15/02/2020 – Travel to Salvador, Brasil

We got up and had coffee in bed before finishing packing our things, making breakfast and a packed lunch. Joshs Grandad had a heart attack this morning but is ok and recovering in hospital from another stent insertion, so Josh spoke to his mum and dad and sent his Granddad a message. We said thank you and goodbye to our hosts and got an Uber to the airport. We did our bag drop where we saw a few people checking in their instruments, I guess off to play in their carnival bands. Josh got stopped as per usual through security, not sure if it was the waterproof camera housing or the penknife this time, but whatever it was they got bored of searching his bag, rescanned it and waved us on again. We flew to Salvador via a quick stop in Sao Paulo, as it was the cheaper option when we booked. Chilled travel day, we just read and listened to podcasts, napped and snacked. We picked up our bags in Salvador and got an Uber to our accommodation, right on the main square of the historical centre. We got pointed in the right direction by a crowd of people drinking on the pavement, and shown into the Axe hostel by our host. Our room is basically a mattress on the floor with a sheet and a fan. Should do us for the night though! The atmosphere outside was unreal even though it was only 18:30. There were people in all sorts of sequins and tutus drinking and partying. The temperature was crazy hot, especially considering it was dark already. The architecture reminds me of Cuba, tall beautiful houses with tonnes of character, but quite run down. We set our stuff down and went to find some dinner. We walked across the square and down a couple of the cobbled streets to a pizza place, where we shared a Portugese pizza (egg, ham, olives, onions, peas) and had a Caiprinha. Lots of the guys in fancy dress are wearing skirts here, it seems to be a running theme. Going to see if I have anything Josh can borrow! We enjoed a slow dinner, and then walked back to our accommodation, browsing the odd souvenir shop along the way. We did a little recky of our local area and then went in to shower and hop into bed. By the time we were laying on the bed, absolutely boiling hot, the samba club below was getting started. We could see the people dancing below us as we brushed our teeth, and we soon realised we were sleeping in what was basically the upstairs of the samba club. It was quite noisy to say the least! At least the music was good though. We watched some Breaking Bad with our headphones on, and then kind of dozed in and out of sleep (with earplugs and headphones over our ears to muffle the noise) until 05:30 when the music stopped.