Two Perspectives

Here are two different perspectives on the issue of leaving Guaymas / San Carlos on the TBC Bus line.

Panic.
The anonymous traveler.
(Would not be caught dead on TBC)

All kidding aside, the TBC Bus for Tucson arrived in Guaymas more or less on time and had a quick turn around. As this is written the Dynamic Duo are headed North and we are hoping for a report of clear passage through the various checkpoints.

Part deux - TBC Bus to Guaymas

There is absolutely no doubt that the people we have met in San Carlos prefer to take the Tufesa bus line when not using their own car from Tucson. When Gary took a poll at Saturdays baseball game no one had even heard of the TBC line. Tufesa, on the other hand, has a gleaming termnal right on the main street of Serdan in Guaymas, clean restrooms (by local standards) and a neat littel food kiosk and everybody knows where it is, everybody. They also have a web site that lets you select your seat assingment.

Gary and Char took TBC, and since they do not have a web site at all, nada, we drove into Guaymas today, dictionary in hand, to make sure that they could get a seat assignment for the return voyage Norte. I took this as an opportunity to take a few photographs for future travelers wanting to do a little comparison shopping.

You should be able to click on any of these photos to see it enlarged, providing good detail.

Nearing sucess on the seat assignment.

A quiet place to talk to your dead relatives before boarding, just in case you think that you may be seeing them sooner rather than later.

The street scene. Notice a lack of directional signage and tourists. This is a one way street several blocks south of the main street of Serdan, on Calle 14. Also take note that there is not a street light anywhere, so locating The TBC terminal at night is more than a little difficult - some would call it impossible.


A fine new plastic sign with concrete nails. There is a cut out in the center for the future installation of a light.

A wonderful eating establishment. Notice the rusty rebar protruding above the happy couple and the close proximity to a handy shrine in case the gastronomical delights prove to be too much for the unsuspecting tourista.

This is a recommended conversation for the corner shrine:

Comi aigo en su pais. (I ate something in your country)

Por favor llame a un cura (Please call a priest)

Me gustaria hacer un recibir extremauncion. (I would like to receive last rights)

Por favor, manden mi cadaver a casa en el proximo vuelo. (Please send my body home on the next flight)

TBC Bus to Guaymas

This is a photograph of something not even close to the TBC Bus terminal in Guaymas.

When Gary & Char booked their bus trip from Tucson to Guaymas we just assumed that they were taking the Tufesa bus line and it did not occur to them to verify with us which bus line they would be on, just the arrival time. So while Julie and I sat at the Tufesa station patiently watching buses come and go, and the sun set, and dark thirty come and go, Gary & Char had long been in Guaymas on a little side street trying to get the cell phone to work, and trying very hard to reach us. Some time during the evening it occurred to me that they may not have taken Tufesa. There are at least five bus lines passing through Guaymas.

Shortly after that thought passed through the cranium my cell phone rang, and sure enough they were on TBC Bus Lines and somewhere near downtown on Calle 14 and an unmarked cross street. As Julie and I spent the next 30 or 40 minutes driving around Guaymas in the dark, stopping periodically to ask non-bilingual citizens for help, and occasionally talking to Gary about any visible landmarks, it simultaneously occurred to us that they could take a cab to the Ley market where we would be certain to find them, which we promptly did.

Fortunately, Julie had earlier in the day decided that all visitors to San Carlos deserve to be greeted with a shot,or two, of tequila so that is exactly what she did in the Ley parking lot much to the relief of Gary & Char. Of course this was later followed by more tequila and dinner at the marina in S.C.

We have since returned to Guaymas to get the appropriate Visas and of course we took a side trip to locate the TBC bus terminal. We would have eventually found it in the dark that other night, I think, only because our friends would have been standing outside looking desperate, but it is no architectural focal point or point of pride for the citizenry. In fact I can say with certainty that it does not in the slightest resemble anything that I would call a "terminal" for any mode of transportation. I believe that any self respecting donkey cart driver would not park within several blocks of that building lest they become associated with structural decay and cheap, peeling paint.

