We're Back In Guaymas
We started out our little trip on Sunday evening. We were getting our stuff together when Ciro came up and told us to just knock on his door when we were ready and he would drive us to the bus depot. Wasn't that nice. The bus was supposed to leave at 9 PM, so shortly after 8 we knocked on Ciros door and he drove us to the bus depot. He asked if he should come in with us; but we figured that we could manage as we have before at various stations. The clerk couldn't get her computer to run, so we stood at the counter for quite awhile before getting our tickets. We took a TAP bus and the fare was $311.00 pesos each (about $31.10), the regular price was 400 or so; but there is a discount fare on right now. Not bad to travel 800 kms. (about 500 miles). Ciro must have thought we were having problems as we were at the counter for so long, and he came in just as I was asking if we would have to change buses. Ciro listened while the lady told us that we wouldn't have to and then said his goodbyes. I guess he figured that we were fine. We really appreciated not having to lug our bags on the city bus to get to the station.9PM rolled around and no bus, we waited until almost 10:30 PM before it came. Everyone was hanging around outside as it was a nice warm evening. A bus from the same company went whizzing by and everyone just stood and watched it. We all looked at each other and laughed and shook our heads. Sometimes there are alot of checkpoints going north so we are assuming that is why he was late. It finally arrived and we boarded and got settled. Once we got aboard we realised that we had lucked out and unknowingly gotten a better class of bus than we expected (there are about 3 classes). We thought we paid for a regular bus and ended up with an "elite", there is also a "primera" class. There was a really nice leg/foot rest and lots of room. The trip was uneventful and we dozed off and on all night, arriving at San Luis just before 8 AM. We asked some people where the border was and luckily for us it was only about 5 blocks away. We walked over and crossed in a couple of minutes. We found a McDonalds to have breakfast at and phoned Roys sister. They arrived and we headed to Yuma.
We spent Monday visiting, we were tired and didn't really feel like doing too much. In the evening we went to a campground where some people from the same area as Roy is from in Alberta, were putting on an impromptu music show. We sat outside, watched the sunset, listened to the music and visited. A very nice evening.
Sunset in Yuma.
On Tuesday we did a bit of shopping. The bookstore didn't have the spanish books that I had written down; but I did find a couple of other ones which look pretty good. We then took a drive around Yuma. We saw many RV campgrounds and places where they just boondock. I knew that alot of snowbirds end up there for the winter; but had no idea that there were that many. We drove around old town Yuma and out to the dam, stopping and visiting with some people camping close to it. We were told that pre 911 there was a picnic area near the dam that has now been closed for security reasons. We also saw many of the vegetable fields with people working hard harvesting, not a job for me! We returned home and had a wonderful seafood dinner.
Views at an area fairly close to the dam.
Wednesday afternoon all of Roys family that overwinters in Yuma got together for a potluck meal. There were about 15 of us there and it was a great afternoon/evening of good food and better visiting. I am not sure that there is anyone left in Alberta in the winter after driving around Yuma, never mind all the other destinations for snowbirds.
We had decided to leave Thursday morning, so we headed out to San Luis just before 9 AM. When we had arrived we had checked the bus schedule and had been told that the earliest bus left for Guaymas at noon. We wanted to look at a couple of things before leaving so thought our timing would be fine. We parked and all 4 of us walked across the border. After a block or so we said our goodbyes and went our own way. We stopped at a shop and I got what I was looking for and we headed for the bus depot. We thought that we would buy our tickets and then go and eat somewhere. When we got to the bus depot one fellow told us that there was a bus leaving in about 20 minutes so we bought tickets on it. This was a Pacifaco bus and this time we got the "economico" class, our tickets were $271.50 pesos each (about $27.15). This time we didn't have the nice leg rest and the seats were abit smaller; but it was still comfortable and of course the movies still ran non-stop. After an uneventful trip we arrived in Guaymas about 8:30 PM. We walked over to a restaurant to eat and then caught a taxi home. It was a great visit; but it is good to be home also.
While we were away we got an email from a lady on the south Baja, so there is a possibility that we could be spending 2 months there in the spring, housesitting for them.
