...and others not quite so frequently asked!

• Q: Who is the most famous foreigner to have "lived" in Bahia?
• A: Robinson Crusoe.  He was a plantation owner before setting out from the Baia de Todos os Santos, shipwrecking, and washing up on a desert island off the coast of Venezuela.

From Chapter 4, wherein... He Settles in the Brasils as a Planter — Makes Another Voyage and is Shipwrecked "We had a very good Voyage to the Brasils, and arriv'd in the Bay de Todos los Santos , or All-Saints Bay, in about Twenty-two Days after. And now I was once more deliver'd from the most miserable of all Conditions of Life, and what to do next with my self I was now to consider." "To come then by the just Degrees, to the Particulars of this Part of my Story; you may suppose, that having now lived almost four Years in the Brasils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my Plantation; I had not only learn'd the Language, but had contracted Acquaintance and Friendship among my Fellow-Planters, as well as among the Merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our Port; and that in my Discourses among them, I had frequently given them an Account of my two Voyages to the Coast of Guinea, the manner of Trading with the Negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the Coast, for Trifles, such as Beads, Toys, Knives, Scissars, Hatchets, bits of Glass, and the like; not only Gold Dust, Guinea Grains, Elephants Teeth, &c. but Negroes for the Service of the Brasils, in great Numbers."

• Q: Is it safe to drink the water here?
• A: Not out of the tap it isn't. The water is treated with chlorine (you can smell it) but its potability is unreliable. Everybody has a water filter at home, and most people simply pour water from the tap into the filter. More fastidious people first boil the water and then filter it, and a lot of people buy their water in 20 liter bottles. Bottled water for drinking can be bought cheaply everywhere.

• What is the voltage in Bahia?
• That depends on where in Bahia you are.  In Salvador, Cachoeira, Ilheus and Itabuna the voltage is 127.  In Lençois, Praia do Forte, Morro de São Paulo, Boipeba, Santo Amaro and Maracangalha the voltage is 220.

• Maracangalha?!  Where the hell is that?!
• Maybe you don't know...but Dorival Caymmi (Bahia's most celebrated composer, born 1914) certainly did.  He was going to go there, with Anália or without!  (Maracangalha is a small community outside of the slightly larger community of São Sebastião do Passé, which is close to Santo Amaro, which sits just north of the Baia de Todos os Santos).

Listen to Jussara Silveira sing "Maracangalha"  Marcangalha Dorival Caymmi Eu vou pra Maracangalha eu vou Eu vou de uniforme branco eu vou Eu vou de chapéu de palha eu vou Eu vou convidar Anália eu vou Se Anália não quiser ir eu vou só Eu vou só, eu vou só Se Anália não quiser ir eu vou só Eu vou só, eu vou só sem Anália mas eu vou I'll go to Maracangalha, I'll go I'll go dressed in white, I'll go I'll go in a straw hat, I'll go I'll invite Anália, I will If Anália doesn't want to go, I'll go alone I'll go alone, I'll go alone I'll invite Anália, I will If Anália doesn't want to go I'll go alone, I'll go alone without Anália but I'll go

Dorival Caymmi

• Q: Does Salvador have a theme song or hymn?
• A: As far as I'm concerned it does...and that would be É d'Oxum, a paean in ijexá by wonderful Gerônimo and his writing partner Vevé Calazans.
  
  (Oxum is the Yoruban divinity associated with sweet water, depicted as aware of her considerable beauty and charms.  "É d'Oxum" would be "It's Oxum's".)

Listen to "É d'Oxum" as sung by Baiana Gal Costa É d'Oxum (Gerônimo & Vevé Calazans) Nessa cidade todo mundo é d'Oxum Homem, menino, menina, mulher Toda a cidade irradia magia Presente na água doce Presente na água salgada E toda a cidade brilha In this city we are all Oxum's Man, boy, girl, woman The entire city radiates magic Present in the sweet water Present in the salt water And the entire city shines Seja tenente ou filho de pescador Ou importante desembargador Se der presente é tudo uma coisa só A força que mora n'água Não faz distinção de cor E toda a cidade é d'Oxum Whether lieutenent or a fisherman's son Or an important judge If a present is given we are all the same The force that lives in the water Doesn't doesn't distinguish between our colors And the entire city is Oxum's...

The city is hers...

• Q: So the song above says "The force that lives in the water doesn't doesn't distinguish between our colors..."  Would it be then that Brazil is truly a society of racial harmony, without prejudice?
• A: Unhappily not everyone here shares Oxum's sensibility (as expressed by Gerônimo and Vevé Calazans); there is plenty of prejudice here. But there is a way in which Brazil is way ahead of the United States, and this is that the lower economic classes mix, mingle, marry, and live side-by-side as if, surprise!, it were the most normal thing in the world. And there are a lot of families whose roots are an impossibly tangled mixture of African, Indian, and European bloodlines (and Arabic and Jewish to boot). But the upper echelons of society tend to be of European lineage, and there are carnival blocos in Salvador wherein the obvious absence of darker skin is no accident.

• Q: Why do so many race-car drivers come from Brazil?
• A: I don't know, but a large part of the population drives like they think they are chasing glory at Hockenheim or Indianapolis. So the watchword(s) are watch-your-everlovin'-ass-when-you're-crossin'-the-street, baby! I've heard numerous times that Brazil has the highest accident rate in the world, and I'm inclined to believe it. It really is necessary to be careful if you or anybody you know values your life.

