Lessons in "go away"

(Blogger is all in Portuguese right now, which is just a wee bit confusing but I'll soldier on...)

Last night I was sharing large bottles of beer and stories with a fellow who's lived in Salvador for about 16 years now. He runs a record shop and is looking to start producing local acts that perform Samba de Roda, or what he calls "the original samba". He used to live in New York, where for a while he managed a Gambian griot - a kind of West African minstrel that spreads news of other places in the form of songs - that played with Herbie Hancock. Cool guy.

Anyway, we were pestered by people wanting stuff from us (our beer, for the most part), and he taught me exactly how to put a stop to this, in Brazil at least. Here it is: you avoid eye contact and give a firm wag of the finger. This, he assured me, would do the trick where my "No, really, thank you" would not.

And sure enough, today I stepped out of the bus at the historic district's Praca de Se, was immediately accosted by a chap of dubious character, deployed the finger wag like an old pro, and he stopped in his tracks. Beautiful. No more crackhead tourguides for this gentleman spy on a mission, oh no.