Valentine's Day Brazil Tour 2022 (Part 7)

12 de Junho, domingo, Rio—Salvador, Bahia

6.12, Sunday, Rio de Janeiro - Salvador, Bahia

Book a taxi to pick us up at 7:15 am and send us to Santos Dumont Santos Dumont Airport, where domestic flights take off and land. The airport is near the sea, just on the sea tongue protruding behind Vivo Rio.

In the education of the Brazilians, the inventor of the airplane is Santos Dumont, not the Wright brothers that the Anglo-Americans think. There is a text in our Portuguese textbook that demonstrates this point. Anyway, Dumont is undoubtedly the great pioneer of human flight. I sat by the window in the cabin, and the takeoff process was very interesting due to the landscape of Rio. Two hours later, the plane passed over the city of El Salvador, and the land below met the blue sea in the distance, with white waves in the air.

The warm wind blows. When leaving the airport, the car first passed through a long bamboo forest, and the skylight sifted through the verdant branches and leaves. I have read this scene in other people's travel notes. I saw street signs on the highway: to Itapuã, to Abaeté, Itapua Beach and Lake Abaete, all of which I am familiar with from Caymmi and Cayetano's chant!

The B&B I stayed at this time is facing the sea, in the Barra Baja area, within a few minutes walk to the Farol da Barra lighthouse. The word Barra wants to have the same origin as the English bar, which means to resist and defend—a dam to block the sea, or to defend against enemies? The Maritime Museum, which is integrated with the lighthouse, has never been visited, and the questions cannot be answered. The B&B house number 535 Barra is a high-rise apartment. The row of glass almost floor-to-ceiling windows can unlock the sliding sash to let the wind blow in. When we came in at noon, the cleaning lady hadn't finished her job.

I insisted on eating at Pelourinho, the ancient town on the highlands. Both the travel guide and Portuguese classmate Jerry recommended the lunch buffet at Senac, a culinary school. So the three of them braved the scorching sun, waited for Uber, and went straight to the old city of Pelourinho.

Pelourinho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a treasure trove of architectural art. Its name bears witness to the brutality and barbarism under the banner of civilization—Pelourinho in Portuguese is equivalent to pillory in English. Whipping the prisoner under the watchful eyes. In the past when slavery was prevalent, the stone pillars on Pelourinho Square bound countless black slaves who were whipped for rebellion. The number of black slaves sold to Brazil was six times that of American black slaves. As the ancient capital of Brazil that was once rich, El Salvador used to be called "Black Rome", and it is still probably the place with the darkest average skin color in Brazil. Black music, dance, martial arts, language, religion, and even eating habits have profoundly affected this country. Without these histories, there would be no Brazilian culture that I am fascinated by. Cayetano really sang it well: it was the blacks who "discovered Brazil" (Quem descobriu o Brasil). He himself has a little bit of African blood left by his ancestors through intermarriage, coupled with cultural influence, so he proudly calls himself "a native-born mulatto in a broad sense" (mulato nato no sentido lato).

Classmate Jerry is an African-American in the South of the United States. He used to live and teach in El Salvador. He mentioned some relics related to slavery here, including the shameful stone pillars. However, we are only busy looking for food right now.

Northeast Brazilian cuisine, represented by El Salvador, is rich in spices and rich in taste. Seafood stew is one of the famous dishes. Senac's buffet lunch is 70 or 80 reais per person, and drinks are ordered separately, which is a great value. The food made me full, so I simply skipped dinner. The traditional sweets made of fruit puree and shredded coconut look tempting, but they are actually cloyingly sweet. It reminds me of the New Year’s candies when I was young, such as candied winter melon and lotus seeds, etc., which were unbearable in the past.

After paying the bill, Rue went to the bathroom. The middle-aged waiter returned the bill and the bank card, and at the same time presented a biscuit wrapped in a ribbon, saying that today is Valentine's Day Hoje é dia dos namorados, which is a small gift for the lady. I thanked him on my behalf, and pointing to K said shamelessly, in fact, we are also lovers, and we got married. The waiter said: "Then please wait a moment, I will go get it and give it to you." We were given two identical valentine cookies. The ribbon bears the name of Senhor do Bonfim and bears the blessing of the most popular Catholic church in El Salvador. K laughed at me for being cheeky and greedy. I just wanted to speak more Portuguese, and the biscuits were a by-product.

These words are called "Brazil Pilgrimage", which corresponds to an English title "Brazil: A Pilgrimage" in private, a pilgrimage journey. Of course I'm here for Caetano Veloso. He now claims to be a carioca from Rio, and his cultural roots are deeply rooted in this area. He is an authentic bahian baiano. We came out with a full meal, and the city was bathed in the bright and changeable afternoon sun. The beauty of the light is indescribable, and I thought of Cayetano's soulful voice singing luzes da Bahia.

Walking into the Catedral Basílica Primacial de São Salvador Cathedral to visit, it really is what classmate Jerry called gold, gold, gold, resplendent and resplendent. Then walk to the Casa do Carnaval da Bahia Bahia Carnival Museum, which is about to close, come to live.

It was dusk when we returned to Pelourinho Square in Triangle. We looked out the window of a musical instrument store, and the black clerk ushered us in. There were vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, you name it. The black Roberto doesn't speak English at all, but with music as a medium, I enjoy chatting with him. Asked if he could play an instrument, he shook his head and smiled: Só dança! Only dance! The prelude to a song sounded so familiar from the loudspeaker, I said, is this—? They made eye contact with Roberto, and then they both said in unison: Milton Nascimento! There was a kind of excitement for each other as if they had signed a signal.

I saw a Brazilian flag (bandeira) hanging in the window and wanted to buy it, but Roberto misheard me and thought I wanted pandeiro. After explaining clearly, he said that there is no stock in the store, let him arrange it and ask me to pick it up another day.

El Salvador is located on a geographical fault, divided into a high city and a low city, and the cliff sections are clearly visible between them, which is very spectacular. Pelourinho is the noble upper city, and the lower city must have once been the slum of the docks, markets, warehouses and workshops. In order to connect the high and low cities and make it easier for people and goods to go up and down, the steam-driven Elevador Lacerda Lacerda elevator was built here in the 19th century, and it was later switched to electricity. We're going to take this elevator down and call a car home. In the night, walk to the Praça da Sé square next to it for a view, overlooking the lower city, and now there are densely packed modern buildings, but it is dim and there are few lights, and the darkness is like ruins. I was deeply shocked, and "Love Flows in Central" written by He Xiuping immediately came to my mind:

仿似一隻空罐子那麼落寞仿似一串荒冷的流逝煙花留下寂靜 遺忘白晝再見這繁榮原背里有數不清空冷孤寂夜靜又再次衍出這赫赫迷城之荒

We took the antique Elevador Lacerda elevator down, and we stopped for a while in the open area in front of the model market Mercado Modelo. From a distance, I saw a male couple, wearing slippers and short clothes, walking towards this side hand in hand. I'm sorry to take a close-up shot of someone's face without saying hello, but in the end I left their backs, the most beautiful scenery on Valentine's Day.