Reconcavo Recon….

I took a little side trip yesterday and overnight to the nearby twin cities of Cachoeira and Sao Felix. I kind of planned to make it a bit longer adventure, but neglected to bring enough money to do so. It ended up being more of a recon trip into an area I plan to visit again.

The Reconcavo is the name for the area that surrounds the Bahia de Todos os Santos here in the state of  Bahia. In Brazilian music, I think the region is sort of analagous to the Mississippi delta region of the US, in that so much of the really unique traditional music originated there. It’s (or was) a big sugar producing region, very lush and humid.

Cachoeira is a very nice small colonial town. The whole place has a kind of faded glory to it…it’s not hard to imagine how thriving it must have been in it’s day. Very nice riverfront and buildings both restored and decaying.

An interesting rickety bridge spans the river between Cachoeira and Sao Felix.

 

It was kind of a seat of the pants excursion, so I failed to plan well, but it was worth it to get an idea of the place…it’s within a couple hours of Salvador so I’m sure I’ll return. I’m trying to figure out a big loop excursion where I’d head up there and come back to the Bay by boat. Found a couple people up there who were willing to do it, so hopefully I’ll have a more exciting trip to tell you about next month.

The town was busy this morning with lots of last minute christmas shoppers, and the Salvador bus station was ridiculously busy with folks headed home from the city for the holiday.

Planning to spend a laid back christmas here around the city, hope everyone has a great one.