Salvador, Brazil – Aug 12, 2006
After saying a sad goodbye to Kitty, Grant and Will Proctor, I begin to explore the areas around Salvador easily reachable by car and head first to a place that is generally raved about, Praia de Forte, or beach fort in English. It becomes quickly apparent that this is another too cute outdoor shopping mall, a bit like a small and mildly ragged Nantucket, holding little or no interest for me. And its beach, lined with rocks, is nothing much.
After a few days of such side trips, I direct the crew to cast off lines in Salvador and make the several hour trip to the truly delightful seaside resort town of Morro de Sao Paolo, where we anchor just offshore in a protected bay. The town, a miniature but much-improved version of St. Augustine, Florida, has not a car in site. Transport is by foot along sand streets, or paths more accurately, and elevation changes are considerable. Unpretentious restaurants, cozy bars, and the usual shops full of ladies’ stuff abound. Yet there is an air of authenticity, a slight raffishness, that makes the place a joy.
After a long walk along the sunny, wind swept beach to a first class resort, Jorges, the English speaking (sort of) taxi driver who guided me around Salvador, meets me by prior arrangement, and together we take a rattle trap bus ride back into town over rough dirt roads, past donkey carts and modest hovels, finally unloading at a sand floored bar right on the beach. It is out of season and so the usually oppressive crowds of a popular place like this aren’t here yet. The only disturbances are the three or four times an hour phone calls from Jorges wife filling him in on the exigencies of life for her and their young child. He tries to explain that he is working with a paying client who is not too thrilled with the phone rings, but that seems to have no effect.
With Jorges keeping me mostly out of trouble and finding the best bars and restaurants, I while away two days here under near perfect skies. It is one of the few places in Brazil so far to which I’d gladly return one day.