Nega Maluca Guesthouse

The Nega Maluca (Portuguese for the crazy black woman) is actually not a guesthouse. We prefer to call it a family house because here we have no guests. We are all family - the traveller’s family.

The Nega is owned and run by long time travellers for the sole benefit of our other tribe members. It is more a philosophy and a way of life then a business. (You can read the “we believe” part on our internet site). We have tried to put all the experience we have gathered from many years of travelling and sleeping in thousands of guesthouses all around the world, in our home. (The truth is that we mainly learned what not to do). A few little examples of this experience is a personal light for every dorm bed as not to disturb others at night, a personal electricity socket, a shelf for the top bunk beds, enough hangers for your cloths and towel in the room and especially in the showers and of course hot water, with strong pressure, 24 hours a day.


Since many travellers love the word free, here are some of the FREE :-) services we offer :

- Free complete all you can eat breakfast
- Free bed sheets
- Free towels
- Free internet with skype/scanner/camera/burner
- Free HiFi
- Free welcome drink (Caipirinha or a shot)
- Free safe deposit boxes in all dorm rooms
- Free use of our fully equipped kitchen
- Free spices and oil for cooking
- Free filtered drinking water
- Free smiles
- Free exchange library
- Free luggage storage
- Free soap for self laundry washing
- Free and complete travel information about Salvador and the area.
- Free use of the hostel after checkout, until 22:30, including showers and internet
- Free Coffee all day
- Free taxi booking
- Free games and playing cards
- Free guest phone for receiving calls
- Free bus ticket booking (the bus company charges around R$5 for delivering them)
- Free booking for Moro de sao Paulo catamaran tickets
- Free, in the hostel, airline tickets booking
- Free Booking of Candomble (afro-Brazilian religion) ceremony with a private guide (and not a travel agency that personally we don’t trust 2 much)
- Free booking for onward hostels of your choice
- Free food delivery


Other services, and forgive us some are not free yet, are:

- Currency exchange
- Laundry services
- Bar
- Outside balcony with hammocks
- Nargilas/water pipes/Shisha/Huka
- English speaking staff
- Security guard at night
- 2 cats and a dog
- Airport pickup (R$60)
- No curfew, no lockout
- Very cheap international calls (R$1/min)

Despite the above, there is much more to travelling than just staying at a hostel who offers you all this great services for free. As travelers, the moment we left our home country we have in a way made the entire world part of our life now. We can no longer ignore the situation in Zimbabwe, the hunger in Brazil, the genocide in Darfur, cutting down the rainforest, pollution, global heating and unfortunately the list is endless. I know, we all have that feeling that we, the small individual cannot do anything about these big issues but as Obama said on his election campaign, YES WE CAN!

We here in the Nega Maluca have been for years helping poor families in our neighborhood with basic food supplies financed from our money and donations travelers left for this cause. It is time to think bigger. We have stopped using plastic bags and now have recycled bags for the use of our guests when they go to the Super market. We are sponsoring on a monthly basis an orphan child in Mozambique whose parents died from aids (www.sos-childrensvillages.org). It takes only $1 a day to change a Childs life (less than a bottle of beer) and there is still so much more we can do. By staying in our guesthouse you are directly helping in these causes because part of all income is set aside for these matters.

Don’t get us wrong. Even if you don’t stay with us, we will still continue financing these projects and looking for new ways we can contribute as these are our principals and beliefs in life and they are MUCH more important than more or less guests in our house. However, together with you we can do much more than we can alone.

We are located in the Historic centre of Salvador with its cobbled streets and beautifully preserved and painted colonial houses. Our house is on a quiet residential street, where locals still sit outside as the evening falls and talk about their neighbor’s life :-). We are only 3 min. walk away from the centre of the action where live music and percussion bands play daily, for free, but far enough to enjoy some peace and quiet when the party is over and have a good night of sleep. We are a few min. walk from the only supermarket in the area, museums, travel agencies and basically everything you will need for your stay in Salvador.

