January 2010

Estrella Blanca and Futuro bus lines have apparently merged since last year, so the old "White Star " buses have been replaced. However, there was another Jim Carey movie playing on the ride north - what's the odds on that?

Whooppee - this is going to be another one of those 15 hour bus journeys. At least the overnight leg is done, all I need to do is catch a bus to Taxco. The last 2 times that I took this bus they were showing the same dubbed Jim Carey movie at full volume on blown speakers, but the scenery is spectacular, so who cares? I did get a nice meal yesterday, under a tree in an outdoor garden, but then all of my meals have been great, from the most humble to sort of fancy.

Done at least! Yesterday was a warm, beautiful day, and I had a bad case of wanting to play hookey by finding a quiet outdoor restaurant and sipping beers and eating greasy carnitas, but I still had a wish list of things that I wanted to buy, so it was work instead. That's OK, yesterday I thought of how much I love what I do. I saw my Tzotzil friends, I buy from them every year.

The bus ride between Guadalajara and Tepic was bad. It had an overwhelming stench of bleach, mothballs, a little hint of dirty diaper and then some nasty cleaning solution as a high note. I thought after a few hours my brain would just block out the smell, but no such luck. I think that it got to the other passengers too, because no one was buying when the taco vendors boarded the bus.

My hotel in town is a Lonely Planet pick, and I couldn't be happier with it. It's a slight bump up from my usuals, and the price reflects that, but it's great value for the money. I picked it for location, being close to Beto's, but no doubt that it's a clean, pretty, and comfortable hotel, built in an old house, with beautiful interior gardens, cool tile floors, and rustic colonial furniture - all that you could hope for.

This trip started off with a classic "circus jump". For the uninitiated, that's where, after operating all day, the carnival or circus breaks down, packs up, and hits the road that night for the next stop. In my case, the circus jump was working all day Sunday (and sneaking in a quick cross country ski for both dog's and human's fun quota), then packing, catching the 1:50 a.m. Mexicana Red Eye to Mexico City, hopping on a bus to Oaxaca, then 7 hours later catching a ride out to Teotitlan.