The African market

The traditional market in Salvador is one of Brazil's largest. Most of it is still set up traditionally, open-air or open sided areas, lots of winding passages that are crowded and dark, packed with people and animals, and filled with amazing sights, sounds, and smells.

The government is trying to modernize the market by bringing in concrete stalls that can shutter and lock at night and are lighted and hygienic. This is only partially successful. Tradition holds strong here.

We saw live animals that were being sold for people to DIY slaughter for meat. Live traded chickens a d pigeons in cages. Baskets for home use and for religious uses (offerings to the gods are put in baskets and floated out to sea). There were ceramic housewares made right there. Carved wood implements. Every kind of housewares imaginable. Foods, fruits, vegetables, fish and meat, spices, long black ropes of tobacco, clothing, herbal medicines, ingredients for religious or magic rituals (small bones, dried starfish, noxious pastes and such), recycled cans and bottles turned into lamps, shoes, and just about anything else you can imagine.

We saw giant bunches of sugar cane, which none if us had seen before. There's a photo here of Cheryl standing with it so the size of the cane is clear. It's very tall and sturdy. We also saw the raw cashews still attached to the fruits. The fruit of the cashew is a popular juice here, and it's a common flavor for ice cream too. I'm posting a photo here of the orangey colored fruit with the dark cashew nut at the bottom.

The market smelled....ripe. And overripe in places. Very fishy. Slightly rotten. And spicy and delicious occasionally. Street dogs looked happy and well-fed. Cats wandered freely. Birds in cages chirped and sang. And many stalls had their own music playing, not seeming to care that the next stall over was playing something equally loud. We heard Elvis, Tupac, opera, the Beatles, and lots of Latin American salsa, meringue, and Cuban music.