In 1832, when Charles Darwin saw Salvador, now capital of Brazil’s north-eastern state of Bahia, from the deck of the Beagle, the usually matter-of-fact naturalist found himself transported into a ‘chaos of delight’, his senses overwhelmed.
‘It would be difficult [to] imagine, before seeing the view, anything so magnificent,’ Darwin wrote in his diary. Indeed, glimpsing the colonial city shimmering under a dome of blue sky, the brilliance of its colours, the diversity and detail of the exuberant flowers, insects and birdlife in the forests all around, had captivated him.
Darwin’s Salvador was tiny; the 21st-century version is now one of the largest cities in South America. Yet its UNESCO-listed historic centre remains much as it was in 1832, and even today it still overloads the senses with its buttery…
