Transportation Adventures...

Ok, so some adventures I have had using the public transit system here in Guad!

1. About a week after I arrived, Jay and Faith came to Guad to do some shopping. They called me up and we were able to put together a time and a place to meet up to go have dinner and see each other since we hadn’t seen each other since June! However, I had only been in the city a week and had no clue where anything was, so I had to take a taxi to meet them—a little expensive, but worth it! The catch was that I met them at Wal-Mart in a large plaza area of the city—no biggie, everyone knows where that is. However, then I had to take a taxi home to my little residential street. The taxi driver new the area of town, but didn’t know where my street was and he wouldn’t listen to my directions once we arrived. So instead of turning left onto my street at the intersection, he did a U-turn and headed back the way we came. Then he turned onto an ally and asked a girl how to get to my street. She told him something completely wrong because here if you ask for directions and the person doesn’t know, they won’t tell you they don’t know; they’ll just tell you something and you’ll end up more lost. Well, he kept going and turned onto another alley that thankfully dumped us out on my street almost across from our condo complex, and I was able to point to where he needed to drop me off….but oh! The stress I felt when I thought he had gotten us lost AT NIGHT in a city I didn’t know simply because he didn’t believe me when I told him to turn left!!!

2. Heading to Cofradia, I had to take a bus. No big deal! You can get direct busses to Penas which is only about 20 minutes from Cofradia! Well, after classes, Lisa, the director, took me and another girls to the bust station, but instead of leaving us in the bigger station, she dropped us in a smaller one next door—none of us realized there was another one. Anyway, this smaller one had about three bus lines that it serviced, and they all went to Tepic. The woman at the counter told me I could buy my ticket to Penas when I got to Tepic, but did not tell me that I couldn’t get it on that bus line. I just thought I had to catch another bus from the same line to get there. No No NO…this bus line has it’s own bust station in Tepic..very small, and does not go to Penas. SO..I had to take a taxi to the central bus station and buy a ticket to Penas there. So, I got to Central Bus station and lugged my two suitcases and my computer bag (one suitcase was going to stay in Cofradia) to the TAP counter to buy a ticket..they definitely go to Penas. But they didn’t have a bus leaving for another hour…they directed me to Pacifica, a couple counters down…more lugging of heavy suitcases, and Pacifica tells me their bus doesn’t leave for another hour. But they also inform me that Sonora del Norte has a bus leaving in ten minutes….so I lug my heavy suitcases all the way to the OTHER SIDE of the terminal to buy my ticket and finally was on a bus to Penas. Faith was supposed to meet me to take me to Cofradia, however the base truck dropped a shock earlier that day, so she couldn’t come for me, which meant I had to take a taxi. However, no Cofradia taxis were there, so I had to pay 100 pesos to get to Cofradia instead of 60 pesos! But I finally arrived, and all in one peace! Getting home was much easier. Taxi to Penas (20 pesos!) and then a direct bus all the way to Guad! And Romel picked me up! Yea!

3. Today I went to pick up Mili to hand out. She’s been here a few days now and today was a free day (no classes), so we made plans to hang out. But she doesn’t know my area of town (called El Batan), though it is very close to hers, so I went for her instead. Angeles went with me first to the bank and then the post office to pick up a package from my fam, and then I took a taxi to Tabachines, where Mili’s family lives, and met her at the Civil Registration building. Then we were to take bus R-641 back to my area of town, only several km away! The first one we took was SO FULL that when we tried to get on, we couldn't get pass the stairs! And the crazy bus driver started to drive off with us on the stairs and the doors open!!!!! So, we precariously jumped off that bus pretty quickly, and decided to wait for another. However, there are several routes for the 641, and we didn’t pay attention to which one we got on, so we ended up heading back to where Mili lives instead of where I live. But that’s ok, we finally got off and got back on a 641 bus that was headed to El Batan, all was well until I realized (as we were about to get off the bus at my street) that I couldn’t find my keys! The condo complex is gated, so I had to have a key to get in, plus I LOST MY KEYS, and had no idea where. Since I had waited a while for Mili to meet me, we thought maybe I had set them down at the Civil Registration building..so we decided to GO BACK to Tabachines to look for them—but no luck..they weren’t there! So, then we returned once again to El Batan, where I called Angeles and she opened the gate for us. Then when it was time for Mili to head back home for the night, we waited for like half and hour for a 641 bus to pass…that is not normal because that bus has a lot of units on each route…we finally got on one, and about 2 stops later, it picked up everyone and their mother getting off from work or coming home from school…when we got to our stop in Tabachines, we almost couldn’t get off because the bus was so packed! But we did finally push our way through and disembarked from the bus. I took another bus home and Mili took her bus to her house and all ended well, but oh the afternoon we had!!!

Yea for public transportation!!