Rodoviária: Adventure in Petrolina Part 1

Friday afternoon my friend Elzi and I packed our backpacks and took motorcycle taxi’s to the rodoviária, or bus stop. We were on our way to Petrolina to celebrate Sao Joao & see Paula Fernandes. Our bus was scheduled to leave at 2:30 but was running late so we spent the time chatting and taking pictures. It was frustrating because Petrolina is four or five hours away and we were scared we were going to be late to the show.
At 4:30 the bus finally showed up. We got on and were lucky enough to get seats in the front. The bus driver, just like everyone else here, knew I wasn’t from Brazil right away. He was pretty excited to have a girl from the US on board. He ended up talking to us the entire bus ride and telling me about all of the city’s we drove through. He even let me open the curtains on the large windows in front so that I could have a perfect view of everything.
One of the best and worse things about the bus here is that people are allowed to be as loud as they want. This time it was great because we had a man with a guitar on board. He played guitar and sang for a good hour before we got to his stop. I tried to take a photo for you, but the bus was shaking.
We arrived in Petrolina at 9′oclock and were greeted by my friend Belle. Belle is my sister in laws cousin. I met her and her parents, George & Ana when I was visiting Brazil last year. They were kind enough to take us to the concert and let us stay at their home while we were there. As soon as we got to their house, we took showers and got ready for the show. I’ll tell you all about it in my next post!

Photos above: Elzi, decoration for Sao Joao & the cafe at the bus stop.