Let us begin by introducing myself and my tour services!!!

I am a native Baiano born in Salvador and multi-culturally educated (I've lived and studied in England, Sweden and Germany and visited many other countries and cultures). I've studied tourism at the university and in addition languages, such as: English, Spanish, Italian, French and some German, Portuguese in my mothertongue. So, If you're coming to Salvador and would like to hire a special native personal tour guide and travel agent, you've come to the right person. I know the city and its history, culture, people, places like the back of my hand. I also guide excursion tours to beautiful natural areas all around the State of Bahia. I can really offer the very best experience in this magical land. Everyone is welcome!! So just get in touch with me by email: fernandobingre@hotmail.com or by phone or WHATSAPP: +5571 9 9944-0612 . I will do my best to make sure you have a wonderful time here in the Land of Happiness that is Salvador da Bahia. My fees: 2 itineraries tour: R$ 300 (Brazilian Currency) 3 itineraries tour: R$ 350 (Brazilian Currency) Special prices for more than 2 people and/or groups. Ask me for references from many satisfied travelers who have used my services. If you have any question, don't hesitate to send me email: fernandobingre@hotmail.com Surrounding Areas Tours: *Itaparica Island *North Shore Beaches (Praia do Forte, Arembepe, etc) *Morro de São Paulo Island *Santo Amaro, Cachoeira and São Félix. *Other places in request or suggested. Note: The tours are made by car (I'll be picking you up and delivering you back at your accommodation address) and the transportation fee is included in the cost of the tour. Except the "Nightlife Tour" Special prices for more than 2 people and/or groups. Testimonial from satisfied clients: "Fernando sets the gold standard for tour guides: knowledgeable, helpful, friendly. I had taken a tour of Salvador before meeting Fernando, it was pathetic in comparison to all that I learned from Fernando. Then there were his insights and guides to life in Salvador that led to so much more fun there." -Ron from San Francisco. "I can unreservedly recommend Fernando as your tour guide for Salvador. Together with a good friend of mine, we engaged Fernando to show us his city. In doing this, Fernando worked with us to design a tour which met our every need over a 3 day period. For my friend and I, this included touring the upper city (Pelourinho), the lower city, the Barra area, the African market, the island of Itaparica as well as two evenings where we were able to enjoy the gastronomic delights of Bahian cuisine and the nightlife in Salvador. Fernando is well versed in his city and its culture - it definitely helps that he is a "Soteropolitano" (a person who is born in Salvador). I found that Fernando provides just the right amount of information that one needs; he also knows some out of the way places which most tourists would never visit but which are essential to an understanding of Salvador, its settlement and development and its culture. Fernando is also extremely friendly and relaxed, genuine and trustworthy, and he remains concerned at all times for your safety. Forget large commercial tour operators - choose a local who can give totally personalised service.... choose Fernando!!" - Lachlan from Sydney, Australia. "Salvador was one of the high spots of our trip to Brasil, and Fernando helped us understand and appreciate his city, the state of Bahia and even the country better. He offered informed explanations in excellent English and was enormously helpful in pointing out not only the churches and galleries, also the more profane elements of Salvador's make-up and so. I heartily recommend Fernando’s services to any visitors to Bahia. Ian, London (England-UK) " "Hire this man to be your tour guide now!!!! When I first saw his website, I was skeptical about his services. This was not the case. We met Fernando on our first day in Salvador. We felt absolutely safe with him the moment We met him. He was knowledgable about the history and current affairs of Brazil and of Salvador inhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif particular. We went to three main parts of the city and, after spending the first day with Fernando, We felt completely comfortable going to those places again on our own. We covered the whole gamut of sightseeing possibilities from historical markers to markets. We can say, with confidence, that We would not have enjoyed Salvador as much as We did if We had not met Fernando. He is simply the best tour guide Salvador has to offer you regardless of how you swing. Carla and Amanda from Toronto/ Canada." More details: www.fernandobingre-salvadortourguide

.com * I´M A CERTIFIED TOUR GUIDE LICENSED BY THE BRAZILIAN MINISTRY OF TOURISM, GUIDING SINCE 2004...

• 

Low Season (The best season...)

