Salvador is sooo different than Rio de Janeiro!! Rio is posh, elegant and snob; Salvador is less sophisticated but I like the vibe here, much more than in Rio. I spent all day in the city and what surprised me a lot was that most of the city is a favela (well, Geraldo told me about this before). I took a bus from Praia do Flamengo where I live - it took an hour to get to the Centro Storico. The last 40 minutes on the bus was favela on the right and favela on the left... Centro Storico is very beautiful, actually it looks European (in the picture).
I phoned Sayuri from Couch Surfing and she gave me details of the Couch Surfing meeting in Rio Vermelha, a very nice part of Salvador. I went there and I met other CSurfers, they were great people.