When I first decided to start traveling I had a lot of fears about using public transportation. I am a female and I usually travel alone. I tend to be quite friendly with people but I am at the same time cautious with my interactions. The friendliness and kindness that I show others I have feared can be mis-interpretted depending on the context. I also travel with some very valuable items including my computer and other remote working equipment associated with my computer. Here in Mexico I have been travelling with surfboards and a guitar as well. This is quite a lot of baggage. When I started this trip I actually bought a van and packed according to the plan of having my own vehicle. I think if I knew that my van was going to be a disasterous situation with breaking down and trips to the mechanic I would have just decided to travel by bus from the first moment of booking the ticket and making travel plans to Mexico. I was nervous for my first bus experience because of how much baggage I have.
Anyway, I wanted to share some bus travel experiences to ease any fears that some of you may have.
I needed to travel from Mazatlan, Sinaloa to San Pancho, Nayarit. This is almost 400 kilometers and takes about 5 hours by car.
The connections work out as follows to make a complete trip; Mazatlan-> Tepic ($57 USD), Tepic -> San Pancho ($11 USD).
When I arrived at the bus station from my taxi ($5) someone assisted me with all of my bags directly to the bus loading area for $2 USD.
The Busline I booked with is ACN and I highly recommend this line!
The bus was clean and comfortable. The driver was polite. The people on board were respectful. It was also amazing because there were movies to view (in Spanish). The seats recline a huge amount and there was even a foot rest. The whole experience was first class, five stars, amazing. This trip was 4.5 hours. The stop at the bus station was right in line with the rest. Someone unloaded my bags for me and was willing to watch them while I went to buy a ticket to my next location.
The next bus was 2 hours and this bus actually is available every hour. This bus was a little less comfortable but was absolutely safe.
Traveling has been so eye opening for me. I had this idea that bus travel was more like chickens in the isles and bandits around every curve of the road waiting to rob you. I could not have been more incorrect in my assumptions.
I hope this gives you some confidence in your travel goals. Thanks for reading.
*I haven't figured out how to add images yet, but I will add them later;)