Day 245 - On the buses

Salvador - La Villa Francoise

Our hosts at our hostel gave us a rundown after breakfast on what to see and how to get around Salvador, so today we tackled the local buses, made a little more difficult than usual as we didn't have a map.

We were hoping to stop at the local market first, but although we asked the bus driver to let us know when we arrived, we ended up going too far. A little confused we left the bus, decided to skip the market and we walked the rest of the way to the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim. This was an interesting church - the outside fence was covered with coloured wish ribbons, and inside it had a room where people would leave letters, prayers,  photos and even replicas of body parts as offerings to help the recovery of a loved one from sickness.

We braved the buses again, this time hopping off at the market we had planned to visit earlier, but of course it was closing by this time so we didn't look around. Back on the bus to Mercado Modelo in middle of town, a quick lunch and some souvenir shopping, then onto the elevator to take us up to the historic centre. .

The old town (Pelourinho) had cobblestone streets, churches, squares, and old restored buildings - and this also meant there were lots of tourists and lots of souvenir shops (which of course K couldn't resist). There was also a lot of work going on setting up seating and stages for Salvador's Carnival which was to start on Friday.

We finished the day back in Barra where our hostel was, we walked along the waterfront and had dinner looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.