In the opening scene of “Dona Flora and Her Two Husbands,” the delightful 1966 novel by the late Brazilian author Jorge Amado, Dona Flora’s first husband (the one who eventually comes back from the grave to seduce her under her second husband’s nose) drops dead during Carnival while dancing the samba dressed as a woman. I was recently reminded of this scene while visiting Amado’s hometown, Salvador, Bahia, on the northeast coast of Brazil, when the street I happened to be walking down was suddenly overrun by hordes of young men wearing white veils and knee-length wedding gowns. They stopped traffic and one veiled passerby stopped to kiss my hand, after which he narrowed his eye-shadowed eyes and asked if I supported President Bush.

Salvador, for myriad reasons, will keep you on your toes.

I had arrived, of course, in time for Salvador’s version of Carnival, which is certainly worth experiencing. But unless revelry is your only priority, be sure to arrive a week before the trio electricos (the double decker trucks that act as moving stages for the musicians) roll into town. You’ll want to explore the city before businesses are boarded up. Besides, even before the start of Carnival, you are always within earshot of a drumbeat, around the bend from a massive Baroque-style church, near delicacies sold by Afro-Brazilian street vendors wearing white turbans and hoop skirts, and if you are at a point in the city where you can’t see the ocean, you are always, at most, a bus ride (usually a very fast bus ride, be sure to hold on) away from the beach.

A stay at the Hotel Pelhourino (Rua Alfredo Brito, 20; 71-243-2324, www.hotelpelourinho.com; room rates $45-$50), known for being the place where Amado lived and wrote his 1934 novel “Suor,” will put you in the heart of the historic district. Even if you don’t decide to stay there, walk through the lobby to the Varanda Cultural, a quiet spot with a nice view of the bay and a long menu of amazing juices. If you want to stay near the beach, I’d recommend the Grande Hotel da Barra. (Av. Sete de Setembro, 3564, 71-2106-8600, www.grandehoteldabarra.com.br). You can be both beachside and poolside in a double room starting at $54.

Brazil’s first capital city, from 1549 to 1763, Salvador was built both on its sugar industry and on the work of African slaves. It was also the first port of the African slave trade in the Americas, which lasted in Brazil from 1550 to 1888; at its peak, Salvador’s slave population reached a mind-boggling estimate of 4 million. (Even more mind boggling when compared to estimates of the 600,000 slaves brought to North America.) Today, nine out of 10 of the approximately 2.5 million people who live in Salvador claim total or partial African ancestry, so it’s no surprise that African culture is central to the identity of the city, and that the city itself is the Afro-Brazilian heart of Brazil.

Evidence of this influence is everywhere in Salvador, particularly in the Pelourinho, the beautiful, church-studded historic section of the city, chosen by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. In Portuguese, the word pelourinho means “whipping post”; the city got the name because this is where slaves were traded and publicly punished. The former slave auction site has been renovated and now houses the Fundacao Casa de Jorge Amado (the Jorge Amado Cultural Center), which, for Carnival, was incongruously adorned with larger-than-life clowns on a flying trapeze.

If you walk around the main square, at some point you’re bound to hear the plucking of a berimbau (a bow-like stringed instrument). Follow it and you’ll find a group of young people in a semi-circle, two of whom will be in the center practicing capoeira, a martial arts dance that originated from the slaves as a way to fight their slave masters. Capoeira was banned and remained illegal even until the 1920s, so people were forced to practice in secret, where it evolved into a dance involving graceful, perfectly timed kicks, turns, and backbends.

Another facet of Africa’s influence not necessarily found in the cathedral-concentrated Pelourinho is the presence of the Candomble religion, which mixes aspects of Roman Catholicism with African animist traditions. To get a sense of the different types of Candomble and to see a beautiful depiction of the orixas, the gods and goddesses, go first to the Museu Afro-Braziliero (71-321-0983), located on the Terreiro de Jesus, and second to the Galeria Pierre Verger (Rua da Misericordia 9, 71-321-2341, www.pierreverger.org), an art gallery missing from guidebooks, which offers a close look at the connection between Candomble in Bahia and Africa. Verger, who Amado called “the most Bahian of Frenchmen,” was a photographer and ethnographer who spent decades starting in the 1940s traveling back and forth between Bahia and Africa to trace the links between the places and religions.

Acaraje, the African fritter sandwich that is fried in palm oil and filled with spices, mashed beans, and dried shrimp, is also linked to Candomble, as the women who sell it are supposed to be daughters of the goddess of the wind. Acaraje is delicious, and if, like me, you seek out the markets where locals buy their produce, I would recommend the Feira Sao Joaquim in the Cidade Baixa (the lower city); there you can see acaraje ingredients in pre-battered form – bottled oil, endless sacks of beans, and mounds of prawns. Go during the day, because the lower city has a dodgy reputation at night, and you can bypass the touristy Mercado Modelo for a more authentic Bahian market, replete with beaded necklaces, a meat section that could turn any carnivore into a vegetarian, spotted chickens in cages, and all of the vibrant fruits that go into Bahia’s varied and delicious fruit juices. (Don’t leave Brazil without trying the refreshingly sweet iced-fruit acai.)

Lastly, there is Salvador’s music. Undoubtedly, much of the music will find you – there are always drumming groups marching through the streets of the Pelourinho, and even the packed shopping malls have live performers – but you would be remiss if you didn’t find and move your feet to a performance of Olodum, the percussion group who became internationally famous after working with Michael Jackson and Paul Simon. I would also highly recommend Mariene de Castro, a woman from the region, whose first and only CD is titled “Abre Caminho.” When I was there, her midweek performance at the Theatro XVIII in the Pelourinho was sold out, as was her CD at a commercial music store. Her strong voice, combined with music with strong northeast rhythms, in particular the samba de roda (a rhythm used in capoeira), left her audience of all ages both spellbound and barely able to stay seated – a good way, on the whole, to characterize a visit to Salvador.