February 19, Friday

(Ryan)

We are woken by the rustling of the other passengers stowing their bags and taking down their hammocks near 6:00am when we were surprised to see ourselves so near and early back to Belem, Brazil. From our last trip, we are at least mildly familiar with Belem and know which direction to start and that we can walk it with no problems. The first hotel we come to is $25 but comes with breakfast which is being served as we arrive and where we are directed to wait for our room to be ready. Strong coffee, sweet rolls, fresh fruit and juice, and a pot of beans and franks. The coffee was the best. As of the border of Brazil we have found that sugar, and loads of it, are commonly added to coffee before being served. It was more than pleasant to find this coffee as black as mud and I gulped down about four cups before a useless attempt at a nap. We gave up on sleep, showered and headed out into the morning. The only internet cafe we knew of was in the Hilton Hotel and was $10 and hour (out of our price range) so we decided to hunt for another. We asked many people and got many blank and confused stairs. We wrote the words on a piece of paper so we wouldn't lose any thing in the translation but got more of the same. So we wandered and just as we were about to think that they didn't have the internet in Belem we stumbled upon the truest form of the "Internet Cafe". Coffee, pastries, tables to chat or work at and Computers! And for the unbelievably low cost of $1.75 an hour. Many hours past by and it was time to eat. From our previous trip we had found a street cart selling the best port sandwiches and we went to get one, or two. The disappointment can not be described when we found the cart missing. A local said that they only come out at night but I were hungry now! We ended up having some bland Chinese food and for the most part calling it a day.

February 20

Web page, Hotel room, Portages TV and not much more. The day went by in a flash with out a memorable event.

February 21 Sunday, nothing to do but leave

Breakfast and then what? It's Sunday and we know from experience that the entire city will be completely shut down for the day. No pork sandwiches, no stores open but most importantly no Internet Cafe. The Gypsy Lounge is ready for a big update but there will be nowhere to plug in. So it's wait the day out doing little but wait. The idea has it's appeal. The room we are in is nice and has hot water, something that has become fewer and farther between, and then there is the strong coffee in the morning to consider. But we have antsy feet and Carnival is just around the corner, and "what's the beach going to be like?" and, and! And it's off to the bus station.

Something I may have not mentioned as of yet are the city buses. They are generally common and go were we need to go but there is one thing that makes them different than any other bus we have been on. Of course there is a driver, but as well as him, there is a guy that sits in the back of the bus near the door that you get on and and collects the money. After paying your fair wage you must squeeze through a caged in turn stile. From the door to this turn stile there are commonly a few seats separated from the rest of the seats of the bus by the cage. I have skinny power on my side but it is always a tight fit getting through. It's always worth the fair to just sit an watch the comedy as people, not as skinny as me,  try to get through the turn stile. Unfortunately the comedy is less fun when you are wearing a huge backpack and have to go through. The money collector literally has to shove you through while a friend is pushing or pulling. You try to play it smart and sit in the back of the bus previous the turn stile. But when you try to hop off at your stop through the back door the money collector stops you and sternly points through the cage. Don't try to make sense of it. Don't say "why don't you just turn the turnstile once and go out the back", don't bother. If there is a reason we will never know.

What reminds me today of this unusual ritual is, shortly after squeezing our way onto the city bus destined for the bus terminal, about ten other backpackers were forced through the same fate as we. They knew we weren't laughing at them, it was imposable not to look completely ridiculous trying to cram yourself through and they knew it. We had for the most part taken over the bus with luggage and backpacks and were all receiving glares from other passengers being forced to find their way through the maze of luggage. This is were we received  an unfortunate bit of news: The bus we wanted didn't leave until 7:30 that night. We proceeded to the station and hoped the bearer of bad news was mistaken. Sadly, he was not. It was true, and we now had the rest of a 100° day to kill with our 60lb. backpacks. Ain't we got fun! I tried to hunker down in the bus station and began to read a book and even got the phones to work and made a few phone calls. After the novelty of the ability to place a call was over Dan suggested we do something! Anything! So we lugged our gear hand headed back out. 

