On Tuesday, I woke up and wandered around the city a little. I made my way back to Casa do Samba, and they were open this time. I sat and chatted with Mestre Gato Goés for a while, talked about classes I wanted to take. He was talking more about music classes, the drumming for maculêlê and samba de roda. I argued with him for a while about price, and then spoke with Mestre Adó about Capoeira Angola classes. I returned later in the day for my maculêlê class. This class I took with Mestre Popó´s grandson, I can´t actually remember his name. He was a cool guy, he talked awhile about maculêlê, of course I only understood some of it. It turns out that the maculêlê here is very different from what I learned with Nego. The two people dancing only use 3 sticks together, and there doesn´t seem to be any kicking at all, only spins. I wasn´t too crazy about the drumming class, because they didn´t seem to know how to break it down, the way Nego always taught me. They just seemed to get frustrated when I couldn´t do exactly what they did. I think they may not be used to the non-brazilian anti-rhythm. So, I learned the basic of the basic on the drum. That was kind of frustrating. That night, I met with Mestre Adó for an angola class. It was in an academy a bit far out, he sent a moto taxi to come get me at my Hotel. When I got there, it was only me and him. We played berimbau together for about 45 minutes to an hour. During this time, kids started arriving, and they just sat and stared at me. Strange foreigner with a berimbau. I really enjoyed his class, a lot more than Mestre Moraes´ class in Salvador. He took things slow with me and explained why and how angola was different. Moraes seemed to just get frustrated that I didn´t understand, and walk away, and Adó instead talked me through it and continued until I got it right. At the end of the class, he and I sat and played berimbau together, with the rest of the class watching. He got me to sing, which is terrifying, but it was pretty good. I left the class feeling pretty good, with a really sore pinky from all the berimbau playing. I got a ride back to the Hotel with David, a student of his, and I realy thought I was going to die. The roads are really bumpy, this kid drove super fast, I didn´t have a helmet, and he kept darting into alleys to avoid the cops (It is illegal to ride without a helmet...).
Wednesday, I woke up and went straight to Casa do Samba. I was there on time, as usual, and my instructors were more than an hour late. They asked when I arrived, 11am, then they laughed. Oh Brazil. I enjoyed the samba de roda class a little more, but I think the reason was the fact that I already knew how to play the pandeiro. Again, they taught the basic of the basic on the drum, but at least I was able to keep up and have a bit more fun this time. They really don´t know how to teach gringos. Because I already have a bit of a base on these rhythms, and they were having trouble teaching me. I can´t imagine a gringo who actually knows nothing about the rhythms. It would be totally useless. A few hours later, I met again with Mestre Adó and had a two hour berimbau class with him. It was amazing! I learned a bunch of new variations, most of which I have now forgotten :( But it was so good to get that time in practicing. I felt like I went back to Salvador with a new confidence on the berimbau. Of course, by the end of the class, I thought my finger was going to fall off. Never have I played so much at one time. It was fantastic. After saying goodbye to Adó, I headed to Mestre Macaco´s Capoeira academy. Now, I hear that Mestre Macaco was the the Mestre that gave Nego his very first cord. So when I remembered that, I thought he would be older, but he´s not. His style seemed to be quite a lot similar to Malês, but his style of teaching was different. Now class was packed, and he would get us to do a sequence a few times, a complicated sequence that would usually take a few times just to remember it, but then he´d switch it all the time. Then he would switch it back. I was getting so confused in the class, I think it was my lack of Portuguese that was hurting me. Then we had partners, and I was confused because there was something specific you were supposed to do, but you were also supposed to add whatever movement you want. So, I didn´t know which was the added movement and which was the one we were practicing. I was relieved by the time roda started. Now THAT I understand. It was a good roda, and I played a bunch of times. At the end of the class, everyone sat down and Macaco spoke for a while. I wasn´t following anything, my body and mind were exhausted from the class. Then, he mentions me and asks me to say something to the class. So, I just explained the purpose of my travels to Santo Amaro, and to Brazil. It was the only thing I could think of. I went back to my Hotel, then walked to the only restaurant open past 9. It was busier than the last time I had gone there. I ordered my Canadian Bacon pizza and went to wash my hands. Then a middle aged man started talking to me about capoeira and where I was from. In general, I talk like this a lot with people in Salvador, but few people talked to me in Santo Amaro, they just stared. So, I ended up joining him and his friend at their table. They´re from São Paulo and we chatted for a while about things. We shared food and beer, and then they asked me when I was leaving. I told them that I was going to Salvador the next day. It turns out that he, Ivo, was driving to Salvador, so he offered me a ride. They walked me back to my Hotel and we arranged to meet at 2pm to head back to Salvador.
The next day, I woke up and went back to Macaco´s academy. I just hung out there for a few hours, watched some videos, listened to some music. Nothing special. I was expecting that he was going to charge me for the class, but he didn´t, unlike the Casa do Samba, who were trying to charge me R$60 per class. I went back to the hotel at around 1 and just played around on the internet. Ivo showed up at around 1:30 to let me know that he was going to need an extra hour at work and that we would leave at 3pm. I said that was fine. By the time 4 o´clock came, I was a bit worried. I really didn´t want to drive with a stranger at night, and if I took the bus, I didn´t want to be riding around on the local bus too late with my big bag either. So, I sent him a text message that I was going to take the bus, and I started walking. He was driving towards me as I was walking to the bus station, so I jumped in. Thank god it´s only about an hour and a half drive back to Salvador. He´s a cool guy, but really kind of weird. By the end of the drive he was asking me about my ex-boyfriends and stuff. I was happy that he dropped me off at Campo Grande, instead of directly in front of the academy. That night, capoeira class started a bit late. And it turned out to be a music class.. I was happy about this, now with my new confidence on berimbau. After class, we had a bit of a party with a few of the capoeiristas. We drank some wine, ate some food, danced a little samba and did a little capoeira angola. I was so happy to be back in Salvador.
