Sugar-Coated Road to Brazil

...definitely belongs up there in my "WORST travel experience" category. I'm sure I've made several entries in that category by now.

Well, to be honest, the bus ride itself wasn't that bad. Argentinean buses are relatively comfy and sleepable in cama class. Which is what I always book for overnight trips if available. And they were available last night so I had a nice seat.

Unfortunately, I had to wait a loooooooong, looooooooong, loooooooong time to get into my seat. Basically, this bus wasn't a "night bus", but became an "early morning" bus.
In a tiny, deserted (except for the 2 Peruvian passengers also booked on my bus - thank god they were there!!!) bus terminal, I had to wait 6-7 hours for the bus to arrive. The drive from Buenos Aires is long, but come on!!! 6-7 hours late?!?!?! Unbelievable. Anger anger anger.It's really sad when you have to witness sunrise from the hard (and not the cleanest) bus terminal seats, hungry, dirty, and tired. On top of that, the hostel bed you slept on last night is literally right across the street. If only the bus company told me of the delay earlier, I would've happily paid for an extra night at the hostel. Wishful thinking, I realize.

Smoothly thru immigration. Sleep. Rest stop for food. Yum. Sleep.
So, here's where the "sugar-coated" comes in.
A one-truck accident on the highway. Have no idea what happened, but a long truck was blocking the entire width of the road, with its cargo hold flipped over. Consequently, no cars could get through and bags and bags and piles and piles of the load littered the road. Load = sugar.
My initial reaction was "____ (fill in 4-letter word), we're going to be stuck here for who knows how long!!!" I was slightly concerned about arriving in Sao Paolo in the middle of the night. Heck, we were already running VERY behind schedule.
But....it's travel. What's the point of stressing when I'm doing something I loved.
Plus, how can you not find the Brazilians amusing - all of them got out of their cars, walked over to the truck, and walked back to their cars carrying a bag or two of sugar! Even the bus driver and some passengers each got a bag of their own. And by bag, I mean larger than Costco-sized bags!Only in Brazil!!!
(FYI - I didn't have a need for 20kg of sugar and had absolutely no desire to add the weight to my luggage either.)Minutes and minutes passed watching this scene unfold from both inside and outside the bus. More like hours and hours… but the Brazilian highway patrol (?) ended up actually being more efficient than I had imagined. I think they got the roads cleared in at most 3 hours. Not too bad, right?!

It was indeed dark by the time we reached Sao Paolo terminal. I could've taken the subway from there, but exhaustion and a sense of "wanting to play it safe" for now pushed me to the taxi counter. Great how the taxis here are all fixed-price. No need to worry about getting ripped off : )

After a quick bite to eat at the nearby cafe (juice + Brazil's famous cheese bread), I went to bed. I have to get up really early tomorrow morning to catch a flight.
Heading up to the northern coast, from where I plan to take the coastal route back south to Sao Paolo. Will definitely be back here.

WOW. I am officially in the last country for my RTW trip. Feels a bit weird.
But then again, I don't expect to be lucky enough to find work as soon as I get back to Japan...so maybe I'll travel some more from there.
I'm just calling Brazil my "last country" because my RTW ticket ends with a flight out of here. Doesn't mean it's the "last country" for Waru's travel.