Hidalgo del Parral, State of Chihuahua

I don't care if it rains or freezes ....

Today we made the 6 hour bus ride from Durango to Hidalgo del Parral, in the state of Chihuahua. The bus fare for both of us was 570 pesos ($47).

We were witness to a serious accident during our taxi ride to the Durango central bus station.  We were travelling on the outside lane.  20 meters ahead of us on the inside lane was another taxi.  I saw the street vendor start pushing his cart onto the pedestrian crossing.  A second later I thought "Shit, that taxi isn't going to stop!" Another second later the driver saw the man, there was the squealing of tires, and a cloud of blue smoke then the taxi hit the man full on and demolished the cart.   Our own taxi stopped without too much room to spare.  I ran over and saw the man unconscious and still.  However, I saw no blood or broken bones.

The first car on the scene was an ambulance.  The accident happened near a hospital and there happened to be an ambulance not far behind us.  Soon there were 4 paramedics attending to the man and as he was carried to the ambulance in a stretcher we saw him lift his arm.

It's easy to blame the taxi driver because he should have been paying attention to the road ahead.  On the other hand, the push cart vendor seemed to get onto the crosswalk without taking any notice of oncoming traffic.  There may be a lesson here.  It was early on Sunday morning and there was very little vehicular or pedestrian traffic.  I think that everyone just let their guard down.

We like to think that the injured man will be OK.

We passed up an opportunity to travel with Omnibus de Mexico and instead chose another carrier because its bus left in only 1 hour.  While having coffee we checked the tickets and saw that we would be travelling "economy" class.  We prefer to travel Delux class (with plenty of leg room, his and hers toilets, etc) but have found First Class acceptable. However, we had wanted to avoid Economy Class.  The bus turned out to be a reasonable one, although we noted two differences.  Even though the bus was equipped with movie screens, no movies were shown.  Then I went to the back to relieve myself and saw that the toilet door had been locked with a hasp and padlock out of a hardware store.  Fortunately 3 hours into the trip the bus stopped at a place where toilets were available.

The ride was enjoyable because we had front seats and were able to enjoy the spectacular scenery and interesting road that was at times very narrow and winding as we passed over mountain ranges.  But it had its moments, particularly when meeting very large trucks on very tight bends.  At the front of the bus was a large crucifix and several icons on the ceiling.  One was of Jesus Christ looking up with a terrified expression as if to say "When will this harrowing trip be over?"

From the Parral bus station we followed our usual M.O. and took a taxi to one of the two main parks in the central historical district.  Soon we found a hotel which, though cheap at 190 pesos, is a bit rough.  We were smart enough to ask to see the room and it turned out to be a box with no windows at all.  We told the man that we had to have a window and he found a place for us on the second floor with a good sized window. The room has the basics, we think that we are safe, and it's only for one night.