Sunsets in Salvador are Sexy!

Of course, I missed breakfast. Josh, Jimmie and I went out into the world rather late to exchange some dollars of mine. This was quick and painless. It was directly next to where Tomaso and I had lunch the day before. We headed out of town on a bus to Barra, a part of Salvador that has nice little beaches and old forts speckled along the coast. After sitting and looking out to the ocean for a few minutes, we walked around one of these forts and then farther south down the board walk until we realized how hungry we were. We saw how much the meals cost on the menu, so the waiter lowered the prices to keep us. We had beers and played Farkle. A damn fine game. I will teach anyone who wants to learn. The prato faetos here were delicious. I think we all got the fish. I was happy.

We walked farther down the beach and found a store where I bought some more flip flops. We thought that we would stay until the sunset, but we were all still tired from the last couple days. Thus we headed home. I needed to exchange the last of my American dollars to pay for the hostel, so I took another walk to the exchange place I had been to earlier.

On my way home, I noticed that the sun was about to go down. I ducked into a little bar that had a patio overlooking the water and the sunset. While everyone else in the bar looked to the soccer game on t.v. I looked in the opposite direction to the water, and the sun, and the sky, and the verdant forests on the hills in the distance. The shimmering dance of light on the waves was entrancing. Then it started raining over the part of the city I was in. The sun still shone, and the sheets of rain were illuminated in a translucent way. These sheets formed chapters, and the chapters formed a book that moved out over the water towards the many ocean liners that were docked at port. The sun went down behind the hills, and the rain continued to move away from the city. The boats nearly disappeared. As I sat and spoke with a drunk Brazilian kid who didn't speak much English I noticed how quickly the day transitioned into night. The lights on the boats and the surrounding hills sparkled all of a sudden. I hadn't even noticed them until the night had snuck up on us. There were also two people from NY who were on the patio with us, and we all spoke together until I knew I should go home. We had made plans to go to a churrascoria.

A churrascoria is an all you can eat meat restaurant, and they are pretty popular down here in South America. I had not been to one yet, and I was pretty excited. Josh had been talking them up for the past couple weeks and tonight was the night. Three Australians, who had just shown up in the afternoon, and the Ozzy Kiwi couple who had been hanging out for several days all went with us. The 8 of us took two cabs across Salvador to a spot that had been recommended by our hostel. We did not even Need to get up once we were there, though we did. Men walked up to us with swords of meat. They would come up and slice off a piece of whichever meat they were toting at that time. It was a little overwhelming at first and we were told to take it easy by our trusty guide, Josh Owens, professional meat eater. There were little circular cards( like coasters ) that were green on one side and red on the other. This obviously told the swordsmen if the individual was ready to keep eating or not. There was also a full salad bar( which I did not even look at ) and there was a sushi selection, which I appreciated greatly. Sashimi baby! The dessert tray had some really great things on it too. I ate some of those things. Those things were yummy.

Once we got home I realized how dehydrated I was. Even though I had to be up early the next morning to get to the airport, I had to stay up drinking water. With every glass of water I had, I got thirstier. Perhaps this was also a tactic to get my out of bed by 6am. I went to sleep later than I had expected.