São João is a big holiday here in the northeast. The basic deal is that everyone tries to leave the city and drive to some tiny town in the interior, find someone's floor to sleep on, and goes to the public square to dance to Forró all night. It's one of my favorite holidays here, maybe because it's so focused on being in the country and just dancing - reminds me of home and going contra dancing. The holiday falls on the 24th of every June, but the major party is on the 23rd. This year the 24th is a Tuesday, meaning it was a 4 day weekend for anyone going out of town, and the public responded quickly.
This is a lame picture of my television of a live shot of BR324 in the BrasilGas sector, near Pirajá. This traffic jam went for over 80 KM, traffic stopped or moving slowly, everyone trying to get the heck away from the city. Having only 2 major highways to get you out, not at all surprising result.
See the number of people clustered at the non-bus station stop? And at the moment a good friend of mine visiting is out of town (Chapada) and will try to return on the afternoon of the 24th to catch an extremely early plane on the morning of the 25th - I hope she actually gets here in time....
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I got stuck in a jam on the way back of the 25th....a good 4 hour tag on to Salvador via Feira S. Then there was about 100 people trying to catch cabs at the bus station. Ahh, what a way to return to Babylon.
Happy to hear that Sheila made her flight.
Hi Ali, found your blog on Kari's page. It is really nice. I'm having a wonderful time reading it, plus the pictures are soooo beautiful it's been a great way to matar minha saudade of Salvador. Can't wait for your next post.Tudo de bom,
Cris
80km? A walk in the park for paulistas. Not sure if they have rodizio like SP where only certain license plates can drive on certain days.
Nope, there isn't that much of a need yet, apparently. Some people with cars here still use buses and carpools to get around. Whenever there is a bus strike, the traffic is ridiculous because of all the cars on the road.
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