Blogs :: Belem to Venezuela, Part 3
Remember the paranoia, well I half ignored it in pursuit of our bus to Boa Vista from Manaus. The Kiwi Nigel speaks fluent Portuguese and he seemed to not be in a big hurry to get to the bus station any earlier than we needed, so I didn't hurry myself as I normally do to arrive well before the scheduled departure.
Ooops. Well, almost...We arrived via taxi to find the bus already full, but with a later departure leaving in 3 hours. I guess we'll get there, just a little later than expected I thought until we asked if there was another bus company departing sooner. Go behind the bus station, cross the road, and next to the hotel is another company. Maybe it's just me, but isn't the point of a central bus station, a rodaviaria, so that everything is in the same place and easy to access? Confused, we dash across the parking lot out back, around a fence, and up to a road with no cross walk, no bridge, just cars speeding past. Ten minutes later we are still standing on the wrong side of the road. The bus, we were told, was leaving in a few minutes...
Finally, after a successful game of Frogger, we lived to see the other side, only to find a building next to a hotel where it looked like a bus station once existed many many years ago, dirty dusty dark windows. I wasn't convinced we were in the right place so after a few minutes my paranoia kicked back in and I encouraged Nigel to use his language and running skills to go back and get better directions. But, not being able to cross the street again, he found an old man instead who actually was sober enough to tell us to walk down one of those alleys I typically avoid in a foreign country.
Half way down muggers' alley, we see a bus, lights on, engine running, pulling out onto the street. Fuck. We run. It sees us. We jump on. Exactly two seats left. In the back. Right next to the toilet. It smells. My nose eventually adjusts, a movie is started, lights go off, I crawl upside my hammock turned blanket and fall fast asleep. Despite the seat location and the bus being a little out of shape, it was one of the most comfortable sleeps on a bus I'd had in awhile.
Border Crossing Next...
Brasil, Manaus, public transportation, buses
Posted By:
Brendon
8/27/2009