Blogs :: bus, troles, bus
The day started with waking up to the owner of our hostel arguing with a guest. "You not stay tonight. Period." A group had rented out the entire place. While we'd "reserved" our room the night before just in case we wanted to stay, we figured we might as well pack and be ready...
Good thing. We left our room and were asked to checkout. After lunch we grabbed the bags and headed to the bus. Quito has quite a few different public transportation systems, none of which connect directly to the other, but all of which cover a good majority of town. We boarded the bus rapid transit, similar to Bogota's Transmilenio, yet light years older. It was relatively empty despite the plethora of school kids boarding. Nice, as we carried two backpacks, each.
No problems there, we jumped off on the north side of Old Town Quito, walked through the park, and in the direction of another transit system, the Trole. This one would take us to the nearest bus station about 15 blocks away. It was packed. We never boarded, instead opting to walk through the Old Town one last time. Thirty minutes later we passed the Trole station we would have disembarked and walked down the steps to discover this bus station was abandoned. Lonely Planet FAIL.
We ought to have verified it still existed, but its not everyday a bus station completely disappears from a guidebook. Well, it didn't exactly disappear, but it was deserted. Having no idea where the new station might be and not in a part of town we felt completely safe in, we flagged down a taxi. "$10 dollars. Very far. That way." Screw that.
We walked back up to the Trole station and while David went to ask, a friendly old gentleman questioned were I was trying to go. I told him. He responded with the correct directions. If I had only listened to him instead of everyone else over the next 2 hours.
The Trole went directly to the new station, literally drove up right inside it he said. So we bought tickets, $0.25 apiece and boarded. There was absolutely no room. I am not sure how we pushed inside, but imagine a bus being so packed you do not require the assistance of the handrail when the bus lurches forward and back, starting and stopping at each estacion. The lady who sold us the tickets told David 5 minutes, so at about 5 minutes and what looked like the right stop, we jumped off along with half the bus.
After 2 minutes, we realized we'd jumped the gun. David was exhausted though. I thought he'd gone to ask for directions so I just stood there for another 5 minutes until I saw him on the bench. The police officers confirmed we were on the right line and that we had to take it all the way to the end. But, he did not say how far the end was. The next stop appeared to be the end to David, but I refused to get off thinking otherwise until I asked if this was that stop. Yes was the reply. Shit. Doors were already closed. No exit possible.
Again, we offloaded, bumping everyone in the process with our bags, at the next stop in order to turn around. Something was wrong though, the next stop was not the last stop. We had continued south as I had predicted, but I took the word of the man on the bus. Wrong. We asked and finally received the same directions as the man on the street originally described. Ride it all the way, all-the-way to the end.
We boarded again, but not more than 4 stops later we exited, again. David couldn't handle it anymore. He barfed all over the platform immediately clear of the bus. While he recovered, I worried about getting to the bus station early enough to arrive in our destination before dark. Another 10 minutes later, an uncrowded trole stopped and David took a seat.
One bus and 4 troles later, we finally arrived at the brand spankin' new bus station on the farthest south side of town. The taxi driver was not lying, it was far, very far. But for 50 cents each, we saved ourselves at least 12 dollars for the day by taking an adventurous ride on two of Quito's mass transit systems. Fortunately, there was a bus immediately departing for Riobamba. We arrived an hour earlier than expected, dusk slowly fading into darkness. This time we took a cab ($1) to the hotel. Enough excitement for one day.
Riobamba, public transportation, buses, Quito
Posted By:
Brendon
2/3/2010