“We are carnival, we are Bahia. We are the world of carnival, we are BAHIA!!!”

Sorry about the delay in posting this, between two days of heavy classes with papers and Neptune day all day yesterday.

So, starting with Salvador de Bahia, it was one of the most interesting places I have ever visited. As is becoming a tradition, many people including me were awake and on deck at 5:30 to watch the sun rise over the city as we pulled into port. Thanks to the Breedloves I was able to go to a camarote (a viewing stand for carnival) on the first night after an amazing dinner at an all you can eat Brazilian barbeque. (Evidently, there is also one in Birmingham I am going to visit when I return) At the restaurant, they bring around HUGE pieces of meat on skewers and they slice a piece of each cut off for you to try. They have everything from lamb, chicken, filet minion, and chicken hearts (yes I ate some). Then after arriving back on the ship and catching up on some much needed sleep. The next day some friends and I walked around the old Pelourinho district. This is an old part of town that has very narrow and steep roads, many unique shops, and food. The food is a whole story in and of itself. On the street, there are so many kinds of food, from meat on a stick, to churros filled with caramel. My favorite is the friend bean cake called acaroje that’s fried in a palm oil, cut open and filled with peppers, shrimp, some spicy stuff. (Mrs. P, correct all my horrible spelling of these words.) There was also some cheese on a stick (see a pattern) that is cooked over hot coals while you wait.
However, I digress from the main point, Salvador was amazing, and is defiantly not anything like I have every seen. The language barrier was something that could be overcome with an earnest attempt and a slight knowledge of Spanish, and you can usually limp your way though a Portuguese restaurant, or bartering with merchant in the marcado. At the marcado, I bought some amazing things. A local soccer jersey for US$10, a painting and wood carving for around US$8 apiece, an amazing hand carved wooden ship for US$4, a cloth hammock (yes a hammock) for US$12, and a large brimmed and baseball cap for US$5 apiece. It was a blast just to barter with some of the local merchants. For example the one I bought the ship from originally wanted roughly R$40 (R$1 is roughly 50 cents, so two to one) for the ship, I said no, and asked about the smaller ones which he wanted R$20 for. Eventually he was down to R$8 for the medium one.
After the marcado, we went back to the ship and rested for a while before heading back to the elevator to the Pelourinho to participate in carnival. Up there is was night and day from the other evening. It was more of a chilled, laid back atmosphere, with street vendors selling food and drinks. African bands and dancers wandered the street with the crowds dancing behind them. Unfortunately, while up there I had a few dollars (R$15 or so) and a disposable camera that stolen off of me.
The next day Mr. Breedlove gave me a tour of the city, including the fort, a few churches, and the best ice-cream place in the city. That day, exhausted from the night before we went to the beach to relax, and then that night went out to dinner and crashed early.
On our last full day in port, we explored the city some more, touring San Francisco (a amazing church, with an unbelievable amount of gold leaf) and a few other places, went back to the marcado with some friends. That night was one of the most fun nights I have ever had though. We had an SAS trip to Trio Electrico, which are massive sound trucks with bands on top and another truck following that was nicknamed the B&B; Bathrooms and Bar. Surrounding the trucks are probably roughly 200 security people holding a rope, to get inside the rope you need a special t-shirt that is unique to that band on that night. With SAS, we had shirts for Areketu, which is an African percussion based band. We danced and sang inside the rope for what seemed like 10 minutes when in real life is was closer to three and a half hours.
After a long needed nights sleep we set out on our last few hours in Salvador, visiting the Marcado, trying to find a post office (still all closed due to Ash Wednesday and Carnival), and calling home. (I’ll call in the next few days again mom) I went out to dinner with Dia (the registrar) Shayla (another staff member), Shenkay (a girl from Japan) and her roommate. We went back to the Brazilian barbeque and had an amazing meal and a great time.
I apologize for the lack of photos from Bahia, as it was not safe to carry my camera. That I carried everything I need in my socks, hat, and a few small bills in my pocket.
After two LOOOOOOONG days of classes, and two papers later its Neptune day! We were woken up by some of the crew banging on drums and chanting while roaming the halls at 7:30am. Following them to the deck, everyone gathered and kind Neptune (the captain painted in green) appeared. Everyone who chose to celebrate our transformation from pollywogs to shellbacks, those who have crossed the equator on a ship, first had fish guts dumped on them, then had to swim across the pool, kiss a fish, then kiss Neptune’s ring. Then those brave or stupid enough had their heads shaved, the list included me, a lot of guys, and at least 30 women, some with VERY long hair, which was donated to locks of love. One girl Lindsey donated over 18 inches.
To round out the day, they cooked an auctual, over charcoal, barbeque on deck for us with burgers and ribs and chicken and corn. It was amazing.

That’s all for now, I’ll update with the pictures I have from Salvador and Neptune day later on tonight (early morning your time) when the internet picks up speed as everyone goes to sleep. Also, we are now on GMT, and Michigan is -5GMT. Cape Town is +2 GMT so we have to lose two more hours of sleep sometime soon. We’ve moved our clocks ahead 3 days in a row and lack of sleep is catching up with many including myself. So, I apologize for the poor grammar and chaotic train of thought.

For those tracking the position of the ship, they have started posting regular updates on semester at seas website, the link is: http://semesteratsea.com/voyages/spring2007/sp2007_positionreport.html