Well, here we come...it´s May by now and almost half of the year is gone (It just makes us to stop and reflecting how time goes flying sooooooo fast..) anyway I am not here to talk about time actually I am here to talk a little bit how people can enjoy their time.


It´s the beggining of the "Low-Season" in Bahia by now and I always ask to myself: "Isn´t it the 'Best Season' ?"

Well, I think so. I mean, maybe it´s not the bestest for all of them who just love to spend time on the beach (swimming, drinking some nice cold drinks, checking the "eye candies" and so) but for all of them who love to explore different things and also checking how it´s the real day by day of the local people plus how the city flows that´s just a PERFECT TIME to be around, and I tell you why:


*The weather is not as that HOT as during the "High-season" ;

*The city is emptier (less tourists around) ;

*There are the best deals for accommodations, food, enterteinment and so;

*The possibilities of making new friends and interacting with locals are bigger;

*There are still popular festivities, concerts and parties going on.


So, travelling to a place like Salvador it´s a good thing it doesn´t matter if it´s during the "Hot summer days" or "the cooler winter days". Something very interesting about Salvador that´s never really cold, we can have rainy days but never cold days and sometimes it´s even "frustating" for us because we see those "winter clothes" on the magazines and on TV and we´d like to dress them and being as nice and charming as we see those people on the magazines or tv but it doesn´t work around here that way. If we dress it, 5 minutes later, we just can´t take it and take it off as it´s not cold (Lucky us? Well, It´s not fair to complain about it, right?!...lol).


Ok, I just would like to welcome all of you on the way to Brazil (It´s cold down there in the South and some parts of the Southwest of Brazil so if you´re on the way to that regions don´t forget to bring a winter´s coat) specifically to Bahia to enjoy it as much as possible and if you´d need some information about what to do during the time that you´ll be here in Salvador just don´t hesitate to contact me because it´ll be a pleasure for me to inform you what´s going on in the city into the LGBT community and also generally saying...


All the best...

Sincerely, Fernando Bingre
WWW.SALVADORTOURGUIDE.COM

Sunny and warm Xmas Wishes from Salvador da Bahia...

So...it´s Xmas time again...

It´s time to be around family, friends, partners (and their friends and family) being together and filling up our hearts with hope, peace, serenity and specially lot of love...

It´s time to look back and reflecting the things that happened to us in this year (good and bad things, remembering that even "bad" things which might happened to us they´re a part of our learning and growing process in this world...).

Most of all, it´s time to remember about the greatest man of all: Jesus Christ, and his unconditional love not matter what, not matter who we are "gays, black, white, rich, poor and so..." .

Following Jesus example of love, I would like to wish to everyone out there a great Xmas filled with good feelings, love and harmony and a fantastic 2010 with all the best for you and your families and friends.

Merry Xmas and a happy New Year...

Sincerely, Fernando Bingre

Early Christmas for HIV Children in Bahia...

Early this month(June) a very dearly friend of mine has decided to visit Salvador again and this friend is simply "Kenneth Still" who i call simply "Kenny" for all of you who don´t know Kenneth Still...he´s a bussiness partner of another dearly friend of mine called Lawrence Pickney(a licensed real estate broker in NYC) who put together with Kenneth the "Bahian Heat Festival" ( http://www.bahianheat.com/ ) during our Bahian Gay Pride last year. In additional, Kenneth is a director and choreographer. Mr. Still has worked with Michael Jackson, Toni Braxton, Joe, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Will Smith, Vanessa Williams, C & C Music Factory, Martha Wash, & more. The former dancer has appeared on top rated television shows such as: Oprah, The Billboard Awards, American Music Awards, BET, Saturday Night Live Disney and the Soul Train Awards. As a teacher, Mr. Still has taught dance all over the United States and abroad including Africa, London, Japan & Italy, bringing what he calls the New York Style to the international scene. But all these things that he has done and all the celebrities that he has met and has worked with...haven´t changed the inner and beautiful person inside of him: last year after the "Bahian Heat Festival", Kenny..Lawrence...me and another friend of us went out to buy some food with money collected from the "Bahian Heat Group". So, we went to the "African Marketing" and we´ve bought food enough to keep the "CAASA" refrigerator full for awhile. This year Kenny has visited Salvador again, just like I´ve mentioned before, and few days before he leaves he´s called me up surprisingly and he´s told me that there were some gifts for the "HIV Children of CAASA foundation" and I was so happy to see that he hasn´t forgotten about those children and when Kenny has left, he has left with me all the gifts to be deliveried to the children which I´ve done enourmesly pleased. When I´ve got at "CAASA" with all the toys I´ve felt being "Santa Claus" myself and the children were so happy about that and they were inviting me over to play with them for awhile which I´ve done happily. They were calling "Uncle" and it has made me very happy as i could see all of them as my "nephews", it was a very special moment for me and I couldn´t anything else but taking a chance to thank my friend Kenny for this lovely and beautiful experience in my life and in the names of those lovely little angels of "CAASA" to say thank you very much. I´m sure you know how rewarding is seeing those smile upon those children face. Thank you my friend...Sincerely, Fernando Bingre.

