mensah Wali, five years ago and returned with our group. "White sand, blue water and beautiful people."

On one sunny afternoon, with church bells chiming, a young Sonia Braga look-alike in a swaying peach skirt tip-tapped her way down a street. A Ford Taurus with Bahia Salvador license plates passed alongside her, windows rolled down, radio blasting "Pretty Woman." Then one of my companions in clunky tennis shoes began to follow in the woman's high-heel footsteps, clomping over the cobblestones before twisting her ankle.

There are two truths about Brazilians: They are good-looking, and they know how to move. Locals explain it by saying that the strongest men and loveliest women were born here or came here and stayed. And they're graceful because they use dance in everything: religion, protest, romance.

Candomblé, the Brazilian blend of Catholicism and African rituals, received its name from the word Nigerian Yorubas use for "dance of the spirits." And the lethal martial-arts maneuvers of capoeira were invented by Africans brought here as slaves. When plantation owners felt threatened and banned capoeira, the movements became more like a dance or game with two people performing choreographed handstands, cartwheels and legs kicks. The pace is set by a drum, a tambourine and the twangy berimbau, a long, one-string instrument with a painted hollow gourd that adds a deep haunting sound.

Candomblé dances and capoeira matches are included in many Bahia restaurant shows. Street performers, hoping to earn a coin or two, demonstrate their versions in the city squares that overlook the turquoise water of the city's bay.

It was this bay that first lured Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci here on All Saint's Day in 1501; he called his discovery Baía de Todos os Santos (Bay of All Saints).

Portuguese settlers followed almost 50 years later with royal orders to create a capital city. They fought the native Indians, the Dutch and the Spanish, and on a bluff overlooking the bay, they used slave labor to build large squares anchored by stone churches and lined with three-story manors painted coral, cream and pistachio.

"Brazilians love it so much here that when they arrive at the airport they kiss the ground and say, 'Finally, I'm in Bahia,' " said Cloves Luiz Oliveria, a political science professor at the University of Salvador, who was a guest lecturer on our ship.

The city's culture center

A steep bluff separates central Salvador's lower bayside (Cidade Baixa) from the upper cultural area (Cidade Alta). The fastest, least expensive way to go from one to the other is on the modern Lacerda elevator or the funicular railway. Each takes less than a minute and costs a few cents each way, while a taxi or a bus takes 15 minutes and costs a few dollars or more.

The year-round steamy climate is like summer in Miami; it seldom dips below 72 and can shoot up to 100. We explored the streets of the upper city and discovered that it was designed for endless sunny days. There are no coverings over the walkways, windows or wrought-iron balconies. Restaurant tables and chairs overflow onto the streets.

"Bahians are very friendly, very sociable," said Bruno Victoria, a tour guide with the company Tatur Turismo, (www.tatur.com.br) "They want to be outside and see the people, carts, movement."

We found that the best people-watching spot is in the Pelourinho, or Pelô for short. All the pedestrian-only streets in this historic district lead to the open square where slaves once were sold and punished. (Pelourinho means "whipping post.") Tour groups meet here, as do the poor, who gather around visitors to beg or perform, like the barefoot boy we saw juggling three green coconuts.

At the center of this beehive is the Jorge Amado Museum. Amado, the son of a cocoa farmer, is Brazil's most famous author; he moved to Salvador in 1926 when he was barely a teenager and wrote 32 books, including "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" and "Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon," before he died at 88 in 2001.

There was no charge to explore the small galleries in the museum that displayed portraits of Amado taken by his wife, Zélia Gattai, along with covers of his books, which have been translated into 50 languages. When we were done, we sat on the front stone steps, watched people pass by and pointed out the heartbreaking beauties and shy loners who could have been among his characters.

Along the upper city's old streets were tiny shops that stocked crocheted dresses and handmade berimbaus. Jewelry stores had silver reproductions of balangandans, ball-shaped amulets that were given to slaves by Portuguese families; if they collected seven, they received their freedom.

Easels outside the many art galleries held paintings with explosive colors depicting Candomblé religious ceremonies. The Afro-Brazilian deities, or orixás, dance on canvases in yellow, red and blue dresses that signify their powers.

"Religion is seen in the colors, art, music, dance and food of Bahia," said tour guide Victoria. "Colors honor the different spirits. And the spirits guide you through your problems."

At Jesuit Square in front of the old basilica, women in layered white skirts set up stands and cook acarajé, palm-oil fried bean balls stuffed with shrimp. Acarajés are eaten here, says Victoria, "as often as Americans eat hot dogs."

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