An eager and persistent cab driver chased after us and tried to get us in his cab. We kept saying NO! but he wasn't convinced. We were on a corner with a large round kiosk built on it. We hid behind the kiosk and hoped the cabby would drive off but he simply crept his car up until we saw him coming and we snuck further around the corner. Then he backed up and we ducked around the kiosk in the other direction to keep out of site. We went back and forth for over ten minutes, back and forth. A fun way to kill time, playing hide and seek with the cab drivers, try it some time. 

We ended up back in downtown with sweat soaking through our clothes as we walked down the street. Salvation found us in the form of an air-conditioned movie theater with a movie about to start. With backpacks in tow we entered the theater and plopped the packs in neighboring seats. The film started and who buy Leonard de Caprio was seen walking down the street with a backpack and describing a similar trip as our own. A strange coincidence.

One more trip through the turnstile and we were back at the bus station just in time to catch our all night bus heading to Sau Luis.

February 22

The bus pulled into the station of the "Must See" town of Sau Luis near 8:00am. We caught a bus to the city center and began to hunt down the Lonely Planet recommended budget hotel. We found the hotel easy enough and went in to have a look. By far one of the diveiest places we have seen. As close to sleeping in a barn as you can get and still call it a hotel. The price was low but not low enough and the deciding factor being that they had no outlet to charge the batteries on the computer we moved on. The nest place we looked was unbelievably worse and cost more so again we moved on. On the third try we came to Hotel Lord. Your not quite sure what to expect when you come to a hotel with such a secular name but it was very nice and only slightly more money. The only odd thing being the unusually long check in process. There was a very long form asking more questions than a government job application and with no way to confirm any of the information we had some fun. Our home address was 1313 Mockingbird Lane, that of the Musters. My profession was of a Brain Surgeon and I was born on the Moon. I tried to skip some of the questions but the very observant and thorough desk clerk wouldn't allow a single blank so further questions were filled in the like; telophono- 976-#&%@, and so on, until all the i's were doted and the t's crossed and we were finally granted permission to hike the five flights of stairs to our room. There, we collapsed for a few hours to catch up on a little sleep. By noon I was starving. The food at the bus stops didn't look very appealing so it had been nearly 24 hours since I had eaten. I had read that there would be some good pizza in town and we went on the hunt. Over an hour passed walking around in the 100° heat and I began to lose hope. We made a full loop and ended up on the same block as our hotel and went into a cafe. Nothing looked good to Dan nor I but something in my gut was badly needed. I ordered a burger and an OJ. There was some confusion but I thought I had it all worked out and patiently waited. And waited. And then I asked where my burger was and the guy pointed upstairs. My head hung and I went upstairs and sat down. The employees were sitting at a table and glanced at us then went right back into their conversation. I waited. Nothing. So I approached but only received shaking heads and shaking fingers. No more patience. Back to the hotel room to cool off. I tried to sleep but I was starving. I then looked up "Places to Eat" in our not so trusty travel guide. It recommended a cafe that had pizza and headed straight there. Yuch! I don't know who taught these people how to make pizza but that's sure not how Dominos does it. Pancake dough, a teaspoon of ketchup as sauce, over lapping slices of an unknown cheese, and breakfast sausage. Mmmmm! I'd rather eat a rock, which is what it felt like in my stomach. At least it was something and I could go back to sleep in our well air-conditioned hotel room so that's what I did. 

Dan in the meantime was doing a lap around town trying to discover how it received the "Must See" status that our guide book gave it. His description of what he saw when he returned was similar to my pizza. He only checked back in to see if I wanted to go to dinner with him and I declined. I had enough of this "Must See" town and I was going to sit on my ass and work on the computer which was fine with me. When Dan returned later that night we both went to sleep and prepared our selves for another long bus ride the following day. 

