Diamond Carnival, Thu, 15 Feb 2018 | written by Simon
Simon at a Transit in Brazil, South America

The Salvador airport has no comfy seats. Nothing to sleep on. I arrived after midnight and really tried, but got virtually no sleep. My plan was to stay there as long as possible before I need to go to the bus station and catch my 7am bus to Lençóis. But here another trick – there is a time change between Rio and Salvador, and despite the fact that the latter is further east, it is an hour behind the former! So I ended up going to the bus station an hour early and there I must definitely could get no sleep. On the bus I did catch some sleep, but not much. And so I arrived to Lençóis horribly underslept, and late.

All this the day after the night in the Sambodromo.

Railuz, my host, is really chill. When I met him, we first went to a bar, because he was waiting for the late bus and still didn’t have lunch. I Sat for lunch with him, then he casually showed me around the little town of Lençóis, took me to his little arts and tat gallery, showed me his flat in the back of it, took me to a shop, then stopped to get some food himself… and then finally we set off to go to the place I’m meant to be staying in. But not straight away – we sat for a bit in the shade, because the place is green minutes walk and he called his pal Binho to give us a lift – so we waited for him for some fifteen minutes. When we got to the place, Railuz started making juice and some of the food he brought, and then it turned out that there was actually a point to bringing Binho over. He is the man with a car and a motorcycle and can drive me around tomorrow! So we spent the next hour figuring out places to go to and making a plan. Finally, some 2.5h after I got here, I finally got rid of my host and could unpack.

All this happened, I would add, mostly in improvised sign language, as neither Railuz nor Binho speak any English. It is quite amazing view much you can convey that way. Also, it is quite amazing how pretty much anyone I met here, when I tell them I don’t speak Portuguese, proceeds to try and find ways to carefully rephrase their point and say it slowly… in Portuguese! How useful!
Anyway, as they left, I pretty much collapsed. I tried to read a bit in a hammock, but just fell asleep. Friendly geckos kept me company as I acknowledged that 7pm is a perfectly reasonable time to go to bed.