I'm at a point where I feel comfortable here, as I think I finally figured out the bus system, which busses to take in and most importantly how to get home at night. The big trick was knowing where to catch the bus at night. Though I did have a bit of an incident today, I quickly recovered. More about that later.I spent a bit of my morning cleaning up the blog, adding a few new features such as the Spanish word of the day and a google gadget that translates between various languages. This little tool has come in handy. I finally break free, and head for the bus about 10am. About the time I arrive at the busstop another bus heading north stops across the street, a gentleman with a clipboard gets off, walks across the street. Was this someone from immigration? Turns out he works for the bus company and just rides around throughout the day, making sure that drivers aren't pocketing the busfare.
We try to strike up a conversation, my spanish is as bad as his english. I bring out a notepad to try to draw things to explain that I am flying out of Puerto Vallarta on February 20th. One thing worse than my spanish is my ability to draw. Oh well...it's too late to learn! The picture to the
right is a visual testament to the severe artistic disfunction. also the bus ticket stub, stamped by the bus inspector.Last night Nina invited me to the Tuesday Market, a ten city block shopping extravaganza. It is mostly attended by locals in a very out of the way location and has every imaginable thing for sale. I, being a bargain hunter, was in shopper's paradise. The downside of this I could have filled up the back end of several trucks with great finds, but only had a backpack's worth of room. Probably a good thing.
Getting there was half the fun, as the directions I got the night before were a little cloudy. Turns out the place that I had the two margaritas, is known for STRONG drinks. So between a less than perfect recollection and a few key words on the back of a bar napkin, I had to find the RIGHT bus, going in the RIGHT direction, and the RIGHT busstop...oh and I had to ask in the RIGHT spanish. As you can well surmise...I was doomed!!! In my case, the inabilty to manifest four RIGHTS made one big WRONG!!! and hey how was I to know the G in Gigante is pronouced like an H. I do now!
So anyway I get on a bus that says Gigante, hand the bus driver my four pesos and I'm on my way. So I thought. We drive about fifteen blocks, the bus stops. Noone gets off. My first clue. The bus drive drives another five blocks, stops. Noone gets off. Again he drives about five blocks, stops, turns around and looks directly at me and points to the door. With no choice other than to get off, I oblige. Back to square one. Ok. But now at least I'm close to Cafe Etc and I know my good amigo, Juan, will help me out. I quess he sort of did, but I think he too had enough of me by the time I left. At least he didn't point to the door. Too late to make a long story short....but...just know that I took a taxi.
Unlike all the other taxi stories in my misadventures in mexico blog, this one actually has a
happy ending, as not only did I get a get to keep an arm and a leg, I got a Spanish lesson and delivered to the right place, on time! If you ever find yourself in SMA, give Mario a call at 415-115-8775. I quess another way to look at it you could get spanish lessons for ten bucks an hour and a tour of the city. I think by the time he dropped me off, his English might have been just a bit better as well. I know one thing, as soon as I get back I'm going to schedule some Spanish lessons with Julian Bond, a Colville resident, who was born in Mazatlan. Maybe I can trade some of my computer experience.
Sorry about bouncing around...back to the market. This open-air market is located on a major north-south highway heading to Mexico City, but it's hidden about four blocks off the highway, invisible to the passing cars...and as far as I could tell, there was no signage. Had Nina not invited me, I would have had no way of knowing about it. Rather than writing alot about it just read this link- Tuesday Market, If I ever find mysef for any prolonged time, this will be a weekly
tradition. Oops..I would have been negligent had I not mentioned Nina's Mexican friend from her church who runs a small Taco Stand in the market. It's a family run operation where dad works with both his son and daughter. Great people with very authentic smiles. I think the food could have been awful (it wasn't) and I would have loved every minute of my time at their taco stand. The had two kinds of tacos, one made of beans, the other potatoes. These were a different kind of taco than what I was used to at home. They were prepared in advance, made with corn tortillas filled with the beans or potatoes mixture, folded over and steamed, served with a cabbage slaw and a fiery salsa. Yumm!!!
Back to town I go to meet up with Mike and Magali at Cafe Etc for a quick coffee and we all go our separate ways in the afternoon, leaving me with more time to fill. I go to a small cafe for lunch, have a chile relleno, rice and beans. The beans were a bit salty, otherwise everything else was great. I decided to see what was happening at the library across the street, and run into Barbara, a lady that I'd met several days earlier at Cafe Etc.