PS: Whoever is visiting Salvador and would like to make a food donation, clothes donation, toys donation or simply visiting the place and bringing some good energy with warm hugs to "CAASA Children" please feel free to get in touch with me and I´ll be happy to bring there !!!!

Carnival in Brazil's African capital

SALVADOR, Brazil - Rhythm is king in this seaside city long known as the capital of Afro-Brazilian culture, or more simply as the Black Rome — and not only at carnival.

Drums thunder from behind the colorful walls of colonial houses that line the winding cobblestone streets of the historic Pelourinho district. Passengers on passing buses thump out intricate poly-rhythms on the seat backs, floors and windows.
Even the city's reputed 365 Catholic Churches — one for each day of the year — percolate with the popcorn of rhythm, with samba groups often standing in for the choir to celebrate the saints' days.
But when the throbbing rhythm gets under your skin and the rumbling won't leave you in peace, it can only mean one thing: Carnival is coming to Salvador da Bahia.
"Carnival is actually just the culmination of a series of festivals that make up our summer season, beginning in December," said Valter Oliveira Leite, president of the municipal carnival council.
The uninitiated could easily mistake the seemingly endless series of shows and festivals in the run-up to carnival for the actual event. But Carnival itself is unmistakable — with some 2.5 million people clogging the city's main avenues and dancing behind more than 200 bands that ply the city's streets on top of enormous sound trucks, night and day.
It's very different from Rio's more famous made-for-TV parade, with fans in grandstands evaluating the elaborate floats and costumes. But many Brazilians feel the real street Carnival is the full contact sport of Salvador, some 750 miles northeast of Rio.
Salvador's carnival officially begins this year on Feb. 15, a day earlier than Rio's bash, and runs a day later. Feb. 20 is the date known in New Orleans as Mardi Gras; here, many bands turn out for a last gasp the next day, Ash Wednesday, as well, despite protests from the Catholic Church.
In recent years, Salvador's carnival also has become a haven for black American tourists in search of their African roots in Brazil.
Salvador was Brazil's first capital and major stop for slave ships coming from Africa to the New World. Today the city is more than 70 percent black and is a center of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble — similar to Santeria and Voodoo. It also is a nucleus of the martial art-dance form known as capoeira — as well as the birthplace of samba.
"It's all just religiously, spiritually inspired. It reminds me of New Orleans and some parts of South Carolina where I grew up," said George H. Smith, a 63-year-old black American printmaker from Washington D.C., who was on his second visit to Brazil.
This year, U.S. producer Quincy Jones is expected to attend Carnival as a guest of Culture Minister and pop star Gilberto Gil, with an eye toward making a Buena Vista Social Club-style documentary about the proceedings. Plans to bring Janet Jackson and
Oprah Winfrey', however, have fallen through, according to Gil's spokeswomen Gilda Matoso.
Anthropologists say in many ways slavery-era African culture is better preserved in Salvador than it is in Africa.
"We worry more about our African roots than they do in Africa. In Africa, they don't want to remember the past. Here we want to hold on to what we were torn away from," said Vera Lacerda, a retired history professor who now runs one of Salvador's most popular carnival groups, Ara Ketu.
The biggest attraction of Salvador's carnival are the "trios eletricos," huge bands that play a calypso-inflected samba known as "Axe (ah-SHAY) Music" from the top of the sound trucks.
Axe stars Ivete Sangalo and Daniela Mercury are famous across the nation and their songs can be heard on the radio all year around. Other bands like "Chiclete Com Banana" are a hit in Bahia and at offseason carnivals around Brazil during the rest of the year.
But many foreigners, especially black Americans, are more interested in the elaborately costumed Afro "blocos," or carnival groups like Olodum, which appeared on Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints," album. Or the "Afoxes' (ah-fo-SHAYS) like Filhos de Ghandi, who pound out Candomble rhythms on percussion instruments, roam the streets in white turbans and will happily pour perfume on you for the asking.
There even been efforts to include rock, hip-hop and reggae in the celebrations. Last year, the Irish rock band U2 attended the festivities, though plans to have the band to play on top of a sound truck reportedly were canceled because of security concerns.
"The first night we let our tourists watch from the stands, and then next night it's up to them whether they think they can handle it down below" .
To celebrate Salvador's street carnival, you can spend anywhere from $14 to $930 for an "abada," usually a T-shirt and head scarf which allows revelers to follow a band around for three days and nights separated from the general population by a thick cord, held in place by throngs of burly men.
Some 86,000 "cordeiros," or rope holders, are employed each year just to separate the crowds.
Or you can stay in the "pipoca," or popcorn, which costs nothing and means hanging out in the densely-packed streets. The advantage of the pipoca is you can glimpse various bands from outside the ropes. The disadvantage is that each passing band is capable of sweeping one down the avenue with the force of a tsunami.
Organizers are understandably proud of how little violence there is traditional is in Salvador Carnival. In general, there are no more than one or two homicides each year.
"Everybody who comes here says, 'if this kind of thing happened in my city you'd have some 200 people dead on the first day,'" said Merina Aragao, carnival manager for Emtursa, the Bahia state tour agency that organizes the event.
About 18,000 policemen and 3,000 firefighters are employed to provide security.
Still, Aragao admits that robberies and purse snatching are frequent. But she argues that it's all but inevitable in the crush of bodies where millions of hands can be found groping in search of intimate body contact or cash.
With romance in the air, the federal government hands out millions of free condoms each year during carnival, as well as tips on how to avoid the spread of
AIDS' .
In recent year, a big fad among revelers has been exchanging openmouthed kisses with strangers before moving on. And one resourceful businessman has begun marketing an antiseptic spray to protect serial kissers from the spread of disease, although the health ministry doesn't vouch for the product's efficiency.

