Adventures on the Road…Again

In all my many bus trips to Olinalá, last night was the first time that it happened to me. And yes, my heart did beat faster.

Ricardo, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Mexico Country Representative, and I were traveling on the overnight bus to Olinalá, which leaves Mexico City at 8pm with a scheduled arrival time of 4am. We were privileged enough to have not one but two movies on the trip, the last being an old James Bond movie. By midnight, the movies were over, and we were on the road again after our first scheduled stop in Chilpancingo.

Ricardo was telling me a story about the infamous chamachos (youth) who stop the night buses near Chilpancingo in order to use the bus to go to their athletic events or siphon off the gas of the bus. He told me about the time when Marion’s bus was stopped and all the passengers had to get off the bus. The rowdy youth took the bus and stranded the passengers in the middle of the road in the middle of the night.

As he is telling me this story, our bus stops. There is a pickup truck parked across the right hand lane that prohibits our large bus from continuing the trip. About fifteen guys surround the bus and demand that the bus driver let them take the bus. The bus driver did not seem that nervous as this was not his first time having to negotiate with them. Sitting in the first seat, I was impressed with his ability to talk the boys into letting us go. After five minutes of harassment and a continual and firm "no" from the bus driver, the truck moved out of the way. We were on the road again and safe.