February 23

There wasn't much information about our next destination in our travel guide and it only had directions coming from the opposite direction that we were heading. We were going to see a big cave in a nation park called Parque National de Ubajara and picked a town as close as we could figure at the bus station. We set off on an average bus for the 14 hour ride.

February 24

We missed the stop-off by one town and arrived at Teresina at 4am. We thought we would get a hotel even though it was just for a few hours sleep while we waited for the next bus to the cave and set out to find one. Hotel number one, no rooms; two, no rooms; three, four, five no rooms. Back to the bus station. The mosquito swarming, urine smelling, bum begging bus station. It was now just after 5am and I spread out on a concrete bench to try to get some sleep. I was so tired I thought I would be able fall fast to sleep but the bugs and the heat dispelled any dreamy ideas of the subject. I walked in circles around the bus station while Dan entertained himself by trying to kill every mosquitoes swarming around him with a length of rope. It was a very long  2½ hours while we waited for the next bus but it finally arrived. Two hours later we were back to sldjflskd and off the bus. Surprise, no screaming cab drivers and even when we asked one for directions he simply pointed in the direction we were to go and didn't even offer to give us a ride. I thought that it must be so close that it wouldn't be worth it to a cabby to take us so we started to walk. And walked. And walked until we at long last came upon a hotel. It looked expensive but I was very near the end any energy. It turned out to be relatively modest priced and had a restaurant. We checked in, dropped our bags and headed straight for the restaurant. "Two Large Pizza's Please". I thought nothing could be as bad as the last pizza but wonders never cease. I was exhausted and went back to the room and went right to sleep. I don't know were Dan got the energy but choose to hike back into town and look for a laundry matt. We hadn't been able to do any wash for over two weeks and our cloths were getting very ripe. I slept and read the whole day. Dan didn't find a laundry but had to sacrifice a pair of socks on the walk back to the hotel. My spirits were a little low and just wanted to rest up in the hotel and have a look around tomorrow. Dan did a little more walking around but was soon back and we were both to sleep early.

February 25

We were up early for a little coffee and fruit before walking up to the National Park entrance that contained the cave. The approach to the cave was by cable car from over the top of a cliff down into a lush green valley. The view coming down the cable car made the whole trip completely worth all the trouble and frustration. We could see three different waterfalls coming over the cliffs on the opposite side of the valley and retreating into a amazing tropical forest. At the bottom of the cable car we followed a path to the base of the cave. There were some guides there at the mouth of the cave and we weren't sure weather we were to wait for one or go in by ourselves so we just started walking in. They hailed us to stop and it became clear that we were to wait for one of them. Eventually one introduced himself and we headed in. He only knew a few words in English and tried to describe what we were seeing. It started with him pointing and saying something close to "stalactite", then pointing and saying "stalagmite". For the most part it was one word descriptions of rock formations that looked like something else like "lion", "alligator", or "face". It took a few repeats to get most of them but we finally understood. He then pointed to the ground and yet again said a few of the only words he knew, "bat shit"! 15 minutes latter we were back to were we had started and our tour concluded. Terrible food, sleeping in bus stations, 24 hour busses for a 15 minute walk around a cave, the highlight being "bat shit". We couldn't stop laughing on our short walk back to the hotel. We grabbed our bags and told the receptionist to call us a cab.

When we reached the bus terminal the cabby asked and found out that we had just missed the bus. He then asked us if we wanted him to catch the bus? Sure! He took his taxi sign off the top of the cab told us to buckle up and we sped off. Well... sped off as fast as a 1972 Toyota that had never received the first consideration of a tune-up could. Sure enough, about 10 miles out of town we saw the bus in the distance and began to gain on it. We soon past the bus and pulled to the side of the road in time to hail the bus down. "How much" we asked, and couldn't believe when he said $15. we said $10 and he about blew a gasket. The bus was waiting, so we paid and left another greedy cabby in the dust headed for Fortaleza, Brazil. 

