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Well, here we are in the bus station of Foz, minus one of our team. It was not until we arrived in Posadas for our bus change that she realised she had left behind the only things that would let her leave the country… her national document and a letter of release to travel. The latter is required for travellers under the age of 21. So after some frantic phone calls and lots of lateral thinking, there was nothing left to do except send her home.

Some of the team are already feeling stressed. Our first bus was a luxury coach which became a sweet memory when we changed over for the second leg of our journey here. Our second bus was a very normal sort of travel bus with only one floor level and typically uncomfortable seats. When it started raining… and it hasn’t stopped yet either… water poured in through the windows and ran around over the floor. This, combined with constant stops and starts and all the rest of the movement that happens during bus travel, we are contentedly without sleep.

On arriving in Puerto Iguazu, we encountered a contingent of 7 people from YWAM Buenos Aires in the bus station. They travelled to Posadas by train and then hitch-hiked for a while before climbing aboard a cheap bus to get this far. They are all low on cash but hope that when they pool their money it will be enough for them to join us on the bus to Belo Horizonte.

Things did not go completely smoothly here either, as when we arrived at the bus station our planned bus was already booked out. The only other bus we knew about still had seats but the journey was going to be 38 hours instead of the 25hrs we had planned. This would have landed us at the conference quite late.

Instead, after a lot of scanning through the different vending windows of the various companies, I finally found another one that went to Belo Horizonte. It not only had available seats, but was also only a 25hr journey. So now we are waiting for the team from Buenos Aires and hoping that they will be able to both afford the journey and find enough seats on the bus to come with us.

Only a little time remains, so I need to run. So far so good however.

After a lot of anticipation and preparations, I was ready. Packed for two weeks with just a daypack sized bag. I could not reasonably use a larger bag as my plan was to hitch-hike my way up to Brazil. Larger bags tend to reduce my chances of getting a ride. Besides, I had everything I needed for the two weeks nicely packed into my little bag.

We were heading to Belo Horizonte, Brazil where there is an International Workshop for YWAM. Since I am currently part of this organisation it seemed like a great idea to head up there and get to know more about it. Meeting a bunch of people from all around the world and parts of Latin America will be a lot of fun too.

So there were four of us planning on doing this; travelling in pairs and meeting up in certain waypoints along the route. We were all prepared. Most of us did not have enough money for the bus fare, which was our motivation for going by this method. Those of us that did have money still preferred the choice, and wanted to travel with our friends. It sounded like adventure… and that is magic to a man’s heart.

But now we are not travelling this way any more…

Continue reading “Hitching To Brazil”