La Cruz is small and charming in the way that La Paz was except La Cruz is a much smaller town. La Cruz has a small fruteria (fruit and vegetables) stand and a small merdado (market). There’s literally one cash machine (cajero automatico) for the entire town. The machine spent a couple days having broken internet and another couple days being out of cajero (cash). Cant be out of cash in a cash only (solo efectivo) town. Despite some inconveniences, the live music and Sunday markets here are incredible!
We decided one morning to take the chicken bus from La Cruz to Puerto Vallarta. We wanted to visit Puerto Vallarta and we were also interested in stopping at Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta which is on the way. Paradise Village is where we are storing our boat this summer during hurricane season. We looked up ways to get from La Cruz to Paradise Village and found there was regular bus service (well not really “regular” but a chicken bus). We had no idea where the bus stop was but off we went. Keep in mind there is no bus schedule or bus stops. You just wave the driver down. Crazy!
The Chicken Bus has gotten it’s name throughout Mexico and Central America because chickens being taken to market rode on the bus too. We didn’t see any chickens on our bus but we did have Riley on our lap. We got on a bus heading to Puerto Vallarta. The bus is an old rickety school bus with it’s destinations written on the front window with a marking pen. These buses don’t look like they are ever washed and some of them smoke. The bus ride took us all along the shore of Banderas Bay. Frequently we changed lanes and headed off on side roads to drop off people and pick up more. Sometimes the road was pretty rough and the bus would brake aggressively for another driver or a speed-bump. The busses are manual so the driver is always shifting and the people that are standing in the crowded aisles are losing their balance. You get the picture. The biggest downside is the bus picks up EVERYONE! People just keep squeezing into the bus and its hot and humid and a circus when someone in the back needs to get off. We asked where to get off and someone on the bus that spoke English told us when to get off and then we had to take a combi (a 15 passenger van that runs shorter routes). The bus ride cost us 54 pesos ($6) for both of us and the combi we caught cost us 20 pesos ($1) and dropped us off at Paradise Village. Paradise Village was our first stop for the day. It could NOT be more different from La Cruz. There’s a Starbucks that smelled just the same as all the ones in Seattle (I noticed the smell right away). There’s a shopping mall with a grocery store and a McDonalds inside, golf course, yacht club, hospital, restaurants, numerous hotels and condos, and a beautiful marina. It didn’t seem like Mexico there other than it was much warmer and there were lots of palm trees.
Then we hopped on another chicken bus and found our way to Puerto Vallarta where we spent the afternoon walking the malecon that is lined with beautiful sculptures, scenic views of the water, shops, thatched roof bars and restaurants. The crew ships had left the night before so it was much quieter as we walked around town. On the way back to La Cruz we took more combis and got a pretty crazy combi driver. The driver even had his wife and kids riding in the front seat with him. Bev was hanging on for dear life the entire ride. At one point the driver got pulled over and got a ticket from the police. Our first traffic stop in Mexico! Everyday is an experience!
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