What an insane day it was. I lost my friends, then thwacked it through using public transport, then a nice man gave me a pretty necklace, but I end up going to bed early with a headache. The story goes like this - A couple of people from the hostel at Salvador was coming down to Porto Seguro as well, all went well with the taxi down, but at the Rodoviario (bus station), it turns out we are on different buses. No problemo, I get on mine, they get on theirs, and agree to meet at Porto Seguro. Many hours later, I sleep fitfully but well under my -9 sleeping bag on the freezing bus, wake up all startled, it was 8am, and bus was scheduled to arrive Porto Seguro at 7am, I ask around and others say we had arrived at Porto Seguro, so I get off the bus with all my stuff, looking around hoping to find my friends (fellow Aussies), but they are no where to be seen. I thought maybe their bus had arrived on time and they had left, so I tried to ask people at the station (in extremely poor Portuguese) if another bus from Salvador had arrived and left. Apparently no. Then I thought I would wait, and I did while a bus to Arraial Dajdua (my destination) left. I wait and I wait, thinking, hold on, this isnt right, what if they had left already! So I speak to the lady at the counter, about getting a bus to the ferry that will take me to Arraial, and *wham*, the realization came - I wasnt at Porto Seguro. In fact I was at a nowhere town an hour before Porto Seguro, and had to wait a half hour for the next bus there. So I did.
When I finally did get to Porto Seguro, my ego was quite crushed, and was extremely tired and frustrated. Taxi drivers tried to rip me off by saying the bus wouldnt take me to the ferry, but I decided to brave it (angry fatigued stubborness). I talked to a few locals, made motions of boat on water, and finally got on a bus that would take me to the ferry. The people on the bus were amazing, they helped me with my bags (couldnt get through the ticket barrier because my pack was so huge), and told me where to get off. Ferry came promptly and before I knew it, I was on a bus to Arraial Central. A nice man on the bus tried to talk to me, we spoke through the phrase book. And I asked him to recommend a place to stay (barato - cheap, bom - good). When we got off the bus a lady approached me with hostel options, and the man spoke sternly to her, assumedly about not ripping me off and taking care of me, and then we were off to hunt down a room for me.
The lady was nice enough, she took me first to a friend of hers, who had a cheap room that I could have. I had a look, it was rustic at best, and had no windows so kindly declined. Then we went to a Hostelling International place, but they were booked out. By this stage we had walked around most of Arraial central, and I was feeling desperate. She eventually took me to Pousada Ocantinha, where we bargained it down to a room for 30 reais per night. Turned out to be a bargain as it was a room with private ensuite and breakfast. Score!
Later on I went to the beach, and there encountered the nice man again! He was selling handmade jewelry, and muttering stuff about ¨linda¨ and ¨bonita¨ gave me a pretty necklace. He was apparently doing archery in the town square that evening, and I said I will be there to watch.
Unfortunately, by about 6 my head was going to explode from fatigue, major headache, and body pains all over, so I had a simple meal and went to bed.
Sleep is good. Amen.
