Cachaca, Capoeira, Cachoeira

Last weekend some old friends came through Salvador and I got to show them around my new city. They had just come from rio and upon arriving in Salvador they (who have traveled extensively around the world) declared brasil the best and most underrated country in the world. So my job was fairly easy and we had a blast. On Friday we met up at this great cachaca bar – they serve all different kinds of cachaca (brasilian rum) infused with things like cinnamon, tamarind, passion and a host of other unknown spices - and then we headed to hear a folho band in the streets of the pelohrino. “Folho” is a very popular music in brazil that’s like a mixture of samba, country, a little rock and maybe even a little salsa. We ended up at this great samba bar where the locals hang out and where a different live band plays every night of the weekend. We ended up there the next night as well. This time an afro-pop band played – and they brought on stage a great female singer who rocked the place with her guitar. Before that we went out to dinner at a fancy spot where we had good food, amazing chilean wine (check out Carmenere wine from chile) and heated conversation. We got into a deep discussion about post-colonialism, globalization and politics. It was refreshing to be able to express deeper thoughts than the basic, functional ones that i do in Portuguese and I wondered if I would ever get to the point where I could argue with someone loudly and confidently in Portuguese. Earlier I had shown my friends my index cards with my various vocabulary words written on them. I carry them around with me to look at on the bus and at other spare moments. My friend commented that that was the first multitasking he’d seen in Brazil and said that the way he learned Japanese when he was living in Japan was by arguing with his Japanese girlfriend.
Yesterday I took a capoeria class for the first time. Capoeria is the brazilan martial art/dance created by slaves in brasil. I had been hesitant to do it because, though beautiful, it just looked like something my body was not up for – but I knew I had to try it at least once. And it was amazing. My body may not be completely up to the task but she and i gave it the old college try. The teacher is this amazing young woman who has the right combination of toughness and teacherlyness. Im a total convert. Tomorrow morning I head up to Cachoeria – a town about two hours north of Salvador - to try to gain permission and hopefully collaboration from the women that I want to film.