Salvador, Brazil, South America

I had a really nice day today, and it was completely unexpected. Maria told me something this morning, and even with Google Translate, I got the message totally confused. I thought she said her daughter was coming here because she speaks english and could tell me what to do for carnaval today. It turned out she was actually telling me that her sister was coming over with two guests she is hosting, and we were all going out for the day. Language barriers are funny.

Maria’s sister Regina showed up with the two guests she is hosting in her apartment in the city. The couple’s names were Bozhena and Luis. They both live in Germany and work for Mercedes as designers, although Bozhena is from Bulgaria and Luis is from Portugal. They were a really nice couple, and luckily they spoke english very well, because with Maria and Regina not speaking any english, it would have been a much longer day without the couple.

We drove up the coast to a really busy beach, parked the car, and went to a beachside restaurant for some lunch. We had a few appetizers between the five of us, and a few beers and then we moved on. The hostesses tried to pick up the bill, but we didn’t let them do it. They were being nice enough to take us out for the day, we didn’t want them to pay for it as well.

We went to a second bar and had some more drinks, and even though we told the ladies that we weren’t hungry, they still ordered some food. They ordered some cheese that came out on a skillet, and was served with honey on the side. It was very strange, but I ate some just so I didn’t look rude.

We moved on to another bar that was set outside and had a couple of caipirinhas and some friend dough balls. I’m not exactly sure what they were made of, but I wasn’t a big fan, so I don’t really feel like I need to learn the name. I’m never going to order them again. We all came back to the apartment after a long day of drinking and chatting and realized it was almost 8pm. I didn’t want to go out to carnaval then, and it was recommended that I don’t go out at night in the area anyway. Maria told us that the favela next to us is very dangerous, and there a quite a few people in there with machine guns that patrol the area instead of police. So I was a bit nervous to walk around here before, but now I’m really nervous.