We really hope to host you in our home and for you to become part of our family.

Inbal, Natalia & the rest of the gang

Note: All doubles are air conditioned as are the 8 bed mixed dorms. The 10 bed dorms are, still, with fans.

Another note :-) having no availability here on the site doesn't necessarily mean we are fully booked. In this case, please check directly with us or on our site as we do not make all our beds available for booking here on HW.

Last note. Promise: Payment in the hostel is in cash only. We do not accept any credit card.

New year 2010: We, unlike all other hostels, do not raise our prices for this time of the year. However, we do require a minimum booking of 2 days for the nights of the 31st and 1st of Jan.,2010

Carnival 2010: In order to guarantee your reservation beside the 10% deposit on this site you will need to pay the FULL BALANCE. Once you reserve, we will send you a paypal request for the outstanding sum. Only upon payment will your reservation be confirmed. In the case you will preffer to pay in cash on arrival, we will return the money paid via Paypal the moment you will pay in cash. Your reservation non cancelable, is personal and is not transferable and to any other person in full or in part so PLEASE make sure your travel plans are fix before reserving. We only accept reservation for the full 7 nights of carnival between Feb. 11th-Feb.18th, 2010.

We are truly sorry for the inconvenience but carnival is a special time of year where our flexibility is almost none existent.
Except beds in the hostel, we offer independent , fully furnished apartments for up to 15 people. for more information please contact us directly at contact@negamaluca.com

Directions

From the airport:
Go outside of the arrival terminal, cross the street and hop on a Praça da Sé bus. Get of the last stop, at Praça da Sé of course, and continue according to the instructions below ('From Praça da Sé'). The ride takes anything between 60-80 minutes, depending on the traffic, but don't take a nap because part of the route passes along the beautiful beaches of Salvador. A nap you can take at the hostel.
A Taxi from the airport costs between R$60-R$86 ( about US$30-43). depending on the company. Recommended to fix the price before getting in instead of using the meter. We can also arrange an airport pickup for R$70)

From the Rodoviaria (Central bus station):
You have 2 options:1. Go outside the bus station (to the left) and cross the pedestrian footbridge to the Iguatemi shopping mall. In front of the mall catch the bus to Praça da Sé and get off at the last stop called Praça da Sé and continue according to the instructions below.
2. The easiest way will be to go under the tunnel out the Rodoviaria, to Plataforma 1, and from there look for Ponto 2. Catch the Baroquinha bus from bus stop no. 4. Ask the ticket guy to tell you when it's one stop before Pelourinho (In Portuguese it will be ' Uma parada antes do Pelourinho'). Walk up Rua Ramos de Queiroz, to the right of where the bus dropped you off, and on the top turn left. You are already on Rua dos Marchantes, where the Nega lives. 50m along the street, on the left hand side, you will see a beautiful green house with blue windows and door. It is house no. 15 and we live there. Please come in. The whole walk is no more than 5 minutes.
A Taxi from the Rodoviaria costs between R$19-R$21. ( US$10-11). Recommended to fix the price before getting in instead of using the meter. There is a taxi booth inside the Rodoviaria and unless you arrive in the middle of the night it will be cheaper to take one of the many taxis waiting outside
From Praça da se:
You also have 2 options: 1. Walking - It's also good for your health. When you get of the bus, take a right on the main street and walk straight on (toward Pelourinho). You will pass on your way a square (called...... good guess -Praça da Sé) with a fountain synchronized with annoying music. 50 meter after the fountain there is another bigger square. Cross it and almost as if continuing straight, take the most left street (Rua Alfredo de Brito) which after 100m will start descending. Once you reach the bottom, continue straight, going up Rua Ladeira do Carmo. When you reach the top continue to your right and the first street to your right, after about 300m and the 5 star hotel, is where the Nega lives! A cold fruit juice will be waiting for you there......... The whole walk takes about 10-15 minutes and passes through beautiful pelourinho - the old and restored part of Salvador.
2. Catch a taxi to the Nega Maluca. The cost is about R$12 b