Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/303828
32 w e s t w o r l d | s u m m e r 2 0 1 4 (drummers) alfredo maiquez/getty images, daniel wood over 600 years ago, the genes and religions of two transported cultures, Portuguese and West African, have become inseparably mixed. Just as the South American bulge of north- east Brazil once fit – in a time of drifting conti- nents – into the concavity of Africa's west coast, so today the exiled descendants of former Afri- can slaves, comprising 85 per cent of Salvador de Bahia's 2.5 million population, have retained a close attachment to the shape-shifting gods of their ancestors. Concealed just beneath the modern veneer of Brazilian Catholicism, Salva- dor is – in its deities and attitudes – the most Africanized city in the western hemisphere. Africa is, literally, bred in its bones. On my first evening in Salvador, I climb the lanes toward the city's hilltop Pelourinho district, only vaguely aware I'm entering a place of tragic history. In 1501, Amerigo Ves- pucci – the man who gave the Americas his name – arrived here. And in the following decades, the Portuguese established in Bahia's hinterlands vast sugar plantations that fuelled, in time, both the need for five million African slaves and a 250-year-long period when the city was the wealthiest and most elegant in South America. All around me in this World Heritage Site is evidence of such tropical glory – for Pelourinho contains the most colourful examples of colonial architec- ture in the Americas. Hundreds of buildings, most dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, are painted in sherbet-toned pinks, char- treuse, salmon and turquoise. The rococo façade of the slave-built Catholic church to my left is mauve. But the cobblestones underfoot are the exact place where the blood of genera- tions of black Africans ran, for it is here that healthy slaves were auctioned, and the rebel- lious were pilloried and whipped. Halfway up the slope to the his- toric centre of Salvador, I hear from behind me the sound of drums, marimbas, rattles and whistles, and turn to see an impromptu street band approaching. Loud, infectious and fiercely danceable, the rhythms of Africa move through the Pelourinho neighbourhood like a breeze off the nearby Bay of All Saints. Samba, bossa nova, reggae, the blues, rock 'n' roll and all their modern hyphenated offspring fill the district's narrow lanes and pla- zas at night in assaults of visceral sen- suality. e strolling band passes, its drumming diminishing, and I hear • (l-r) The cobblestone lanes of Pelourinho regularly erupt with drumming; a hawker sells slices of fruit at an open-air market; dressing up for the festivities calls for hoop skirts, layers of jewellery and turbans. (opposite) With billions of eyes on Brazil's FIFA World Cup this summer, visitors should consider some of Rio's less familiar attractions. Bahia Bound Located more than 1,000 kilometres northeast of Rio on Brazil's Atlantic coast, the city of Salvador de Bahia has at its core the historic 550-year- old district of Pelourinho. Dozens of inexpensive pousadas and several high-end hotels, including the elegant Convento do Carmo, a restored 16th-century convent, occupy the clifftop location. Pelourinho also contains dozens of restaurants, many with outdoor balconies overlooking the city's huge Bay of All Saints. Other adventures in or near Salvador de Bahia: • Each February, the city's streets are taken over by the largest party on earth as millions of people participate in its week-long music- and madness-filled Carnival. • The highway north along Brazil's Coconut Coast parallels endless palm-lined beaches. These are punctuated by former tropical fishing villages turned resorts such as Praia do Forte and Arembepe, where the hedonistic, sun-loving nature of the Bahian people is on display. • The highway east from Salvador passes through the rolling Recôncavo region where remnants of old slave- worked sugar plantations lie abandoned. The restored 17th-century town of Cachoeira, a two-hour drive inland, is the centre of traditional Candomblé worship and the home to the all-female religious order, the Sisterhood of Good Death. –D.W. • p30-35_Brazil.indd 32 14-04-11 2:45 PM