Salvador

Introduction

Salvador - Pelourinho Square, "Rosario dos Pretos" Church

© mig13

Salvador is a city on the northeastern coast of Brazil, in the state of Bahia and has about 3 million inhabitants. It is well known for its street parties and of course Carnival, one of the best in the country together with that of Rio de Janeiro. It's a happy mix of different cultures and people and also the Afro-Brazilian capital of the country with an estimated 80% of the city being of African origin. There is much more to offer though with dozens of Portugese colonial historical buildings dating back to the 17th to 19th centuries. It's one of the oldest cities in Brazil and even of the New World.

Neighbourhoods

• West Zone: Pelourinho, The Historic Centre, Comercio, Downtown.
• South Zone: Barra, Vitoria, Campo Grande, Graca, Ondina, Rio Vermelho.
• East Zone: Itaigara, Pituba, Horto Florestal, Caminho das Arvores, Loteamento Aquárius, Brotas, Stiep, Costa Azul, Armação, Jaguaribe and Stella Maris, Itapoa.
• North Zone: Periperi, Paripe, Lobato, Liberdade, Nova Esperança, and Calçada.

Sights and Activities

• The historical centre of Salvador is placed on the Unesco World Heritage List. Highlights include the Cathedral of Salvador and the Convent and Church of Sao Francisco. Others are the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, the Mercado Modelo and the Elevador Lacerda.
• Beaches.

Events and Festivals

World Cup 2014

Australian Fans

© Peter

The FIFA World Cup 2014 will be held in Brazil. It takes place from 12 June to 13 July 2014. It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950. The national teams of 32 countries will join the second biggest sports event in the world (after the Olympic Games). A total of 64 matches are to be played in twelve cities across Brazil, with the tournament beginning with a group stage. For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology. Twelve locations will be World Cup host cities: Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo. They cover all the main regions of Brazil and create more evenly distributed hosting than the 1950 finals in Brazil provided, when matches were concentrated in the south-east and south. As a result the tournament will require significant long-distance travel for teams. Brazil opens the tournament against Croatia, played in Sao Paulo on the 12th of June, and the final will be played on the 13th of July in Rio de Janeiro.

• Carnival in Salvador - 2010 is the next upcoming big Carnival, the biggest street part in the world with 2 million people partying and dancing for a whole week.
• Summer Festival

Weather

Salvador has a tropical climate with little variation regarding temperatures. Daytime temperatures average around 30 °C between December and April while July and August are the coolest months, still around 27 °C. Nights are roughly beteween 22 °C and 25 °C. There is not really a dry season, just a less wet season. April to August is the wettest time of year with almost 200 mm a month. But from October to February average precipitation is still between 100 and 150 mm a month, totalling around 2,000 mm a year.

Getting There

By Plane

Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport near Salvador serves as the main gateway for planes to and from the city. International flights include those to Miami, Madrid, Milan, Frankfurt, Lisbon, London, Montevideo, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Asuncion. TAM and GOL have many flights to other Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

By Bus

Buses provide services to most major Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Brasilia, as well as regional destinations.

By Boat

Boats to points on Baía de Todos os Santos leave from the Terminal Marítimo Turístico and the Terminal Marítimo de São Joaquim. Boats heading for Morro de Sao Paulo also leave from the Terminal Marítimo Turístico. There are six companies offering trips taking two hours one way. The number of daily departures varies according to demand so boats might leave when they are at least half full.

Eat

The most emblematic dish from Salvador's food culture is acarajé, an essential ritual food used in Afro-Brazilian religious traditions that can only be found in this city. Served as street food, acarajé is a mashed black eyed-peas ball deep-fried in palm oil until crispy and golden, ready to be filled with dried shrimps, tomato salad and vatapá (shrimp paste). Acarajé is traditionally eaten with hot chili oil on top. Acarajés can be found in hundreds of food stalls around town, with costs ranging from R$3 to R$8.

Sleep

Upscale

Learn

• Pan American School of Bahia
• Catholic University of Salvador

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet cafes (Lan houses) are increasingly common, and even small towns often have at least one spot with more or less decent connections.
An increasing number of hotels, airports and shopping malls also offer hotspots for Wi-Fi with your laptop computer or of course smartphone. Sometimes it is free, sometimes you need to register and there is a time limite and sometimes you need to pay a small amount for (day) use.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

The country calling code to Brazil is: 55. To make an international call from , the code is: 0014. All cities use the following emergency numbers: 190 (police), 192 (medical) and 193 (fire department). However, if you dial 911 or 112 while in Brazil, you will be redirected to the police.
Brazil uses two-digit area codes, and phone numbers are eight digits long. Numbers beginning with digits 2 to 5 are land lines, while eight-digit numbers beginning with digits 6 to 9 are mobile phones.

Public payphones use disposable prepaid cards, which come with 20, 40, 60 or 75 credits. The discount for buying cards with larger denominations is marginal. Phone booths are nearly everywhere, and all cards can be used in all booths, regardless of the owner phone company. Cards can be bought from many small shops, and almost all news agents sell them.

Brazil has 4 national mobile operators: Vivo (Telefónica Group), Claro (Telmex/América Móvil Group), OI and TIM (Telecom Italia Group), all of them running GSM and HSDPA/HSPA+ networks. Pay-as-you-go (pré-pago) SIM cards for GSM phones are widely available in places like newsstands, drugstores, supermarkets, retail shops, etc.

Post

Correios is the national postal service of Brazil. It is a government run postal service and overseen by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications. Post offices are generally open from Monday to Friday from 09:00am to 5:00pm, although post offices located in shopping malls have their own opening hours, usually from 10:00am to 10:00pm. There are no set opening hours at weekends and as post office owners can choose when to open and close. More and more post offices are open until 1:00pm on Saturdays though. You can check things at the nearest post office.

Sending postcards, letters and parcels is a rather straightforward process and services are reliable, though not overly fast when sending post internationally, mostly taking about a week to the USA and Europe, and there is a track-and-trace service for this as well. Domestically, there are both next day as well as more expensive same day delivery options. Stamps are available at post offices, as well as some kiosks or other places where they sell postcards.

For sending packages internationally, you can also used competitively priced private companies like TNT, UPS or DHL. They are generally much quicker and not much more expensive.

External Links

For more information check the official Salvador touristic website.