Trancoso - March 29th

This day started out quite early, because not only did they replace the driver halfway in our journey at about 01:30, they also decided to clean the bus while we were still sleeping on it.  Or trying to sleep.  To be honest with the turns and comings and goings, I wasn’t getting that much sleep anyway.  The journey continued to be twisty all the way to Euanopolis which was our departure point from the overnight bus.  Here we would catch the 12:00 bus to Trancoso, our final destination.

This almost didn’t happen because the bus decided to pull in for another clean 5 minutes away from Euanopolis bus station, and so instead of getting there at 11:30 we got there at 11:56, but we did make our connection.  This bus journey was over 2 ½ hours long, and might have been enjoyable if we weren’t so tired from the stress of the overnight bus journey.  They just aren’t as good as the ones in Argentina.

The bus dropped us off in the centre of Trancoso, but this was about 600m away from the main square where we were staying.  It was a long walk in the heat and with our tiredness, but the tiredness at least disappeared once we saw our hostel and its location.  The main square of Transcoso, called the quadranho, is a very large car free area around which are scattered hostels, restaurants and a number of expensive shops.  A white church is at one end, and behind it is a view overlooking the beach.  It is quite simply a lovely location, and even the horses eating the grass (and shitting everywhere) don’t detract from it, they add to its charm.

After dumping our bags, and having a cold drink, we head off to the beach to have a quick dip and sit on the sand.  But as we are now quite close to the equator, and quite eastward in Brazilian terms, it gets dark quite early so we have to get off the beach at about 17:00.  To be honest, lovely and all as this town is, I still wouldn’t fancy being on the beach after dark.  In the evening we eat at a per kilo restaurant right beside our hotel so it is only a very short walk back after we have stuffed ourselves, for an early night to recover from the bus journey.