São Luís

We are due to arrive in Saó Luis at 8am , but literally half an hour before reaching town the bus comes to an abrupt stop, it sounds like its run out of petrol, but the problem was a bit bigger than that, the fan belt had gone . We were stuck on the bus without any air conditioning on the side of a road where all the other lunatic drivers were flying past, a total recipe for disaster. The driver said that another bus would be out in an hour, but i had to remember we are on Brazilian time so it was very likely to be a lot longer. We asked to be let off the bus so at least we could have a cigarette to which the driver agreed. Even though we were stood in the sun it was still cooler than being on the bus. Just after 2 hours our bus finally arrved and we transferred all our stuff over to the other bus, it was so nice to have air conditioning again and even though on some buses it has been so cold today was different. We arrived at the hostel early afternoon and spoke with the woman on reception to book our trip to Lençois Maranhenses. Thinking all was confirmed she advised us the bus would pick us u at 4 in the morning so we did some hand washing and headed out to explore the city. The city here is beautiful with cobbled streets and old colonial buildings , some that are amazing and others that have just been left to rot and decay We were sadly dissapointed that everything we wanted to see was closed as it was Monday, and they work on a tuesday to Sunday basis here, we grabbed a bite to eat in a restaurant and i really fancied Pizza, but Pizza in Brazil is not the same as Italian Pizzaa and the attitude of the staff was really bad , so after a dissapointing lunch we made our way back to the hostel. On arrival, the lady on reception advised us that there was no space on the trip tomorrow so we would have to catch the local bus if we wanted to go. Today was turning out to be an absolute nightmare . I suggested to Mark that we take our bags and stay over and then catch the forwarding bus the day after from Barrinheas but he threw a fit saying that he was sick of moving on after a day and that this wasnt travelling just spending time on buses, so reluctantly we agreed that we would catch the bus in the morning and then return here that evening, and have the following day here before catching the night bus. With that agreed we headed out for a couple of beers, and as we went down to the square it was wonderful, a real buzzy atmoshere with families and people just sitting at various bars listening to live music. Mark refused to go back to the place wed been in the afternoon so we headed to one up the side streeet and ordered the same as the table next to us as it looked delicious. It was like tapas of sun dried meat dee fried with Salischaa which is a largeork sausage and fried onions and fried manioc. Wesat picking away at it with little cocktail sticks drinking ice cold beer people watching. A guy approached he bar making flowersss out of reeds , and Mark indulged me even though he moaned it would be brown in a few hours. The way this guy worked with a leaf was amazing and deserved every penny he earnt, In this part of Brazil here are too many people who just want to put their hand out and be given money, but everyone is capable of earning a crust. So after a wonderful end to a shitty day we head to bed to try and get some sleep before our long day tomorrow.Read more