Busses

Brazil has two kinds of bus connections: the ônibus intermunicipal and the lotação . The lotação is for public transport within a municipality or small region. If you take the lotação you don’t pay to the driver but to the cashier who is generally located in front of the bus. A terminal for this local transport is simply called terminal , a smaller bus stop is called a parada .

A bus that connects several cities is called an ônibus intermunicipal . These busses are large touring cars. Travelling with ônibuses is easy, comfortable and inexpensive. These busses stop in larger bus stations called rodoviárias . On some routes, they pick up travellers from the side of the road but after a series of assaults it is not done in all regions.

Every bus company has a small office at the rodoviária. In order to travel by ônibus, you go to this office to buy a ticket. In general, you have to fill out a form which asks for the number of your identity card. Tourists use the number of their passport. On your ticket, you can see from which plataforma (platform) your bus departs. The time of departure is called horário. An employee of the bus company places the luggage in the bottom of the bus and will give you a small voucher for every piece of luggage that you leave. You cannot reclaim your luggage without this voucher so don’t lose it. You often have to show your passport when you enter the ônibus. The ônibus will stop at a number of road restaurants. The driver will shout ‘cinco minutos ’ (five minutes) or ‘dez minutos ’ (ten minutes) which refers to the amount of time you can use for buying a snack or visiting a bath room.

It is often possible to reserve a place in the ônibus by phone but this requires a good knowledge of Portuguese.