Adventures in Busing - David to Volcan

26 June 2010

David to Volcan Autobus

We just missed one of the buses to Cerro Punta that goes through Volcan. So we had to wait for the next bus. We were probably there for about 15 min when the next bus pulled up. I noticed this one said Cerro Punta but also below that in smaller letters it said Volcan so I knew this was the correct bus.

The autobus looks like a very large mini van with seating for around 35 people. On the front window of the bus it says what the town it goes to on its route. They all go from David to another town, some larger towns have a local bus that just stays around there all day. You can wait at the stops or you can flag the bus down like a taxi and let them know where you are going and if it is on their route they will take you there.

Because we got on at the station we were some of the first people on the bus. A guy helped us get all of our bags on the bus. They ended up taking up several seats on the bus, the helper didn't look very happy with us about that. I don't know why he didn't put them in the back or on top of the bus where there is a large luggage rack. All along the way the bus kept picking up people and dropping them off. Eventually all of the seats were filled, so we figured they would just be stopping to drop people off. That was not the case, they just kept picking up more and more people who just had to stand in the isle of the bus. Keep in mind that these buses are not very tall so the men had to bend or lean over while trying to keep their balance. I felt really bad because we were kind of boxed in so I couldn't get up to give my seat to someone else, and there were all of our bags taking up seats.

The brother we were going to meet in Volcan told me to call him when we were on the bus. I was able to get a hold of him and let him know we were on the bus. He was trying to tell me where to have the bus drop us off but my call dropped. I didn't know how to find out how many minutes we had left so I decided to wait and call again if we needed to. 

We noticed that we passed the location the brother told us to stop at, but in our embarrassment and lack of confidence with the language we just stayed on the bus. Once we got the courage up to tell the helper we missed our stop we were almost out of the town of Volcan. So they had to turn the bus around to take us back. We called the brother and let him know they were taking us back, so he went to go back there. Then they dropped us off only half way back to where we needed to go and I heard the word taxi. So we had to call the brother again and try to describe where we were at. All the while it is raining on us and all of our luggage.

The brother found us and picked us up in his truck, we put our bags in the bed and he took us to the house we will be staying in. We were so glad to see a friendly face and be able to communicate with someone again.