I still have not managed to leave Salvador, but tonight I am goint to the mountain region for sure with an English girl who, I am hoping, will motivate me. I have ventured outside the zoo that is this well-guarded centre of the city and found some quieter and prettier places. (After a few days I realized that the area can be most likened to a strange zoo where they put the spoiled and well-fed cats and dogs (us) together with semi-tamed wild animals, and the only reason the pets are not devoured is that men with huge guns are stationed all around the cages.)

Anyway, I went to the local market, which sold pretty much everything you can imagine, and the meat selection is, to say the least, enough to turn any devoted carnivore into a vegetarian. I hope to god that these cheap pay by kilo places where we keep having meals with my hostel buddies do not purchase their meat from there...Even went to a religious museum but my lack of knowledge (and, to be honest, interest) in catholicism made the visit worthwhile only because being the only visitor I got the undivided attention of about 8 guards who kept chaperoning me around the museum as if I were the First Lady.

When you travel with no plans, it is always difficult to make the decision to take off from a place and get to a new one. Every time I get somewhere I have the same feeling I had when I was 8 and had to find my way to my piano lesson by myself for the first time. Also, I met some people who are actually interesting to hang out with. Last night we went to see a movie (sad to admit that there was a huge storm and it was pissing down so bad there was nothing else to do) at the mall (again!), where we got to see the other side of Salvador: the well-dressed, trendy people. It was like going from one world to another, watching a third (Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton getting it on between two Christie´s auctions in the Hamptons).

I will not write from or about Salvadro again, I promise.