Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Brazil: Bahia
Salvador (Bahia) There is something special about Bahia. Everyone says so, and everyone means something slightly different when they do. For some, it’s the way the air itself seems to hum—warm, salted, and touched by music even when no instrument is playing. For others, it’s the way the streets open into sudden bursts of color: sun‑washed facades, ribbons tied to church gates, markets overflowing with fruit that tastes like it was grown in sunlight. Bahia carries an ease that isn’t laziness but confidence, a rhythm that invites you to walk slower, listen longer, and let the day unfold without forcing it. It’s a place where history breathes through drumbeats, where the ocean feels like a companion, and where joy is treated not as an indulgence but as a birthright. Bahia sits on Brazil’s northeastern shoulder, where the land curves toward the Atlantic and the ocean feels less like a boundary and more like a pulse. The state is huge—larger than France—and its coastline stretc...
