So here I am in Oaxaca · My Home Is the Road

So here I am in Oaxaca. First impression after Mexico City is very positive. I missed the quiet, the distinct character, the narrow streets, the absence of crowding in the metro. Still, Mexico City is different from other cities in this big country — it's a huge city, its population can easily be compared to several European countries combined (25 million inhabitants, if I'm not mistaken).
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Arriving in Oaxaca, I immediately remembered Valladolid, which, I must say, I didn't like at first, but only toward the end. Maybe by then I'd just gotten used to it. I still can't get used to Mexico City, even though I've lived here for two weeks now. Oaxaca is a quiet bastion of calm, surrounded by small, good-natured locals, and I feel good with them.
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For a few hours, maybe two or three, after arriving in Oaxaca, I was looking for a way to get to San José del Pacífico. The task, as it turned out, wasn't the simplest — quite the quest. I ran around two bus stations, asked at the last one, which is also the main one, at every ticket counter. They sent me in circles from one to another, but no one properly explained how exactly to get to the town I needed.
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That went on until I accidentally went where I shouldn't have. There were gates there, which the guard almost closed right in front of my nose, but seeing me walking toward them, he opened them for me and let me through.
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I decided to ask him if he knew a way to get to San José del Pacífico. He spoke, of course, in Spanish — no one here knows other languages — but it seemed we understood each other. He himself didn't know exactly how to get there, but he led me to someone who might know — the driver of one of the buses.
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The driver said something in Spanish; I didn't understand a single word of it, but the guard helped me here too, leading me to the right pavilion. The pavilion was empty, but according to the guard, I was supposed to get to a bus station whose name was written on the wall of that pavilion — Lineas Unidas, a 25-minute walk from the bus terminal. I thanked this kind middle-aged man and set off for the station.
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There I bought a ticket for the morning, and today I'll need to charge my electronics, repack my backpack, study the map of the area, and plot a route.
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#ArthurOHarra #SanJoséDelPacífico #Oaxaca