Salvador

The pace of city life is so incredibly different from Porto Seguro that I was in a little shock when I arrived. It is impossible not to notice that we are in the city. Taking the bus home from the neighborhood where our friends live, Frances and I had to get off and switch busses in order not to find ourselves in bad neighborhoods on a sunday night (which equals deserted.) Waiting at the bus stop we ignored the usual beggars and a few drunks until one guy (who was very clearly on something) dug a cobblestone out of the sidewalk and started theatening a popcorn vendor. The vendor responded in kind and soon they were both circling each other partly in the middle of the street and partly on the median. The military police on the other side of the street apparently found conversing in a group and making comments to (female) passerby more important to the security of the area than a potential head bashing fight. Luckily some fellow street dwellers that apparently knew the instigator talked him down after awhile. But it made for fifteen tense minutes.

Oh and even though I am working all day and thus living a rather boring life at the moment, we did manage to stop in and see our Chinese comida a kilo restaurant friend. And all of his fruit selection. Even thoug it had been a month and a half he remembered which candies each of us would like when we paid and dug them out of the jar for us.