Yesterday 13 was my lucky number

Even though I have not yet posted any pictures of the house I am living in, I will tell you that it is very beautiful. The only problem is that it is REALLY out in the middle of nowhere. There are no stores, no fruit or vegetable stands, no people (except for my neighbors). There are however an abundance of stray dogs that bark all night long, a burro that lives up the street and groans about every 5 seconds, and several roosters who like to compete with the barking dogs and the groaning burro.

Given my rural location, transportation to downtown and the university is somewhat difficult unless you own a car. Needless to say, I attempted public transportation yesterday. My mission: find a grocery store and buy a Mexican cell phone. It took me about 15 minutes to walk down the steep hills of my neighborhood to the bus stop. After waiting for about a half hour, in which time 2 buses passed me, I finally learned LESSON #1 of Mexican transportation: You have to flag down buses with your index finger as if your life depended on it.

I took the bus straight to the zócalo (or so I thought), but in actuality I arrived somewhere near the zócalo. Given that I had absolutely no idea where I was at, I started walking. The cool thing about Cuernavaca is that all of the main roads run downhill directly into the center. So, I began walking uphill towards where I had come from in search of a TelCel store. I walked for a good 2 hours uphill, and I have the blisters to prove it. I came across the local fair that is going on right now, which mainly consists of cheap amusement park rides and people selling little plastic trinkets. But…no TelCel store

I finally reached a place that I recognized…the Emiliano Zapata market. I decided to buy some delicious queso Oaxaca (which I will tell you about in a later entry) and fresh tortillas. I asked the women at the tortilla stand where I could find a TelCel store. The answer: Plaza de Cuernavaca. They told me that I had to take bus #13. They gave me a round about idea of where the bus stop is, so I headed off in that direction. Once I reached what I thought was the bus stop, I asked a woman standing nearby. This brings me to LESSON #2 of Mexican transportation: The bus stops aren’t marked. You just have to “know” where they are at. So this lady pointed me in a different direction, and then this other lady pointed me to another spot. So, after all of these directions, I finally got on bus #13…only to realize that I got on the bus going in the wrong direction. So, LESSON #3 is: Mexicans will never tell they don’t know where something is. They’ll point you in a direction, but it might be completely wrong. So, I asked the lady sitting next to me on the bus how I might get to Plaza Cuernavaca. She told me to get off with her and then she would show me what bus to take. Luckily, she knew what she was talking about and I got on the right bus the second time around. I asked the driver to show me where Plaza Cuernavaca was.

So, 13 turned out to be my lucky number because it took me by 2 grocery stores (now I know where to get food), and it took me to Plaza Cuernavaca, which happens to be a really cool shopping center that has a TelCel store in it.

I will tell you right now that I’m kind of afraid of cell phone stores in the U.S. There are always a million people there and you have to get a ticket and wait in line, and people are trying to sell you phones and plans and to me it’s an absolute mess. So, when I walked into TelCel and it was exactly the same way as the Verizon, I was somewhat nervous. But, to make a long story short, I survived and I succeeded in buying a Mexican cell phone. Juan the nice TelCel guy was extremely helpful and got me a phone and $100 pesos worth of minutes for around $27 US dollars.

Then I hit the Mega (a huge grocery store chain) for some much needed toiletries like toothpaste and shampoo. The best part was that bus 13 took me right back to the university just in time for class.