We had decided to take the fast catamaran from Morro de Sao Paulo to Salvador. The trip was more expensive and everyone had told us that we would be sick, but this 2 hour wheel barrel to catamaran to elevator (yes, there is an Art Deco elevator that connects lower Salvador to upper Salvador) was much more convenient than the 4+ hour wheel barrel to ferry to bus to ferry to elevator combination we would have to if we went the cheap way. So we woke up, had light breakfasts and said goodbye to the beautiful beach. We hired a man to carry our bags in a wheel barrel to the catamaran. While waiting for the boat, we both took half a Dramamine in the hopes of holding off sea sickness while staying awake. We were the first two in line when the boat arrived in the hopes of getting a seat in front (again, to avoid sea sickness). When we reached the end of the dock, ready to board the boat, a man asked if we spoke English, and said he needed to explain something about our journey.
He said, "You´re not going directly to Salvador. You are going to take this ferry across the river so you can take a bus which will take you to a ferry to Salvador. This will take 2 hours. The catamaran sank last night."
Um, the boat we were planning on taking sank last night?????? Not especially good news for two land lubbers. In fact, it was quite shocking. However, we weathered the trip just fine, no sea sickness, because we were on a bus most of the way, just irritation at buying the expensive ticket and still spending 3.5 hours getting to Salvador.
Since the announcement of our Brazil trip to Olivia´s former senior womens exercise class last spring, we have had tentative plans to meet up with the international exchange student sister of one of the participants, who lives in Salvador, Bahia. Tina invited us to the shopping mall (Brazilians LOVE their "shoppings") to assist us in Christmas and souvenir purchasing, followed by a lovely pizza dinner at her favorite local joint. She is a delightful, intuitive, interesting person who graciously answered some of our questions about Brazilian culture related to race issues and government and general domestic philosophies. She also invited us to see her tastefully holiday-decorated 7th apartment, which has a terrific view of the bay and for the first time in 7 weeks, we drank cold, filtered water without a charge. Her take home messages: "the world will try to get you down, and you must try very hard not to let it... it is your mission to love... I can sense this, Chris is a thinker and Olivia is a do-er..." What a fabulous person.
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