We arrived in at the airport in Rio de Janeiro to welcoming arms. Our friend Alexandra in San Francisco is from Rio. Her uncle Berto met us at the airport during our layover to Salvador. He loaned us Alexandra’s cell phone for our stay in Brazil. We sat and had lunch together while we waited for our flight to Salvador. He made sure that we understood that we could always call him for help if we need anything while we are in Brazil.
We landed in Salvador a few hours later and were picked up by our friend Nilton’s brother Aureo and his girlfriend Patricia. They don’t speak English and we don’t speak Portuguese, so we stumbled through some basic conversation. We all know small amounts of Spanish, so each sentence was filled with some form of Portuguese, Spanish and English.
We went from the airport directly to a night club in the old district in town. It was an outdoor bar overlooking the bay. After 24 hours of traveling, the cold beer was exactly what was needed. After meeting more friends of theirs, Aureo and Patricia took us to the apartment they found for us. Two months ago they searched for an apartment for our stay in Salvador and also got us our tickets for Carnaval. We made plans to go to the beach at 9am the next day (Saturday).
On Saturday we were picked up by Aureo’s friend Andre and his girlfriend. We met up with Aureo along the way to the beach. We drove about 30 minutes to a beach outside the city. We ended up at a place called Margarita’s. This was an outdoor restaurant/bar with tables all along the beach under umbrellas. For the next 4 or 5 hours we ordered beers, swam in the ocean and ate food like caranguejo’s(crab), some type of small friend fish with hot salsa, and grilled cheese on a stick.
After eating and swimming all afternoon at Margarita’s, it was time for lunch. We went to a restaurant that serves up some traditional Bahian food (Salvador is located in the state of Bahia). We had more beer and caranguejo’s and some tasty clams. After that we moved to another table that was prepared for us. The table was set with beautiful dishes of food. Everything was very colorful. We ate moqueca which is like a fish stew made with palm oil. There were lots of other dishes that we ate that I do not know the name of.
That was the end of day one in Brazil. Our hosts are gracious and extremely patient with us because we do not speak their language. Su and I start Portuguese class on Monday, thankfully.
