El dia más largo / The longest day

Brussels, 20th of January, 11 pm, a night bus to Frankfurt is the first stop of quite a long trip that should get me to Salvador de Bahia, North Brazil. 21st of Janaury, 4 am, some survival instinct wakes me up and asks me to stand up and look through the window. I do so and… shit!! I was about to miss my stop in Frankfurt. If I had not waken up at that point, I could have ended up in Munich. I guess there is an evil dwarft whose job is to make me loose my stuff very often but also another one in charge of avoiding that I fuck up in these kind of situations. It is not the first time…

Anyway, 4 am, Frankfurt, the station is fucking cold and I dont even have a jacket cause I am travelling to Brazil. The 30 minutes wait for the train to the airport are a pain. When I finally arrive I sleep for a while and have the chance to meet Martina, a girl from couchsurfing who happened to be taking the same flight as me. So, at least in these first moments of my trip, I wont be alone. She is croatian, journalist, and going to Belém for a meeting. Although the truth is that I spent most of the 11 hours flight sleeping. I have spent weeks “persuading” my body that he should be able to sleep in the most uncomfortable situations and apparently he got the idea. The Condor plane is small like a fucking bus with wings but the trip is not so hard after all.

But I still havent told you what my first plan in Salvador is and, for one time, there is a plan. Thanks to couchsurfing again, I am in touch with some other travelers and they organized a trip to the natural park of Chapada Diamantina, West of Salvador and supposedly one of the biggest and more beautiful ones in the country. Nice landscape, trekking itineraries, waterfalls and plenty of natural stuff to do. It does not exactly fit my idea of Brazil based on beaches and parties but it is a great chance to start meeting people and so something different. There will be time for caipirinhas later…

In order to get there, I have to land in Salvador, get to the city center and then to the bus station to take the night bus for the park at 11 pm. I have, in theory, enough time for that but…the trip from the airport to the city happens to be endless. There are plenty of traffic jumps and the bus breaks down when going uphill. It takes almost two hours to cover the 40 or 50 km distance. Still, I have time, it is 8 pm brazilian time (12 pm for me due to the time change) and I made it to Salvador city center (Praça da Sé). At the tourist information office they tell me how to get to the bus station ( Rodoviaria). Another 40 min of shitty bus and I get there, almost two hours before the departure time. Everything should be right but… the bus is full! Ups, I fucked it up, my Chapada Diamantina plan is on risk and, for one time, it is not my fault. I did all what I was supposed to do, the bus company did not accept bookings on the Internet and the girl at the tourist office had told me there would not be a problem to jump in the bus an hour before its departure since it wasnt a weekend. There is another one leaving at 7 am next day but that means spending a nice night in the bus station of one of the most dangerous cities in Brazil…

So there I was, considering my options when my new friends from couchsurfing showed up. Aparna, indian, she has been travelling who knows how many months and she still has a few ones ahead of her. She is the trip organizer. Mary, american, she arrived in Brazil not long ago and plan to spend a period in Salvador. Victoria, british, South America is the first part of her one year world tour. We all tried to convince the guy in the station to allow me to board the bus even if I have to travel lying on the floor but there is no way. The bus at 7am next day and therefore the night sleeping in the station seems to be the only option if I want to do the Chapada Diamantina thing. No good news actually, it´s been 40 hours since I woke up in a proper bed and around 30 since the last time I took a shower. Ahead of me, I have 7 hours sleeping in the station floor and another 6 in the bus to the park. The other option is to turn down the natural plan and head back to Salvador but I like this people and I have got the feeling that the sacrifice will be worth it. I decide to wait for the bus.

At this point, another couchsurfer who had joined the trip in the last minute shows up. Pedro, American, he has been traveling around Brazil for a few months and can speak the language pretty well. Like me, he has no ticket for the bus but at least he knows a few places around the station where we could have a few hours rest. And nothing more true than this, a few hours sleep is all you can get in this area, the whole place is full of what brazilians call “Love Hotels”. All rooms have only double beds and you rent them by hours, who knows what for… We have no other option than to book two of them. At least it is not too expensive, 25 reales (around 9 euros) that will pay a hot shower and 5 hours rest before the bus.

Salvador de Bahía, 22nd of January, 1 am, this is the end of my first “day’ of travel. I have lost my phone and havent drunk any caipirinha so far…

Bus Eurolines Bruselas – Frankfurt: 34 euros
Plane Condor Frankfurt – Salvador de Bahía: 300 euros
Bus aeropuerto – Salvador (Praça da Sé): 4 reales - 1,4 euros
Bus Praça da Sé – Rodioviaria: 2,20 reales – 0,8 euros
Room for 6 hours close to Rodioviaria: 25 reales – 9 eur

Tags: Bahía, Salvador