Day 9 - A lurgy shared = a lurgy doubled

19:00
I sleep poorly. Lots of awakeness. I realise around 05:00 that I’m starting to feel feverish. Vicki sleeps on next to me. I wake for the final time around 06:00. Vicki’s up a little before 08:00, we have some breakfast, and consider what to do with our day. We’ve nothing firm planned, so decide to head out to some of the museums that Adriano pointed out to us the other day. There’s one that focuses on the musical history of Bahia that I’d love to visit. We head out. It feels hot. Hotter than the past couple of days. The weather report suggests not though, which means it’s me that’s the variable.

We take the funicular down the hillside into the lower city. It’s pretty much deserted. We walk towards the museum, maybe 10 minutes away. We see a handful of cars, and a few street dwellers, but that’s about it. I remark that it feels a bit like the City of London on a Sunday morning. We reach the first museum. and it’s closed. The security guard says something to me in Portuguese that I do not understand. Oh, except ‘fechado’ which means closed. Hmmm. We wander 100m to the next museum, the one I’ve been keen to visit. Also closed. We look across the road to Mercado Modelo, a commercial centre. Also closed. Google Maps has lied to us.

After a brief conflab, we walk along the harbour towards the marina. It’s hot, and we’re marching in the direct sunlight for about 15 minutes. Neither of us is delighted about this turn of events. We can see signs of shelter down at the waterfront, but not immediately clear how we get there. Google Maps does the decent thing this time, and directs us. We stop at a waterside bar/restaurant called Lafayette. We sink a couple of beers, because if that doesn’t scare away the lurgy, nothing will. Lafayette gradually fills up, and by the time we leave, they’re doing a roaring trade.

We do some investigation, and it transpires that there is voting today in state and municipal elections, and this is likely to be why some places are closed. We’ve got previous with elections interfering with our travel plans - see Goa 2012 for details…

We grab an Uber to head back up to Pelourinho. We’re both getting peckish, and feel like our best chance to find sustenance is close to our guesthouse. We stop in at Cafe Cana, a cute little place we’ve walked past a couple of times. Vicki has a Cachaca-less Caipirinha, called a Meirinha. No? Us neither. It’s very tasty though. My Cachaca laden version really hits the spot though. The food is sensational. We order Arroz de Rabada (rice with oxtail) and Bacalhau Cremoso - a kind of salt cod fish pie with cheese type affair. Very very tasty. The oxtail rice might be the best thing I’ve eaten since we arrived in Brazil.

The food takes us down. We head back to our room, click on the A/C, and contemplate snoozes. Vicki is off almost immediately, and sleeps for a little over 2 hours. I manage an hour of dozy sleep, and wake up feeling rougher than I did before I snoozed. Fucksticks.

Tam’s had a great day over at the Praia Blue beach bar that Vicks and I visited yesterday. Caipis, sunshine, massages and cod fritters.

Vicki and I briefly consider a foray out, but decide that rest and recuperation are what’s needed. Tomorrow is another day…En savoir plus