Taking the bus....

We hadn't exactly thought through our return trip.  Since we had come on a city bus (or close enough), we just assumed we would take one back the same way.  When we went to Taxco, there were three departure times from Cuernavaca and three departure times from Taxco.  We were well aware of the time and made it back to the station at our goal time.  Here, in Mexican fashion, we showed up (not knowing really where we were or how to get where we were going), hiked what we came to hike, ate where we saw a restaurant, and figured out how to leave when it was time to!

My thoughts were to pick up the bus where it had left us off.  That makes sense, right?

Apparently not.  We stopped at Tepoznieves, the local (yet chain-seeming) ice cream spot and soothed our need for something sweet before standing in the street near the place we had been dropped off.  (It was at this point that I realized my geographical mistake earlier in the day.)

After we'd been waiting about 5 minutes, I decided to try the old traffic cop trick again.  There was a traffic lady, well, I'm not sure what she was doing since there was one main road in this town.  Anyway, I asked her if we could grab the bus to Cuernavaca from here and she said not until much later in the night.  Well, that did not suit, so we asked what to do.

The bus station was up the road on the right.

About that time, a bus pulled up to where we were, a big bus.  It said Cuernavaca, so I asked if we could ride with them.  He said no, but to get on.  Interesting.  I had another one of those movie scenes flash through my mind as I accepted his offer.  I asked how much and he said nothing.

Getting weirder.

We pull into the bus station that would've been too far to walk, so I was thankful for this man's kindness, and again embarrassed that my mind had been that cautious (but I know, better to err on that side- I know).

We bought our tickets and waited for about 5 minutes.  If memory serves, there was no air on this bus either, but it was a bigger one.  And it seems the road was maybe a different route because there were so many more speed bumps.  It was a nauseating ride.  Like so nauseating that we both were turning green.  Now that I say that, there was a flight- I think I was alone- that caused me to hold my barf bag.  Wonder when that was....

We were so thankful for our arrival.  However, the bus didn't let us off in the same place we had grabbed the bus that morning (duh because it was a different bus), but it also didn't drop us at the bus station.  Finally, we just got off when other people did and grabbed a taxi to the house.  It took forever.  On Wednesday, after we got back from Taxco, we had taken a minibus to the house.  (I must insert here that our bus driver, though Mexican based on his accent, was the spitting image of Vanilla Ice.  And his music choice- loud and American- and his laid back seat only added to that image!)  Reed had left instructions for routes and numbers that would take us back to her place from several locations.  The apartment complex was really easy to find once you got on the right road.  However, when you have no idea where you are, and no instructions from Reed, you can't be sure the minibus you take is going in the right direction to get you there sometime today.  So we opted for the taxi on Thursday.

Mind you, we haven't showered since Tuesday morning before the Turibus, bus to Cuernavaca, day in Taxco, and hike up to a pyramid.  We must've been foul.  Poor taxi driver.  Lucky me.  Although I occasionally wish I had a good sense of smell to be able to relate smells to memories, most often I am supremely grateful to not have to deal with the more prevalent foul-smelling things.  In this case, me.