Farsighted Fly Girl

Brazilian creativity is legendary, fresh ideas and innovations just seem to flow with the ease of samba on a sunny day. So you think Brazilians would speak on ordinary public phones? Please. Brazilian phone booths are called orelhao (big ear) because of the function and rounded shape but they hardly resemble anything close to a boring, old phone. In Bahia, I was excited to see phone booths looking like big, green apples but that wasn't all. Some perched on corners in the form of gigantic swans. Others beckoned with the bright petals of the sunflower. Or the imposing beauty of the rose. And this duck character, I can't explain who he is, probably the cooler, more stylish (check out the carefully coordinated hat) cousin of Daffy.

Salvador, Bahia grabs the heart of any visitor and never releases it. Even when I was in Rio, American tourists urged me to visit Salvador if I wanted to see the real Brazil. It's true, Salvador boasts charm and visual treats that you can't find in any other place in the world. I think it's all that history crammed into one place. Salvador was Brazil's first capitol and it boasts so many historical monuments, places and people that you can literally visit one every five minutes. Great destinations always seem to attract a fair share of tourist traps, however. I thought the famed Mercado Modelo was filled with vendors hustling a load of mostly overpriced junk. The picturesque Pelourinho Square brims with addicts and pick pockets. So my favorite Salvador memories focus on slightly less touristy activities: 1. Eating Mocqueca at Iemanja Restaurant. Acraraje might be Salavador's quintessential snack food but Mocqueca is the ultimate of Bahian cuisine. A smooth, creamy...

As I writer, I 've developed an ear for language. I love to soak in speech cadences and the rhythms of different dialects. Although I've heard lots of Portuguese crooned from my tons of Brazilian, Cape Verdean and a few Portuguese Cd's, I wasn't ready for what I heard in Brazil. I felt like I was pushed into this world that lured me in with familiar Latin words and then shut me down with crazy interpretations. I pride myself on grasping enough of a culture so that I can blend in fairly quickly. Brazilians embraced me first as a Rio C arioca and then as a Salvador Baiana but I felt like a fake as soon as I opened my mouth. My brain couldn't process the sounds of the words and my mouth couldn't spit them out. Nothing made sense to me and I felt mentally crippled more than a few times. It might be a cliche but one thing about Brazilians is that they are genuinely warm and free-spirited. Even though my speech sounded like a clunky blend of grammar school Spanish t...