Salvador de Bahia is one of the oldest and historically most important cities in Brazil, and the third most populous. It is closest to the African continent, so in the 1500s slaves were brought here via the “trade triangle” -- trinkets from Bristol, England were traded for African tribesmen captured by Islamic peoples, then sold to ships’ captains who brought them to South America where they were sold or traded for cotton and sugar cane, which then went back to England. One male slave was equivalent to 6 female slaves.
Eighty-seven per cent of the population comes from descendants of the black slaves, and th
eir “slang” name for whites is “filet mignons”! They are pseudo-Chistians, -- they developed ‘orixas” which is statues of African gods comparable to the Christian saints, and their counterpart for Jesus (the Saviour) is the sun. When the missionaries first came to convert them, they listened and helped the first bishop build a church (heaven) and when there was a disagreement about the saints, they killed and ate him. They still have their complicated religious ceremonies called ‘candoble’.
We visited two churches -- the 17th century Jesuit Basilica Cathedral which is one of Brazil’s oldest intact structures, and is the largest Jesuit seminary outside of Rome. The other was the church of San Francisco. Both are amazingly ornate inside with carvings covered with gold leaf (500 kilos in San Francisco alone!). People were tithed 27% of their income to help build “heaven” but the blacks were not allowed in the main church - they had to stay in the back which was painted a plain white. However, there were some hand painted blue and white Portuguese “azulejo” tiles in the walls.
Like most cities in Brazil, they 
celebrate their own version of Carnaval, and the Guinness Book of Records describes it as the biggest street party on the planet! For 7days, almost 2 million people join the city’s street celebrations!
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