Unlike all the other taxi stories in my misadventures in mexico blog, this one actually has a
happy ending, as not only did I get a get to keep an arm and a leg, I got a Spanish lesson and delivered to the right place, on time! If you ever find yourself in SMA, give Mario a call at 415-115-8775. I quess another way to look at it you could get spanish lessons for ten bucks an hour and a tour of the city. I think by the time he dropped me off, his English might have been just a bit better as well. I know one thing, as soon as I get back I'm going to schedule some Spanish lessons with Julian Bond, a Colville resident, who was born in Mazatlan. Maybe I can trade some of my computer experience.Sorry about bouncing around...back to the market. This open-air market is located on a major north-south highway heading to Mexico City, but it's hidden about four blocks off the highway, invisible to the passing cars...and as far as I could tell, there was no signage. Had Nina not invited me, I would have had no way of knowing about it. Rather than writing alot about it just read this link- Tuesday Market, If I ever find mysef for any prolonged time, this will be a weekly
tradition. Oops..I would have been negligent had I not mentioned Nina's Mexican friend from her church who runs a small Taco Stand in the market. It's a family run operation where dad works with both his son and daughter. Great people with very authentic smiles. I think the food could have been awful (it wasn't) and I would have loved every minute of my time at their taco stand. The had two kinds of tacos, one made of beans, the other potatoes. These were a different kind of taco than what I was used to at home. They were prepared in advance, made with corn tortillas filled with the beans or potatoes mixture, folded over and steamed, served with a cabbage slaw and a fiery salsa. Yumm!!!Back to town I go to meet up with Mike and Magali at Cafe Etc for a quick coffee and we all go our separate ways in the afternoon, leaving me with more time to fill. I go to a small cafe for lunch, have a chile relleno, rice and beans. The beans were a bit salty, otherwise everything else was great. I decided to see what was happening at the library across the street, and run into Barbara, a lady that I'd met several days earlier at Cafe Etc.
Barbara is from Victoria BC, but orginally born in Polland immigrating to Canada as a youngster. It turns out she's quite the world traveller, with a 32 foot sailboat moored in Greece. She spends a good portion of the year sailing around in the Mediterranian. I'm thinking I've mentioned her before as I didn't know spell the word "Mediterranian" and obviously don't still don't and now I'm too lazy to look it up. Earlier in the day I'd seen that the movie "Bucket List" was playing at brand new 8-plex Cinema by Gigante and heard from a few locals that it was a great movie (they didn't like the ending they said), so I invited Barbara. Turns out that since she'd been here, she hadn't got out of the downtown core and was looking for an opportunity to see something different, so must have been desparate when she agreed. We took a taxi to the theater, bought the tickets and a box of popcorn, and were seated just as the trailers begun.
A little about the movie "The Bucket List" starring two of my favorite actors - Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Two elderly gentleman - one from a simple background, the other, the wealthy owner of a Hospital, wind up sharing a room after surgery. The character played by Morgan Freeman, writes a list of things he would like to do before kicking the bucket. Basically the movie follows them as they fullfil this list. It was an enjoyable movie...check it out!!!
We take a bus back to the center of town, stop by a little sidewalk cafe in the town for a glass of red wine, flan (great combination) and conversation. It was great break from my usual routine. I walk her back to the hostel that she's been staying at and then the long walk to the big bus station. I'm not sure why there was a bus that left at 10:30, because there is a 10 and 11 bus, all I know was that I was home safe by 11...I feel like I'm settling in...this will be a very hard place to leave.
A little about the movie "The Bucket List" starring two of my favorite actors - Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Two elderly gentleman - one from a simple background, the other, the wealthy owner of a Hospital, wind up sharing a room after surgery. The character played by Morgan Freeman, writes a list of things he would like to do before kicking the bucket. Basically the movie follows them as they fullfil this list. It was an enjoyable movie...check it out!!!
We take a bus back to the center of town, stop by a little sidewalk cafe in the town for a glass of red wine, flan (great combination) and conversation. It was great break from my usual routine. I walk her back to the hostel that she's been staying at and then the long walk to the big bus station. I'm not sure why there was a bus that left at 10:30, because there is a 10 and 11 bus, all I know was that I was home safe by 11...I feel like I'm settling in...this will be a very hard place to leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment