Bus trip to Ilheus

13 February: We'd set the alarm at 8:30 again same as yesterday, but it was much more difficult getting up today. Had the breakfast buffet at our Pousada, paid the hotel bill (Nicky was beaming, he seemed very eager to be getting the cash), checked our email for the first time at his internet cafe (1/2 hr, 3 R$), walked to the restaurant we were on our second day and then back.

We take a taxi to Rodoviario after getting our bags from our room. Always check the taxi meters, this guy had Bandera 2 but quickly enough changed to 1 after we complained. V&E had already bought bus tickets for us to Ilheus (due to heavy traffic during Carnival, how thoughtful of them!). We need 'boarding tickets' for the bus gate, so we walk to the bus operator, 'Aguia Branca' (White Eagle) to get some and get told that our tickets are valid for Ilheus to Salvador, not the other way around!

Miracles upon Miracles! 1) There is a bus at 13:01 from Salvador to Ilheus which we would be in time to catch 2) There were still free seats on this bus, in spite of Carnival 3) The lady switched our booking to fit us on this bus without any fuss or bureaucracy! What luck!!! We boarded the bus which had a red carpet leading to it's door, it was Ejecutivo Class after all! It sure looked 1st class. It had good seats, the driver provides an oral intro to the trip (no microphone) and we start on time. The trip to Ilheus is about 7 hours. The air conditioner is turned on and it's on the coolish side, but sometime later it's off and it's getting warm. A passenger complains and it's on again, only to be turned off sometime later. It's getting quite uncomfortably warm now and I walk forward to complain to driver who says that the a/c is broken. There is one halt with a wait at San Antonio de Jesus.

Bahaiana painting in our Pousada Santa Maria in Salvador	Last look at Forte do Santa Maria in Barra/Salvador
Coconut stand at Santa Maria beach	Entering Aguia Branca bus to Ilheus over red carpet

When we arrive at Ilheus it's getting dark already, we take a taxi to V&E's. The road they live on is easy to find, but house numbers don't count up and down as they do in the rest of the world. The taxi driver is confused too. A call to V&E on their handy didn't work, the battery's dead, talk about telephones not being available when you REALLY need them. Luck strikes again, the taxi driver has the same handy model, so he loans us his battery, we phone, Eusinio and the driver converse shortly and all is clear. We reach the house in a minute.

V&E have a very nice house, two stories with all sorts of luxurious fittings. We're given a room to ourselves on the 1st floor with our own bath. They have loads of pets, two dogs, a rabbit and a number of aquariums and glass bowls with all sorts of fish in them. We have a bite to eat and then hit the bed soon after.

Continue to 14.2 Exploring Ilheus