Nov 24 & 25

It was an overcast day as we docked at Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.  Salvador was one of the original Portuguese settlements in Brazil, having been founded in 1549 and was Brazil's capitol until 1763.  The residents are classed as Afro-Brazilian as the city was the hub of the African slave trade until slavery was banned in 1888.  African culture, food, dance and religion still permeate the city.  The city is on 2 levels with the upper level being a UNESCO Heritage site.  We walked from the port to the Mercado Modelo at the harbor area.  The Mercado building was originally the slave market and now houses numerous craft stalls and restaurants.  Across the street from the back of the market is the Elevador Lacerda, a236 vertical elevator tower between harbor level and the upper town where the UNESCO area is.  It costs all of 7 cents to ride the elevator and we took it to the upper town and strolled around.  We have visited here several times in the past and are familiar with the layout.  There are numerous churches and other buildings dating from the 1500s through 1800s.  Unfortunately our stay was short, 7:00am to 12:30pm so we didn't get to have lunch at our favorite restaurant, Dada.  It started raining around 11:30 so we caught a shuttle back to the ship.  The afternoon was filled with lectures and games as we sailed towards Rio with a sea day in between.  On the 25th we had the usual lectures & games and also the judging of a boat building contest.  Guest teams created boats from items available around the ship and they were very creative.  Each boat had to survive floating in the pool for 1 minute and then all boats were put in the pool together as the water was roughened up to test their strength.  Only the "Titanic" fell apart and the team's captain jumped in to go down with his ship."