Bus or not bus?

We had a long discussion about the main means of transport we would be using during our trip. At the beginning we thought we should buy a car that would able to deal with off-road adventures. Then, we started to evaluate options for car rentals in order to avoid the bureaucracy of buying and selling a car, getting an insurance etc., but finally, we asked ourselves, why not travel with buses?

The bus option has many downsides: less independence to go to the places we want to visit, less space to take things, less comfort, more sleepless nights and so forth. Yet, looking exclusively on the practical side, it is also true that the less stuff we take or the less we drive, the less worries we will have. Not to mention that, making the math, the total cost of the trip will also be smaller. In the end, however, we chose the bus option mostly for philosophical reasons.

Coming from the upper middle class, I have always had the feeling that there was an invisible line between rich and poor. The line is invisible because there are no geographical divisions; both classes live very close to one another. In any Brazilian city it is possible that only few streets will be between a favela and a high luxury condominium. This invisible line can be illustrated in many different ways: how people talk, how they dress… the fear of violence. The truth is: no matter, which side you are on, you know there are two sides!

Drawn to action research we decided that traveling by bus would allow us to experience, and therefore, better understand some of the difficulties of being on the other side of the line. Finally, at 6pm on February 1, 2010 we took our first bus to Vitória da Conquista/BA. As if to test our decision, the bus we would be on for 13 hours, arrived to pick us up at the bus station with broken air conditioning and blocked windows that could not be opened. Outside the bus, the temperature was approximately 40 degrees Celsius. This meant that inside the bus, the temperature probably exceeded 50 degrees.

The broken bus left the bus station with about 30 people to a place 45 minutes outside Belo Horizonte, where we waited for 1 hour until the replacement bus arrived. Fortunately it arrived… Let’s hit the road!

After a night of sleep we arrived at Vitoria da Conquista/BA and from there we followed to Lencois/BA. It was day, so it was possible to observe the landscape. The landscape described in another language the inequality mentioned above. Between breath-taking nature and large plantations, we could spot small houses, humble people and smells that denounced poverty despite the beauty around us.

We passed through small towns called Anagé, Tanhaçu, Ituaçu, Barra da Estiva, Cascavel, Mucugê, Andaraí e Tanquinho. In Tanquinho we caught an improvised cab to Lençóis/BA, the touristic center of the Chapada Diamantina. After 24 hours traveling, we arrived at the exact moment a procession started with hundreds of people that celebrate in the typical way the town’s patron saint. A procession is a typical religious ritual to worship and give thanks. At this moment I was filled with peace, the decision to leave was blessed…

All of this to say that after our first and longest bus trip, it was clear that the decision to come down from our pedestal of distant observers to enjoy the good and bad sides of traveling by bus around Brazil, was the right decision!