DAY 226
Up with the sun again, it's one of the trend of this year ;) We have to catch the 7:30am bus back to Salvador. It rained heavily all night and it woke us up a few times. It's still pouring as we go to the bus station. It's the way the Pati says goodbye I guess. We leave a bit late, miss our connection in Salvador and eventually arrive at 9:30pm in Diogo. Not a fun day but we don't need to move for the next few days, the program is back to being playa!
DAY 227
That was the first good night of sleep in a very long while; A big bed with good mattress and pillows yeah! The rest of the day was just plain lazy. A bit of laundry (trying to get rid of the Pati smell...), a bit of planning and a good muqueca in the village.
One crazy thing about Brazil are the fruits. At 30 something we wrongly think you have heard about most of the fruits. You realize how wrong you are when they enumerate all the fruits available for juices... And you have only heard about 2, 3 max. The rest are completely new! Mangaba (acid, Apple-banana taste). Graviola (soft and white, like a watered down chirimoya). Acerola. Acai (delicious ice cream, dark brown). Maracuja. Jaca (the smelly testicule). I never heard of them before!
DAY 228-229
A few more days in paradise. Diogo is our reward after the tough hike in the Pati valley. It's on the coast, north of Salvador. There, breakfast comes with humming birds and sweet dogs at our feet. Then we head to the beach to say hello to the crabs and that's it for the day! Tough life ;)
DAY 230
We made it to Campo Grande in the end but it really came out as a surprise. The original plan was not so complicated. Catch the bus in Diogo around 8:30am, get to the airport and catch our 12:00pm flight to San Paolo then our connection to Campo Grande and arrive there around 5:30pm. 1 bus, 2 flights and 9 hours is already a long day's worth of traveling but we had worse. You guessed it by now. It didn't really go according to plan. Instead of that, we had an African-style epic journey (Bahia is the African root of Brazil after all) where we gave up many times on getting to Campo Grande.
Packed and ready to go, we're dropped at the bus station on the main road. A few guys are already waiting and confirm we haven't miss our bus. It's supposed to pass by at 8:40 and it's.. 8:40 ;) 1 bus pass going the other way then a 2nd and 3rd. Nothing on our side yet but it shouldn't be long right? A 4th, a 5th, still nothing, a 6th, a 7th, it's past 9am now. A few more pass by before finally a minivan pass by. It's not the bus we were expecting but they can drop us close to the airport. It's already crowded though so we start the trip standing in a crowded minibus; reminds us of Tanzania and Ethiopia but it's not part of our fondest memories... The other very annoying thing is that it stops everywhere. Sure we end up getting seats but the clock is ticking and it starts feeling we'll get to the airport with little or no time to spare. It stresses me... And stopping sometimes 3-4 times in a kilometer drives me nuts. I can't understand why you'd accept to drop someone off 100 meters before or after the bus stop or have bus stops 200 meters apart! We have a fright in the outskirts of Salvador when we hit what looks like a traffic jam. It's "just" an accident however but the sight is chilling. The car is in bad shape, in an impossible place with a hastily covered body still inside...
We're close to the airport when the bus stops in front of a mall for the usual pickup/drop off. There's a line of taxi and we don't hesitate and go for it, surprising the bus guy because of course, he doesn't know we know exactly where we are thanks again to maps.me (best app ever!). We enjoy once again the road at the entrance of the airport (That bamboo tunnel is really neat!) and get at the airport at 11am. It's a domestic flight so we should be good to go. There's a long line however so we go talk to the airline people but they tell us it's all right we can stay in the regular line. I find that odd but since the flight has no confirmed departure time on the big board, one can assume there's a delay and we have more time to check-in. A good half hour later, it's finally our turn to check-in. The grimace we get from the attendant when we give our destination leaves us with a bad feeling. She leaves right away to talk to one of her colleague come back to check something on her computer. She has two bad news for us. First, check in is already closed for that flight. We're about to start complaining strongly when she adds that anyway our tickets were pending and not confirmed in the first place, a problem with the payment she says. There's nothing she can do and we have to go to the general desk. With nothing left to argue with her we do what we're told but the fact that they left us miss the check-in even though we were on time and warned them, is unheard of. It's not the end of our surprises with that company (note to all: don't fly "Azul" in Brazil). At the desk, they tell us the credit card company cancelled the payment the day after we did it but they "forgot" to send an email to warn us (The bank also forgot to tell us they cancelled a payment). So we were left with the booking confirmation email until we showed up to the check-in. The guy there is clearly feeling shitty about it but at least he comes up with a solution. It's ugly but it'll get us to Campo Grande the same day. Instead of 2 flights, we'll have 3. It adds a layover in Belo Horizonte before the one is São Paulo. And instead of 5:30pm, we'd get there at 10pm. We have no choice but to take it, but 3 flights in a day with not even an hour between them... Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Are they going to loose our luggage or are we going to miss a connection, we're not eager to find out! We have hotels already booked for the next few days in Campo Grande and Bonito.
The flight to Belo Horizonte is on time and event-less. It's pouring in Belo Horizonte but we don't have to walk in that rain so it doesn't matter... Or does it? At the gate for our next flight, we learn that because of the weather, our plane was rerouted to Rio. They don't know yet if it'll be able to come here and pick us up or not. They are pessimistic. And even if it gets there, we'll miss our last leg to Campo Grande but they'll obviously take care of rebooking and our hotel night whether it's in Belo Horizonte or São Paulo. After a brief moment of self-pity, we decide to cancel our hotel in Campo Grande. Too bad we're an hour past the deadline so we'll have to pay for it no matter what :/ Not long after, we learn that we'll fly to São Paulo after all, the plane is on its way. We check the bus schedule and figure out we'll be able to make it to Bonito the next day with a late bus so no need to touch our hotel booking there. Upon embarking, a quick chat with one of the flight attendant gives us a foolish hope to get to Campo Grabde after all. They tell us it's not impossible our plane pushes all the way to Campo Grande after São Paulo. It's not written in stone yet but it's being discussed. She's not thrilled about it, which we understand, but for us, it'd be miraculous.
It's past 10pm when we land in São Paulo, we taxi to the gate and get ready to disembark. It's almost a two hours flight to Campo Grande and they haven't told us to stay in the plane... Our wild hopes are dashed. The plane door open and we all start moving when they make an announcement. People going to Campo Grande have to stay in the plane... Oh! My! God! That came out of nowhere but we don't need to be told twice :D Lucky we couldn't cancel that hotel in Campo Grande after all! We're far from the only ones relieved by the sudden turn of event. The flight is not entirely eventless (beautiful electric storm in the distance) but we get safely to Campo Grande. It's 11:30pm local time.
Fun Fact: Brazil uses complicated time zone. It seems to be up to each region to decide what their time zone is and if they switch to daylight saving time at all. Bahia is northeast of São Paulo and weirdly it's 1 hour behind. Matto Grosso do Sul is West of São Paulo and also 1 hour behind but that makes sense.
A seamless taxi ride later we're happily checking in on our big brand (but cheap) hotel. We rarely go to that kind of hotel because it's very impersonal and too business-like for us traveler. But when you arrive at 12am, it feels great to know the reception will be open, along with some basic services and that they won't have sold our room to someone else because you were not showing up. You also know it's very unlikely you'll have any surprise with the room. After almost 16h traveling, it's a wonderful feeling. And for those who still doubted it, it's not always vacation to be traveling the world. We have our fair share of days like that. And tomorrow, with 5-6 hours of sleep, we still have a good 6-7 hours to spend in a bus to reach Bonito.