Six hours latter we pulled into a gargantuan bus station. Should we stay or should we go? was the question. Carnival was approaching and we were still a long way from Rio de Janeiro. Though being a bit tired we concluded to push on to Recife on the next all night bus. We did have a bit of luck on catching the next bus too, it was leaving in ten minutes so it was a sprint to the platform from were our bus was leaving. 

February 26

I don't know if it was luck or just slightly better city planning but arriving in Recife, and then getting were we wanted to go, wasn't as challenging as most places we come to. First we were able to determine the schedule for buses going to our next stop, Salvador; and second there was a subway attached to the bus station taking us right to the city center. It was 7am when we reached the end of the subway line and began to look for a hotel. It took a minute to get our bearing but we soon found our way around and checked into a hotel. We both collapsed into bed for a few hour nap. As usual Dan woke up before me and headed out for a look around town. I, for one of the first time of my life, dreamt of food. Nothing fancy; broiled chicken, hot rice and beans. Bus station food had been looking pretty bad and I hadn't had a good meal in what seemed like forever. When I climbed out of bed I took a quick shower before heading out. In the lobby of the hotel I was pleased to find a restaurant that sold food by the Kilo. What did my starving eyes see just out of the oven but the same meal I had been dreaming of. I must have eaten a whole chicken not to mention the piles of rice and beans. Perhaps I could smell it all cooking while I slept, I don't know, but I hadn't been more satisfied than that moment I finished my feast in days. Dan returned just as I was heading out and we decided to go and look for an internet cafe. We hunted all over town, up and down and no internet cafe. After asking many people and getting different pieces of the story we were instructed to catch a bus to some shopping center. 

The shopping center turned out to be a modern day mall and the only internet connection was within a book store with only three computers. There was a very long list and nobody was in any hurry so we weren't going to get a chance to check e-mail today. 

We had seen most of what Recife had to offer and somehow we found the energy to checked out of our hotel that same day. We were going to push on to Salvador and rest for a few days there, so back to the bus station.

There is a theory that I am working on, a spin on Murphy's Law, that I may delve further into as I develop it but it goes a little something like this; "You can have anything you want, as long as you want it at the right time". It's a bit more optimistic than "everything that can go wrong will". I'm using our bus journeys as a control group. Here are some examples; If you are on a bus and wish to read your book which requires the overhead light, you must try to get some sleep. As soon as you are tired and start to drift off the light will magically be illuminated. Many of the buses we have been on have had the Air-conditioning turned up to freezing, so... to exercise the theory, you simply wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt, jacket, thick socks and any other warm clothing you may have. You must first bear the stifling heat of the outside weather wearing all your gear before entering the bus then upon boarding the bus you will find that the AC is at a pleasant temperature instead of being turned up to ice cycles. Say your hoping to have a bathroom aboard your bus. All you would do is completely dehydrate yourself eliminating the need for the bathroom and surely there it will be. One last example would be boarding a bus hoping to get right to sleep. What would you do? What you want to do here is be right in the best part of a "can't put it down" novel where you are sitting on the edge of the seat. This will result it the definite lack of any light enabling you to get right to sleep. 

Dan chose to test every angle of the theory on this 15 hour leg of our trip and he thoroughly prepared. First we both ate a big McDonalds meal, then packing plenty of warm clothes, next Dan purchased a bunch of snacks for the trip and lastly bought a new book. Of course, when we boarded the bus we were given a big assortment of snacks and a soft drink, then we were handed a copy of a travel magazine, and when shown to our seats we found a pillow, warm blanket, sheet and a mile of leg room as well as this funny thing that folds down from the seat in front of you that keeps your legs at a comfortable level while you sleep. First Class! If you have to take a bus this is the one you want to take!