Friday, I didn´t do much of anything. Of what I remember, I went for a long walk, went to the beach, and just kicked it. We had roda that night, after an intense class of martelo (which I clearly need to work on). It was the goodbye roda for Assombração and McGyver, who were staying at the academy with me. They were leaving the next day for Rio. We had a great roda, and a goodbye samba de roda for the guys. I looked around and realized how few girls train capoeira. It was only me, Iraporanga and Guerreira, so we were constantly in the samba de roda.
Saturday, we were supposed to go early to Itapuã to the beach. That didn´t happen. We didn´t end up going until about 2pm and it took nearly an hour on the bus to get there. From the beach, we walked to Tucano´s place and then to a little lake for a roda. I didn´t play much, but it was a good roda. We walked back to Tucano´s place, ate some feijão, drank a little beer. A bunch of people started heading back, but I decided to stay out there a bit longer. We went and drank some more beer, and more beer, and some rum and some cognac and some more beer. So I was pretty drunk by midnight when we were trying to get a bus back to Garcia. I noticed a missed call on my phone, a number I didn´t recognize. I called it turned out to be Lobo, a capoeirista whom I like a lot actually, and he was inviting me to a party. So, by the time we made it back to Garcia in a cab (loooong cab ride) I called him to see if he´d still be out. He was, so he picked me up and took me to this Candomblé party. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. The drumming was a sort of trance for the dancer, who wears some of the most beautiful and elaborate costumes I have ever seen. This is a moment that I should´ve had a camera, not that I´m sure I would´ve been allowed to take pictures. It was a traditional Candomblé dance, not one that tourists would ever see.
The next day, I spent with Lobo and his family. They were very sweet, but I didn´t understand anything they said. His mom made feijão with chicken, which we all ate: me, Lobo, his brother, his mother, his father, and his grandmother. Then we went out to some other neighbourhood a bit of a ways away, we met with his brother´s godfather, and we hung out and drank beers. It was a good day for my portuguese, not because I spoke with Lobo´s family, but because he would re-explain it to me in a portuguese that I could understand. I understand his brother, but when I went to his mom and thanked her for lunch, she blabbed on about something and I didn´t catch a word of it.
Monday, I packed my bag and got ready to go to Capão, By 10am I was on the local bus to the bus station. I went to purchase my ticket and discovered that the next bus didn´t leave until 4:30pm, and that it is a 6 hour bus ride just to Lençois, from where I need to take a jeep to Capão which takes another hour. That would get me there in the middle of the night. So instead, i purchased a ticket for the bus that left at 11pm. That way I would sleep on the bus and get to Capão bright and early the next day. I went back to the academy, went to the beach, took capoeira class, and said goodbye to everyone.
The bus ride was terrible. I couldn´t sleep even a little bit. We arrived in Palmeiras at around 5:30am, and I got on the jeep to Capão. Man, was it a difference to be out there. No noise, no traffic, nothing. Just the mountains, the fresh air... truly amazing. I met Paola, from São Paulo on the bus. She was traveling by herself too, so we ended up sticking together. It was a good plan. Léo met us in town and led Paola to the place she was staying, and he led me to his house where he rents rooms for tourists. The first thing that we did, 7am in the middle of nowhere, he rolled a joint. Now, this was the first of many joints that were smoked in Capão. All the people that live there are a bunch of pothead hippies. It was awesome! I went on a bunch of day hikes, up to the waterfalls, where we would just lay in the sun, swim and smoke weed. It was quite amazing, actualy. So relaxing, such a difference from Salvador, which I always thought to be very chill as well. They really live the good life out there, those guys. I don´t think I could do it, though. My lungs were in pretty bad shape by the time I got back to Salvador. My original plan was to take the bus back on Thursday night, to arrive in Salvador in the morning, but on Thursday, I met with Pedro. Pedro was going to drive to Salvador on Friday morning. This was a much better deal. I was able to get a good night´s sleep and then head back to Salvador. It´s amazing how easy it is to meet people when traveling alone. Santo Amaro and Capão, I get a ride back to Salvador... amazing.
I arrived in Salvador yesterday, found myself back at the academy. I called Lobo and met up with him and his cousin at a shopping mall. It really does suck that Lobo is moving to Toronto.. We hung out and ended up getting to the roda late. I decided not to take part, because I realized that I hadn´t eaten all day and that my lungs were still hurting from the joint that morning. Capão was baaad for my lungs and brain. I can´t let that happen again. After roda, we went to a club with live singers and dancers. It was fantastic! I danced the night away, but clearly I do not have the energy that the brazilians do. I was spent by 1am, and we left. It´s amazing that brazilians never stop dancing. I´m sure the party went on until 7am or something. No wonder they´re all so fit.
This morning, not so great. I woke up with a teeeeeerrrible ear infection. I´m supposed to go to a nother Candomblé party with Lobo tonight, but we´ll have to see how I´m feeling. Today, I pretty much slept until 3:30 and then started writing in my blog... Took my entire day! Haha, but it´s a lot to cover anyways.
The internet café is closing, so I must go... My plan is to leave for Recife on October 3rd. I will miss Bahia!
Sounds like your having an awesome trip so far, have fun in Recife.
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