“Madrugada” is one of these Portuguese words I lov9e. It’s the period of time between midnight and sunrise, and it just sounds poetic. Plus, it’s easy to pronounce.
Well, let me tell you that “madrugada” is best appreciated when you’re tucked in bed, dreaming—it’s not that great of a concept when you’re heading bleary-eyed to the bus station after a sleepless night.
Fortaleza is a pretty isolated city. Not as in middle-of-the-Amazonas isolated, but still, the nearest big cities are São Luís, almost 900 kilometres north, and Natal, 530 kilometres south.
I’m going south, so Natal it was. “No need to fly,” I told myself when I was sketching out the trip from the comfort of my bedroom in Ottawa. “I’ll take the bus.”
I even bought my ticket a month ahead because my only option was the 6:30 a.m. bus. Leaving at 9 a.m. wouldn’t make a huge difference and I’d arrive in Natal around 7 p.m., which is pretty late. As for the 8 p.m. arriving at 4:45 a.m., thanks but no thanks.
The nine-hour bus trip remained a somewhat distant event for a few weeks. I mean, we still had the trip to Mexico, then I had to get to Brazil, spend a few days getting rid of my Spanish accent in São Paulo, the flight to Fortaleza, basically plenty of steps and cities I had to worry about first.
But obviously, at one point, I ended up in Fortaleza.
Feng and I both checked—no last-minute cheap flight to Natal.
The long bus ride was suddenly very real, and so was the early departure.
“I have to leave at 5:30 a.m.,” I told Feng. “No point in sleeping. There’s no way I can go to bed by midnight and feel rested enough—I have to eat, pack, work… I’ll sleep on the bus.”
Feng, Mark and I are night owls by nature. Part of it is probably the way I’m wired, but a weird, flexible schedule also comes with freelancing. I handle last-minute assignments, the “I need it by tomorrow morning” kind. Staying up until 5:30 a.m. didn’t feel like a big deal to me.
Except that there’s a big difference between working late before passing out in bed and actually starting an adventure at 5:30 a.m. and trying to be awake enough to function.
Staying up all night is much, much cooler when you’re a teen.
I worked most of the night, may as well be productive. I left the lights on. I had a late-night cup of coffee. I ate dinner in the middle of the night. I avoided the bedroom, I stayed on the couch. Eventually, at 5:00 a.m., I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and grabbed my backpack as if I was facing a new day after a normal good night’s sleep.
It gave me a flashback of the first few months with baby Mark, ten years ago, when I would just drift off to sleep and then suddenly, the most stressful sound in the world meant it was time to pretend I was wide awake to soothe, feed, and change him, no sleep for you, ah, ah.
“On the road again,” I muttered to myself.
The taxi was waiting for me downstairs, a small victory because I was worried it would be hard to find a ride to the station at 5:30 a.m.
It was already hot and the sun was rising, another day starting. I tried to pretend I was ready for it—hint, I wasn’t.
“Are you at the bus station?” my Brazilian friend texted.
“Go to sleep, it’s like 6 a.m.!” I texted back. “Aguardando minha cama.”
“But I’m worried…”
We joked around. He kept me awake during the boarding process.
“The bus driver is apparently discovering how to check tickets no celular” I reported as the driver was struggling with QR codes.
Twenty minutes later, I texted a picture of me finally on the bus.
“Now I can RIP,” he texted. “Let’s see how far you’ll be after my sleep.”
The bus was packed. This is probably the only thing I miss from the last two years of pandemic travel, most of the time I had two seats to myself. Except for that, Brazilian buses are super comfortable, so I fell asleep as we were leaving Fortaleza and only woke up for good when we did the classic middle-of-nowhere lunch break.
Roads are pretty bumpy in the states of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, I can tell you that much. It’s a land of sand dunes, heavy clouds, and small towns.
I finally arrived in Natal around 4 p.m.
Another adventure is starting!
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I feel you, it must have been painful! I’m the kind of people who change in a very grumpy self when they don’t get enough sleep
Usually, I’m completely useless in the morning. But I was motivated for this one 😉
The bus looks modern and clean. Is there a restroom on the bus as well? It’s been ages since I rode a tour bus, back in the day I think it was Greyhound to New York City. I rode a kind of cramped but clean one in Hokkaido, Japan. I’m not a morning person either – in fact as I read this I arrived home East Coast from a 13 hour flight with 2 hops from Oregon. Safe travels to you … always.
Yes, restroom on board, and a very comfortable bus too. I took the Greyhound a lot in Australia and across the US, straight from Ottawa to Mexico… not the nicest buses but it gets the job done. Sadly, Greyhound no longer offers service in Canada…
9 hours for 530 km, that’s not very fast. Probably due to the roads being less than optimally maintained.
Note that it’s the same kind of average speed we reach between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. I’m going there, and I’ve checked, the sun rises at this time of the year (at 11:00 to set just after 15:00), so no polar night.
It wasn’t a straight drive, we stopped somewhere in between and it looks like it was a bit of a detour. Plus yeah, traffic and bumpy roads.
Report from the cold!
Yeah ! No internet connexion for me north of the Hilltop truck stop, around 20 km north of Fairbanks. So, I’m back in the civilized world, still snowy and icy, though.
Ah, you’d think there would be a connection close to Fairbanks!
Welcome back to civilization. I mean, 24/7 online news.
There is network in Fairbanks, and I have cell network in Prudhoe Bay, Coldfoot and Galbraith, but despite their claims, there is no Verizon network, the one I use for internet, once north of Hilltop truckstop.
Wait, now that I think of it… you have a US and a Canadian plan or just a US plan?
I have a Canadian cell phone plan, a separate Canadian Internet 4G plan and a US Internet 4G plan. For now, I use my Canadian cell phone in the US too, but I’m looking to get a US cell phone plan soon (i had one until 1 year ago, but it stopped working due to infrastructure upgrades and I couldn’t get a phone upgrade).
I have a French sim card, a Canadian one and a Brazilian one. No plans, just pay as you go. I was almost toying with the idea to roam in Canada with my French lycamobile, it may be cheaper…
Zhu, you know what’s weird, I never take long-haul bus in Indonesia -___- plane or train worked better for me.
Only in malaysia between Tourist cities.
Now that Long haul buses especially in Java island (where Jakarta is) now much better, I think I’d give it a try for 500-600km away
I kind of like bus trips. I get to… do nothing. I’m not in charge, I can just sit back and relax 🙂
To add to that, at least if you have some kind of anxiety attack you can encourage the driver to let you off; where as a plane you’re stuck for the long haul. The latest trip from Oregon to Minnesota was hot and air wasn’t blowing from the vents, odd for winter. I felt a bit suffocated and uncomfortable on a crowed 3 seated row. Hope they fix the air vent option.
I’m getting more and more claustrophobic over the years. I try to avoid thinking about it when I’m flying because, well, flying isn’t always optional. I’m not scared of flying, it’s just the though of being stuck in a giant metal box that makes me feel uneasy.
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Oh I love the word. Actually, one of my favorite expression in french is “Entre chien et loup”. I love how poetic and mysterious it is… And in english, I simply love the expression “From dusk till dawn”. It appears that day and night expressions are my kind of jam! 😀
Same, I like both of these expressions 🙂