Fritieren mit Rainer Kalmund
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2005
1
5
7
Trip End
Aug 15, 2005
Maceio / Barra do Camaragibe,
Brazil
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Tuesday morning, we caught a bus from Salvador to Maceio, about 650 km that took us 12h. Although we had booked "Executivo" (high class) bus, there was NO air conditioning. As we had not booked a day in advance (big mistake), we had separate seats. So, now imagine travelling over bad roads in a hot sardine tin with a stinking loo for 12 hours without being able to find immediate consolation with someone. Yes, it was NOT nice!
In general, though, bus travel in Brazil is very organized. Buses leave from numbered platforms, the number is written on your ticket, you book a seat you will really sit on and buses leave punctually. Long distance bus stations are well organized, too. There are ticket counters displaying the destinations for which you can buy a ticket there, there are shops, restaurants, toilets (often with shower), sometimes hairdressers or computer game rooms
001 Bus station, Maceio
. We must know, because we´ve seen quite a few these days!!!In Maceio, we wanted to continue to a small fishing village in the North, but it was already 6pm, no buses up the coast. So we stayed a night in this big modern coastal town. After Salvador, people seemed very friendly and honest, there were few foreign tourists and the whole situation was not as bad as one might think. We treated ourselves to a good dinner - meat fondue with 300 g best red beef filet to be fried in a pot of hot oil. Accompanied by 2 enormous baked potatoes and garlic bread (a whole baguette of it!). Still, the night was awful, we were tortured by a group of VERY hungry moscitos. Got up at 5 am to catch the first bus up the coast.
What a beautiful ride!!! First along the coast, narrow beaches lined with palm trees, little beach huts and a beautiful blue sea. Then, into the country where the road went along lush green hills, over little streams, through villages and huge sugar cane fields. Cattle was grazing and gauchos were riding their horses, dogs looked up with astonishment when a car came.
Barra do Camaragibe was the right thing in the right moment. 2 Pousadas, 2 restaurants, 3 supermarkets and no gringos. The atmosphere was friendly and laid-back, children looked at us with bewilderment when we walked along the only street
002 Transporttoour beach
. We had a room with sea view, actually, the sea was right under our window, when there was high tide. To get to THE beach, we walked along the village beach until we reached the river. A small boat took us across it, then a short walk through a coconut plantation and we were there: kilometeres of soft sand, backed by palm trees and nobody there except for some fishermen from time to time.
For two days, we did almost nothing, sleeping reading, writing, sleeping, eating (great seafood!). That was great after the exciting days in Salvador.
But of course, we had to get back on the road and ventured out for another day in buses. From our village, we hitched (a normal thing here and safe, Moms!) to the bus station, took the 4 h bus to Recife, from there the metro to the city center, then a taxi to Olinda and then we walked for a while until we found a nice pousada. In fact, it´s a REALLY nice hostel with garden and pool and lost of strange German pseudo hippies.
This city is a beautiful colonial town. It seems there is a festival this weekend, last night we followed a kind of samba parade through the streets. People were singing and dancing, that was sooooooo beautiful!
Well, we will write more about Olinda in the next days. Now, we`ll upload some photos, so check out the older entries.
Take care!
