Made a mistake and lost $3, but maybe it will have turned out to be well spent. A guy on the MX side of the border was hustling passengers to LA, and the tickets were only US$16, so I decided to go for it. Got on the bus, and shortly thereafter had to get out to go through customs. What a mess. An old Mexican guy was arguing with the BP cop, a younger Mexican guy, and the latter was angrily trying to put him "in his place". While I was sending my bags through the scanner, there were shouts of "hey!" "get 'im!", presumably for someone a little younger than the old man previously mentioned. And then -- I couldn't find the goddamn bus. One BP idiot told me it was out the side door, another said maybe behind the Greyhound; finally a friendly taxi driver told me it was Tres Estrellas de Oro (that name didn't appear on the ticket, but it's emblem was there almost as hard to see as a watermark), and told me where the office was, just north of the customs office. I missed that bus but got scheduled for the 9PM one. Anyway, in all the quick decisionmaking I forgot to ask for my change; I had given the guy a MX$200 bill. Damn. But now I know the best way to get here: on Tres Estrellas de Oro from El Paso to San Ysidro for US$61. If I didn't have to schlep all this stuff around, I'd probably take it now, but don't want to go across the border again with it. I'd have to, because there's no cheap transit from EP to Columbus on this side of the imaginary line.
last updated 2013-01-10 20:45:51. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com