By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer

It's spring time in Bahia...

The flowers are blooming and the boys as well.....

Hey... it's finally Springtime in Bahia and with this we've got the sunny and beautiful days back. Hot days that make the nice beaches of Salvador simply crowd with friendly, nice and good-looking people.. People who have worked out their bodies the whole wintertime to "show them off" as beautiful flowers in this Spring that looks already like the summertime.



We clearly can have an idea about what will be the next "high-season", it'll be hot as the weather, by the way, i've already ellected my Mr.Spring this year: that's this nice and friendly guy on the picture. His name's Ruan and if you're lucky, you'll be bumping into him in one of those beaches around here in Salvador.. i know exactly where to meet him up and i could even tell you but can you keep this secret? ;-)

Sisterhood of the Good death

Sisterhood of the Good Death in Cachoeira- Bahia..
For such a long time i've been hearing about this Sisterhood of the Good Death Celebration that takes place in a small town called Cachoeira(1 hour and half away from Salvador). And the funny thing that's I've never had time enough to get there but so many people from abroad(Specially Afro-american as it's a Celebration from Slave descents) were asking things about this celebration or telling me things that they've learnt about it that i couldn't ignore it anymore and simply getting there so that's what i did. When i've got in Cachoeira i've simply regreted for haven't got there before because it was a great atmosphere in that simple but beautiful countryside style, and it's such a beautiful celebration of faith and devotion mixed with music & rhythmns, emotion, religion and memories of our black ancesters who have lived in that envyroment in the past, i was very proud of being a black guy by experience all of that. Someone has written me asking if it was worthwhile for him to get around here only for that celebration and i wasn't sure but after visiting and living that experience i can tell him or anyone that's definitely worthwhile to live it up!!!



*The Sisterhood of the Good Death Celebration is nearly at the same date every year(Aug.15th)and it's a 3 days celebration.