Good design and aesthetics are not everything, although pleasant when encountered, and the bus system is extensive, timely and functional in Mexico, even if not easily locatable for Norte Americanos. So we now know where to find yet another terminal in Guaymas and I will take a photograph of it later when we drop Gary & Char off for the trip north.

Hair Wizard & Return Itinerary Linked

Saint John, left.

The date that we leave San Carlos is almost entirely dependent upon when Julie was able to book an appointment to rescue her hair in Phoenix with her trusted long time guru and personal savior Saint John, aka John Pace of Gulick Brothers. I think Julie first saw him in about 1986.
You may have noticed in this blog the lack of close photographs of Julie. Shortly after we arrived here she went to a local hair dresser and got a perm, or the perm got her. Julie has taken to calling it Palapa Hair since it looks sort of like one after a hurricane. She will not let me take pictures of it. Whatever chemicals were used on her head were not friendly to her hair. No bueno.
So, we looked at the date of her appointment with Saint John, backed up from that to “X” days with Mom in Tucson,added into the equation only going through Los Angeles on a weekend to limit our exposure to the chances of a four hour traffic block and “Poof!” we have the hair date and the departure date from San Carlos. Now one drawback with this methodology is that we end up one night in Blythe. I have never stayed over night in Blythe for good reason – there is nothing of interest there except bathrooms, gasoline and maybe some fast food. I suppose if you had a keen interest in cotton or citrus fruit it would be a destination. I like to wear cotton clothes and drink OJ, but have never taken it to the next level.

Ramblings

Yesterday while Julie was kayaking the bay, I spent some time around town with the camera. This was taken from my perch on the west side of the anchorage looking toward Marina Terra while looking for signs of Julie's return. (She was late and I worry)

The most photographed rock in all of Sonora, from in front of Tony's.

Juan Jose.

An animated JJ.

If you look closely at the bottom left of the photo you will see new concrete, yes c o n c r e t e , on the ground. After the second floor palapa bar deal did not work out JJ has decided to spend a few pesos to upgrade his outdoor establishment. He is also thinking that it will not be long before he has a license to sell cerveza. Yes, I know that discussion has happened before, more than once, but it could happen.

I asked JJ where I could get one of those "Arriba ! Guaymas" stickers for my truck, even though I would prefer an "Arriba ! San Carlos" sticker and the light bulb went full on. Nobody makes one for San Carlos. He said, "Who gives a f__k about Guaymas when you live in San Carlos?" I am expecting to see one of these stickers before we depart. JJ is no slouch when it comes to making money, although a sticker might arrive with some additional graphic not suitable for viewing by children.

El Niño

The weather pattern that has developed this winter, where cold fronts are aiming for Southern California, is reportedly due to an El Niño pattern that has set itself up in the Pacific Ocean. The tail end of these cold fronts have been dragging through San Carlos, and even further South, with moderate rains and a little bit of wind at times. No complaints from me, because it is still very comfortable, but it causes a few delays in our outdoor activities and the locals talk about it a lot. We had a whole inch of rain the other night and last week there was even a bit o’ hail. It totally freaked people out that this could happen here.

One of the little stories that is so Mexico came when a road grader bladed our little neighborhood streets about a week ago. I asked the fellow across the street from us if this happened often, or was it perhaps due to the erosion ruts from tropical storm Jimena being just too much for the new San Carlos Commisario and he decided to spend a few pesos. He said that in the ten years he has lived here he had never, ever seen a road grader work on the streets in the Caracol Turistico sector – never. A few more days later a dump truck started delivering little piles of fill material at strategic points along our streets and, having spent most of my career in the rock and sand business, I commented to Julie that there was far too much silt in the piles to make it useful for road fill. I also shared my belief that it was intended to fill ruts and that when it rained we would see a muddy mess. Guess what? I almost had to use four wheel drive to get up our street yesterday. The Suburban has thick, gooey mud thrown unevenly around its wheel wells, and the streets look like something out of the film “Patton” when the Third Army was moving equipment in the deep mud of the winter roads to get to Bastogne quickly.

Of course today is sunny and 70-something degrees and Julie is out kayaking the bay with a new Canadian friend while I dink away at the keyboard. What am I doing? Hasta luego.