Local traditions and culture in Salvador da Bahia

I got this good luck wristband in the old city of Salvador. It is supposed to grant wishes and protects. I got mine from a street vendor who didn’t have any change and gave me the wristband instead. You can also buy them and they only cost a few cents.

On the wristband is written: “Lembranca do Senhor do Bonfim da Bahia”, which means “Souvenir of Our Lord of a Good End of Bahia” (Senhor do Bonfim is apparently one of the names used for Jesus).

To bring good luck you tie it with three knots, and for each knot you make a wish. Then you wait for it to fall off, and when it does you must throw the wristband in the sea. If not, your wishes will not come true and you will also be hunted with bad luck…

If someone can get triple the price for an item from you, they will.

I bought two paintings for 305 for the pair, after originally being told 280 each. It did take about ten minutes to get the price down but its worth it if you don't have bundles of cash to be splashing around.

For smaller items it isn't important and you don't want to go everywhere looking like a complete cheapskate.

Cab haggling is a vital skill, and you can nearly always negotiate a price for longer journeys. Even from the airport you can get the price down from the regular 76 that is quoted to about 45.

Everybody wear flip flop, from the most expensived fashion brand, but the most of all buy Havaianas or Dupè in the supermarket...u can find towsend of colors, designs....so one day we was at the beach with some brasilian and italian friends and we putted all the pairs in 2 lines....it's like a Keith Hearing pop art exibition!

If you go to Salvador for the first time, you will surely wonder what the boys with the big bowls on the shoulders are selling... This is PEANUTS!! Fresh peanuts , boiled in salted water until tender like the beans they really are!!
This snack is cheap (around 1 R$ per serving- or 3 packs for a R$) It is healthy, and absolutely delicious when fresh!!(light coloured) Enjoy this yummy thing whenever you feel like a snack. It can substitute a light meal too!

If you have a grasp of Portuguese, or even Spanish to some degree, you can get an idea of what life is like in Salvador from its local papers. There's access on the web to the largest paper in town called A Tarde.

A great novelist whose stories of life in the Brazilian northeast won international acclaim.
Amado became a journalist in 1930, and his literary career paralleled acareer in radical politics that won him election to the Constituent Assembly as a federal deputy representing the Communist Party of Brazil in 1946. He was imprisoned as early as 1935 and periodically exiled for his leftist activities, and many of his books were banned in Brazil and Portugal.
He continued to produce novels with facility, most of them picaresque, ribald tales of Bahian city life, especially that of the racially conglomerate lower classes. Gabriela, cravo e canela (1958; Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon) and Dona Flor e seus dois maridos (1966; Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands; film, 1978) both preserve Amado's politicalattitude in their satire.
It is A MUST to visit "The Jorge Amado House Foundation" in Pelourinho...

"Captains of Sand" is the title of a novel by Jorge Amado, the most important and famous of Bahian writers. This novel shows the life of the Bahian children that live in the streets (and beaches). When I saw this kid, with his sad and thoughtful face, I remembered those "captains of the sand".

"Capitanes de la arena" es el título de una novela de Jorge Amado, el más importante y famoso de los escritores bahianos. Esta novela muestra la vida de los niños bahianos que viven en la calle (y en la playa). Cuando vi este niño, con su carita triste y pensativa, recordé aquellos "capitanes de la arena".

There are many fishermen that still use ancient methods; the picture shows some fishermen at Ilha da Mare.

Hay muchos pescadores que aún utilizan métodos antiguos; la foto muestra algunos pescadores en Ilha da Mare.