Tired of Traveling Alone

It has been almost a week of traveling by myself and I’m getting sick of it. The whole trip to the northeast has been alone. I was supposed to meet someone from couchsurfing.com in Fortaleza, but he flaked out. He replied to my first message saying he could hang out, but never answered the phone when I called. I didn’t even look for anyone in Recife. I was just passing through. Now, I’m in Salvador and this place is seriously alive. There’s so much color and atmosphere that I don’t even know where to begin. The couch surfing community here seems much more active so hopefully something will come from it. I’ve already had one person offer his couch and 2 more show interest in going out tonight.

I went out this morning to the central area looking for the capoiera school and a hostel. I found a school, but I chickened out on actually walking in. The combination of shyness and not speaking the language killed my desire to go. I walked past the school and found a bench to sit on. While contemplating how much of a chickenshit I am, a guy walks up to me. He’s being super friendly and wants to know my name. He tells me some name that I don’t remember or believe. The dude goes on to tell me some history about Salvador and then starts talking about how we’re friends now. It was a really pathetic attempt at luring me into thinking he likes me. So he rambles on a bit as I try to be as obviously disinterested as possible. Then he says we’re family and he wants to show me where the best caipirinias in town are — at 10am. Just before he mentions this, I notice 2 tourist police staying very close to where I am. They are mostly staring straight ahead with only slight glances at me. I tell the potential mugger that I won’t be following him anywhere and he immediately leaves. Oddly enough, so do the police. When I got back to my room, I realized that I hadn’t found the school I was looking for. I guess I need to make another trip out.