Thursday, June 2, 2011

Weird Bus Ride

Ok now .....

So as any Cuencano will tell you, red tape has been elevated to an art form here. It seems that anything official is (at the least) multi step. Most of these steps seem to be in different offices scattered around different edges of town. OK, we are used to this.

So now for the weird part:

I had to take care of some official business today. (Doesn't matter what.) One weird thing was that all four steps were in the SAME BUILDING! Weird. True, 4 different lines, but, all in the same building. But, not actually lines. You got to sit in seats and wait for your number to come up on the screen. (Repeat ..... sit in seats. Inside. No outside lines.) OK, that is kind of a lie. The first line was standing outside. But it wasn't raining and was in the shade, and was less than 15 minutes.

So , yeah, it is true that was almost 3 hours waiting for my number to come up those different times. But it was all in one building. Seated .... not standing. And it all worked out. Well, except for the part where I have to go back tomorrow. (Step 5)

NOW ..... for the weird bus ride:
Because it was all in one place, I only had to take one bus to this particular edge of nowhere. But the odd thing about the bus ride itself ...... actually odd things:
- the bus driver was not a race car driver at heart.
- the bus driver did not do jackrabbit starts with people still walking down the aisle
- the bus driver never slammed on his brakes
- the bus driver kept all 4 wheels (actually 6 wheels) on the ground in all the turns
- the bus driver smiled
- the bus driver made change
- the bus driver did not cut off any other drivers
- the bus driver drove safely
- the bus driver was probably medicated
- the bus driver will probably lose his job

The other day I was in a bus where the driver took a corner so fast that the tilt of the bus set off alarms. Nope, not making that up.

Life is sweet,
Clarke

2 comments:

  1. Was this to get a Bus Touch-n-Go Card? If so, where was it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, it wasn't. I get my bus pass at a camera store in San Blas plaza. I don't know where to get them for the 65 and over reduced price. Maybe the same place?

    ReplyDelete