Alegria and saudade, it's Carnival!

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Brazil: beaches and unspoiled places next to damned cities, loving and hospitable people in an environment often hostile, despite the natural beauty in which brazilians are immersed.
Salvador de Bahia: My first nine days running between the lanes of Pelourinho, the historic city centre, and the paradise island at two hours of boat from Morro de Sao Paulo. Arrived in Bahia I had accommodation in a pousada at Itapoà, long and sandy beach with animated nightclubs, but soon I realize that there is no more of poetry sung by Vinicius de Moraes and Caetano Veloso, so I manage in the city centre where I hope to find the music and atmosphere that I did expect since I chosen Brazil as goal of my oversea strip.
I follow the tracks of the characters described by Jorge Amado in his novels and visit the museum dedicated to him, seeing again those faces facing windows, I taste again the kitchen and listen another time to the music I heard when I was travelling in this land with the imagination, and I think about how it had to be nice to live here at the time of Dona Flor.
Children improvise Capoeira show in the streets, and the sound of percussions is everywhere, the rhythms of mother Africa are the soundtrack of Bahia and the festival of the goddess of the sea, Yemanjà, second of February, is a compendium of culture and folklore, opposite to the religiosity of this great state of Brazil.
Bahia is a world of music and noise, celebration and pain difficult to forget, his Gulf viewed from the top of the city often seems to me the same I did remember with eyes closed, as it happens every time you come back home.
Porto Seguro: a night in a comfortable bus and I am in Porto Seguro, continuing to Arrajal d'Ajuda, I will stop there for five days, that proved then to be few. Here the beaches are really beautiful, some of them, like Trancoso and Caraiva, can be reached only after several hours of dirt road (you need to rent a dune-buggy or an enduro motorcycle, that is really a punishment). Arrajal is a quiet and delightful resort perched on a hill overlooking the beaches with a dynamic nightlife and restaurants of ethnic good taste, souvenir and handicrafts shops in a cosmopolitan environment.
Ilheus: halfway to Salvador, the hometown of Amado. Arriving two weeks before the official Carnival start, but in the evening on the promenade the city is already in full Carnival rule, I was not able to sleep at night because of the noise there was in the row below my guarded hotel gate entering into the square where the parade and masked groups float. The Sunday morning rains, and everything was closed, even the church opened at six o'clock in the afternoon, but the evening the celebrations explode again. In Rua Jorge Amado (in the omonymous district) there's a stone thrown from Bar Vesuvius, where I dined yesterday, as narrated by the poet, but the air was decadent with no trace of Gabriela, the protagonist of the novel set here. Amado and Gabriela however appear in a mural outside Vesuvius Bar, but there is no smell of cloves or cinnamon ... there are stalls and fun fairs, exhibitions of samba and capoeira, rivers of beer and caipirinha to entertain everyone passing on the road to the port. I stopped here two days and half, returning then to El Salvador.
Three days yet in the capital of Bahia state, to visit the churches of Sao Francisco and Ns Senhora do Bonfim and to bathe in the beaches of Boa Viagem and Itaparica, and return as expected to the centre and outside of the city for the fantastic live music and still to enjoy the excellent cuisine of Bahia.
Olinda and Recife: the last part of my journey was through the State of Pernambuco, in the colonial city of Olinda, supported on a hill with a view on the modern Recife. I shall stay there until Carnival, with half a couple of days in Porto de Galinhas, advertised as the most beautiful beach in Brazil, that proved infact to be not so bad, especially for those who love surfing and do not care so much about night animation. At Pernambuco I remain impressed from the crazy and humble Carnival as from the poor illusion of people that despite the hardships, descend on the streets to forget everything drowning into the joy of living.

I remain at your disposal for more informations on visited places, travel tips, transport options, what to do, buy, eat, and whatever you want to ask about Bahia and Pernambuco. Good Brazil at all of you. And a special greeting to all friends and everyone encountered on the road.