Indy Racing League 2004 Champion Tony Kanaan leads the pack at the Indianapolis 500.  Where's Tony from?  Absolutely right!  Salvador da Bahia!

• Q: Is the weather summertime-great all year round?
• A: A lot of people have that impression; I'm embarrassed to think that I was one of them. And no, it isn't. There are seasonal variations. It can even snow at higher elevations in the south of Brazil during the winter. That doesn't happen in Salvador of course, but the winter months (June, July, August) can be very rainy, and some days are out-and-out jacket weather. In the interior these months feel like brisk autumn in the United States and nights are often cold enough that heavy blankets are brought out. But unless you plan to be on the beach every day, none of this is bad. This is the season of São João (a big festa which falls on the 24th of June) and forró (funky Brazilian hillbilly music). Hey, this is Bahia! Did you think the partying was going to stop? (And whatever the case, don't worry, there are still plenty of decent beach days during this time of the year.)

• Q: Speaking of the weather, is the tropical Bahia sun really all that much stronger than the European or North American summer sun?
• A: You bet your blisters it is! It's easy to think otherwise because the seabreeze and lower humidity generally keep things fresh. But you've got to remember that it's like having a nuclear reactor up there, and if you don't remember it, you're going to fry. (You can translate this to "sunblock & sensibility".)

• Q: Is it true that you can't throw toilet paper into the toilet in Brazil?! What do you do with it?!
• A: Generally speaking, and with few exceptions, you carefully place the "soiled tissue" into a trash receptical sitting next to the toilet, where one would hope it doesn't stew too long before somebody gets around to cleaning the thing out. The unfortunate truth is that the Brazilian Plumbing Ethos is part of the general Brazilian Construction Ethos, ergo: nobody's going to see it; why waste money doing it right? Narrow pipes cost less than fat pipes, never mind that they are also easier to clog up.

• Q: So that's why they so often have that little water-pistol-on-a-hose gizmo next to the john?
• A: That and for "feminine hygiene".

• Q: Okay, as long as we're being open about things, are Brazilians as sexually liberated as they are reputed to be?
• A: In a nutshell: yes. But that doesn't mean it's okay to come here and act like a horny jerk. A lot of guys get here (I'm going to tackle this from a man's POV) and fall prey to a misconception based on the locked eyes and meaningful lingering glances, of the sort that James Bond gets, directed at them. It's like presto chango! somehow they've been miraculously transformed into Very Desirable Males, and all it took was a plane trip! Well, maybe they are desirable in the dark eyes which behold them, but more often than not they are being naive tourists and the owner of the dark eyes is not staring into their souls, but rather their pockets. So far no problem really, but some of these guys, instant Lotharios, adopt a completely unsuitable attitude towards all Brazilian women, assuming that they are fair and easy game. That's not only not true, it's disrespectful. Brazilians generally do have a more easy-going attitude towards sex than their North American or Western European counterparts, but charm, good humor, and above all a sense of the limits of decency are a part of the mix. Guys who don't understand this and assume otherwise are, well, jerks!

• Q: What kinds of trees line the streets in Salvador?
• A: Almond and tamarind are the most common.  Mango and avocado are common backyard trees.  Of course there are plenty of coconut palms around as well, and lots of the lush dendé trees which provide the "nut" from which the oil so essential to Bahian cuisine is derived.

• Q: What's the difference between a sambista and a sambador?
• A:  I knew you were wondering that!  Their hats.  And the hats they wear are a function of the type of music they play.  A sambista plays Rio-style samba and wears a jaunty white straw fedora appropriate for a street-smart city slicker.  A sambador plays Bahian samba-de-roda and wears a darker hat appropriate for a salt-of-the-earth field-worker.

Sambista

Sambador

• Q: So what's with those crazy forró hats?!

The Hat		The Music Maker		The Bad Guy

• A: Those are cangaçeiro hats. Cangaçeiros were, depending on your perspective, either bloodthirsty bandits or antiestablishment Robin Hoods (the most notorious being Lampião), who, in either case, terrorized the backlands of Brazil's Nordeste. And whatever your opinion of the cangaçeiros might be, you can't take away from them the fact that their hats were very cool, so cool in fact that the style was adopted by the great Luiz Gonzaga, and hence by others who play the music of this part of Brazil.

Why, if it isn't David Byrne!

• Q: Moving along then, what exactly is the connection between the American midwestern state of Indiana and Bahian samba-de-roda?
• A: Anything Goes! The Cole Porter song in the musical of the same name uses a clave (okay, that's a Cuban and not a Brazilian term) identical to that used in Bahian roots samba (and that of Luiz Gonzaga's baião forró rhythm too). The clave came to Cole Porter by way of the Charleston, a dance which (incidentally) originated in a community with roots in West Africa. And the urbane Mr. Porter was (of course) from Peru, Indiana.

Sambista? I doubt it! Beguinista? For sure!

• Q: What kind of jokes do Brazilians tell?
• A: In the spirit of Americans telling Kentucky jokes, Canadians telling Newfie jokes, the English telling Irish jokes, and the Irish telling Kerryman jokes, the Brazilians tell, among other things, Portuguese jokes.

• Q: Why are your pages so red?
• A: Red is the color of Xangô. White is too. Red and white! I think that's pretty cool!