The Brazilian bus

The bus ride. My record has to be the summer I spent over 160 hours traveling by bus through Brazil. It's not a particularly auspicious record, but it's one that may be the reason for the back aches and pains that I have now. In Brazil there are basically three ways to travel by bus. Or maybe five if you split hairs.

The top of the line bus is the first class bus or leito. The leito carried around 24-26 passengers. It was roomy. The leito had fully reclining seats - fully reclining, as in becoming almost like a bed. You were provided with blankets and a pillow, and each window had drapes or thick curtains to block out those annoying lights in the middle of the night. The leito even had a bus steward who served Coca-cola or Guarana Antartica before you went to sleep, and woke you up with a hot demitasse of coffee in the morning before you arrived at your destination. The cost of a leito was easily double the price of the conventional bus and was considered luxurious. I was astounded to discover that the leito was actually more comfortable than any plane I had ever flown on. The leitos were equipped with air conditioning and heating.

Pastor John and Pastor Barry Deguchi on a Brazilian leito (Jan 1999)

Pr Barry enjoying the fully reclining feature

The second level of bus was the executivo or executive bus. The executivo didn't have quite the amenities offered by the leito. I only rode the executivo between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. I'm sure that it was offered on other routes, but this is the one I'm familiar with. There were no blankets or drinks served. It was not as roomy as the leito. I suspect that for business travelers going back and forth from Rio to Sao Paulo, an eight hour ride, that this bus separated them from the general traveler. By paying a few dollars more, which most would probably not choose to do, you didn't ride with the "riff-raff." This is just a theory, by the way, and not substantiated by anything in particular. For sure the leito (above) did not seem to have anything close to riff-raff, because it was the way that the middle-class traveled in Brazil.

The third class of bus was called "convencional" or conventional bus. It was your basic 40 seater. A sizable portion of the population rode the conventional bus. This bus had no amenities, but it did have a toilet in the back (as did the previous two types). That was a godsend at times, believe me! The trick was to make sure your seat wasn't in the back.

I had traveled many miles and many nights by conventional bus early in my ministry before one pastor friend of mine convinced me that I needed to travel by leito. He insisted that if I continued to ride conventional buses, I would kill my body - or something like that. The conventional bus had seats that reclined about two feet. Not bad compared to the airlines that give you about six inches. But without air conditioning or heating, the overnight bus ride could be a test of endurance and an even greater test of your resistance to possible airborne virii.

Overall, I rode the conventional bus a good two-thirds of the time I was in Brazil. There was this sense in me that being a missionary, I shouldn't probably be so extravagant by riding leitos. That pastor helped me overcome the tendency to think I had to "suffer." Okay, maybe it wasn't just that. Sometimes the rural routes that I traveled didn't have a leito option. But may I say that had I not switched to riding the leito when I did, my back and shoulders would be in a worse mess than they are now. Much of the aches that I have today I attribute to my hours and hours on the conventional bus.

The fourth type of bus is what I call the chicken bus. I rode the chicken bus a couple of times. One very memorable trip was from Presidente Prudente and I think I was traveling with Nicole. The chicken bus is so named (by me) because of the propensity of rural people to bring livestock on the bus. Principally chickens. I'm still not sure why chickens needed to travel. I'm not sure either if they had to pay for a seat.

El Salvador bus.  Credit:  http://breakawaybackpacker.com/

Nicaraguan bus photo.  Credit:  http://quodcerno.files.wordpress.com/

The chicken bus from Prudente was the bus ride from hell. Nic and I bought reserved seats toward the front. Normally with the three previous types of buses, there are no passengers added along the route. With the chicken bus came a surprise! The chicken bus stopped for EVERYBODY on the side of the highway who waved their hand! Suddenly the bus is full, with passengers in the aisle, invading your personal space, stepping into the area where your feet would be on the floor. I think I switched seats with Nic because she was on the aisle, and some guy was leaning on her (and maybe drooling). Add to this the sound of what I can only describe as Brazilian country music. That twangy country sound that sounded a bit like something I've heard in Tijuana, being played on the bus' sound system at full blast.

There's the opening scene from "Out of Africa" in which the train stops in the middle of the Kenyan countryside to pick up two ivory tusks being carried by Denis Finch-Hatten. Karin (the baroness Blixen) asks, "Are you quite famous? They stopped the train for you." To which Finch-Hatten replies, "Well, it's rude not to here." I guess that my American-ness in trying to get to my destination completely overlooked these people, who were in the middle of nowhere in the hinterlands of Sao Paulo state. For us not to have stopped would have been rude.

Coincidentally, one of the music pieces I listen to while on those twelve-hour bus rides through São Paulo state is the main theme from "Out of Africa."  The music is so expansive and grand.  It matches well the vision of the countryside outside of my bus window.  Youtube link

Oh, and that fifth type of bus. No, not a school bus. I never rode one of those. The fifth bus I rode only once on an excursion with a group of friends to the southern state of Santa Catarina. This was on a double-decker tour bus. Think of a cruise ship. It was exceptionally comfortable and designed clearly for well-to-do people. The excursion was a trip to Florianopolis in Santa Catarina and included the bus, hotel stay and guided tours within the state of Santa Catarina.

I may be mistaken because I took that trip when the economy was in it's worst state of hyperinflation. I paid cash at the travel agency and had to carry a stack of bills (novo cruzados?) three inches thick! This seems almost impossible, but for that trip, I think I paid the princely sum of $70. Seventy dollars for a first class bus trip with three nights in hotel and a tour of the state. That's why I remember that bus. It was the one and only time I rode one.

The most memorable part of any overnight (or long distance) bus trip has to be the rodoviarias. These were bus stations along the highway that served as your bathroom break and twenty minute refreshment stop. Some of these places were gorgeous (okay, I have to think of a better word, but really they were!) They were a combination of gift store, restaurant, smoothie bar, ice cream parlor, newstand, barber shop. Incredible! The restrooms had easily 50 toilets, and some had showers as well.

But the food! Coxinha de galinha, pastel, suco de morango com leite, cafe com leite, pao de queijo! It was worth it to wake up in the middle of an overnight bus trip just to eat that wonderful food. And there was this drinkable yogurt stuff by Danone called "Danup" that I have not found here in the states yet. mmmmmmmmmmm.

You didn't eat to get filled up. Only to make your taste buds happy! It was just enough to fill that empty spot so that you could go back to sleep for the remaining six hours of the trip.

One hundred sixty hours of bus travel in two months one summer. I think those trips were mostly by conventional bus. My back still remembers.