Sunday, 5 March 2006
John felt well enough to make the trek to Tonola with me this morning so we caught a TUR bus (9p each) at 8:30 AM. Sunday happened to be market day which meant that there were literally acres of shopping for everything under the sun - food, kitsch, plants, ceramics, leather, linens, glassware, etc. One stop shopping! We made a relatively quick pass through it all - including a stop for brunch - and were out of there by 11:30 AM when it was starting to get too crowded to walk the narrow passes between the stalls (which were set up two deep outside the sidewalks of the shops). I highly recommend scheduling your Guadalajara stay to encompass either of the two market days in Tonola (Thursdays and Sundays), and save all your souvenir/gift shopping for here. We could have easily spent all day just walking up and down the market and never seen everything.
Since our TUR bus back to the Centro made a stop at the main bus terminal (where we needed to catch our bus to Barra de Navidad), we decided to have John get off there to buy our tickets for the 2 PM bus and rest, while I continued on to our hotel to get our backpacks. It's a good thing I kept our hotel receipt (which I had repeatedly eyed, thinking I might throw it away) because when I went to check out, the manager thought I owed her for another night. After a few minutes of her checking our file, me trying to understand what she was saying and then trying to explain that we had paid for two nights in advance, I produced the receipt and she was profusely apologetic for her mistake. We parted on good terms, I quickly walked the four blocks to the bus stop carrying all our gear, and I arrived at the bus station half an hour before our departure time where John was waiting with our tickets.
We took the mountain route from Guadalajara to Barra rather than going to Manzanillo first and then transferring. Although I felt car sick a couple of times from the winding roads, this was a much more scenic route through agave, sugar cane, corn, and melon fields, and several kinds of groves we were unable to identify. It's a slower route so I don't think John would choose to do it again, but the only other departure times on Primera Plus were 9 AM and 7 PM. I'm sure there were others we could have found, but with John sick and me getting there so late we weren't in a position to schlep around shopping for another bus.
DEP Guadalajara 2:05 PM (Primera Plus, 234p each)
Stop at Autlan 5:15 PM
Stop at La Huerta 6:35 PM
Stop at Melaque 7:20 PM
ARR Barra de Navidad 7:30 PM
Panga to Nakia (25p total)
Home Sweet Home!