We flew from B.A. to Salvador Brazil on 8 March. The hostel we chose was 3 minutes from the beach in an area called Barra.

This is the area to which the Portuguese shipped 4 million African slaves from the 16th to 18th centuries & the majority of people here are directly descended from them. It is very different to anywhere we have been before. Argentina & Chile were so European.Salvador was the capital of Brazil until 1763.

Ady's glasses had broken yet again so our first task was to find an optician. They were able to copy his lenses & make up a new pair of glasses to that prescription but he had to leave his glasses with them for 3 days. This was good news but it meant we could not go far or do much. So a few days on the beach it was ! Beautiful sea & sand & palm-trees. Extremely hot.

This is a very poor area. We are finding the poverty difficult to deal with. Each hour on the beach brings at least 20 people approaching you to buy from them , drinks , food, jewellery, clothing, sunglasses, suncream , etc , etc or just asking for money.

Come Saturday, with Ady seeing the world in a new light we headed for the city centre. We wandered into several churches. They are the most splendid we have seen anywhere. Such displays of wealth & splendour! The Church of San Francisco has 800kg of gold contained in its interior & is so ornate it takes your breath away . The African slaves were forced to mine the gold & build the churches for their masters whilst being denied the right to practise their own religions. We visited one church they were allowed to build for themselves but they had to build it by moonlight after they had done their days work. It is very simple & too 100 years to build. When we walked in there was a live body hanging on a cross. They were actors re-enacting the crucifixion , practising for holy week. We watched them take the body down from the cross, wrap it & take it from the church. Very moving.

We walked down the Largo de Pelourinho where slaves were auctioned & publicly beaten. The poverty in the centre was even worse. Very uncomfortable.

We had been lucky enough to get tickets for an evening performance by a guitarist called Gilberto Gil. Apparently he was very popular in the early70's playing "electracustica". He is now actually Brazil's culture minister in the present government. We really enjoyed the show. Probably 10000 people in the audience, young & old .

We left Salvador on Monday to spend this week in Lencois ,8 hours by bus inland, on the edge of Chapada Diamanta national park , an area of outstanding beauty. The town itself is an old diamond mining town & is surrounded by a mountainous wooded area. Lencois , again is very poor but the people are lovely.

A group of us did a tour by 4-wheel drive our first day here to the Devils Pool Waterfall. We climbed Pai Inacio Hill 1200m withwonderful views. Very beautiful but the first climbing I have done for ages ! And the rest of the group were young ! We also visited Lape Doce Cave & walked 800m through it amongst fantastically -shaped limestone stalagmites & stalactites. Amonst the 12 of us walking throgh the cave there were 8 different nationalities. Truly international ! We have not met many Brits in Brazil.

We have spent the rest of the week doing local walks to waterfalls, caves etc & flaking out in the sun . On a hill not far from our hostel there is a large house belonging to Jimmy Page of Led Zepellin fame.Our hostel here is great,really friendly & evening meal costs 1pound 40p for meat, rice, beans, veg , salad. Excellent value, needless to say we eat there every night !

We leave tomorrow , back to Salvador for the weekend & then on down to Rio de Janeiro for Easter. Everything is still great ! Still can't download any photos though.