Carnaval Salvador | Bahia, Brazil

When most of us think of Carnival, our thoughts understandably stray toward Rio de Janeiro, which is arguably the most beautiful spectacle in the world. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, however, the largest street carnival on earth is actually held in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, and the [...]

Rio Carnival | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio Carnival 2009 starts on Friday, February 20th and ends on Fat Tuesday, February 24th.
The Brazilian Carnival, or Carnaval is an annual festival in Brazil held four days before Ash Wednesday, the day of fasting and repentance that marks the beginning of Lent. The celebration originated in Rio de Janeiro in 1641, when the city’s [...]

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

 Salvador is the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. It was the first major port and the capital of colonial Brazil for almost two centuries. From 1500 to 1815, a significant portion of the country’s sugar, gold and diamond trade passed through the city. It was a golden age for the town, when magnificent homes and [...]

Bahia, Brazil

The Woman from Bahia, Artist Unknown, Mid-18th Century,
Museu Paulista, Universidade Sao Paulo,  Brazil
It is in Bahia more than anywhere else in Brazil, where the African influence in the makeup of the country’s culture and pysche is the most readily visible, from the spicy dishes still called by their African names (caruru, vatapa, acaraji), to the ceremonies of candomble which [...]