Jan 19, 2017
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What do you need to know about taking a public bus in
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico?
Hello fellow
travelers, welcome to this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel
show, all about buses in Puerto Vallarta. I am your host
Barry Kessler and I am just so happy to be to introducing you
to my favorite vacation destination, and maybe even yours, Puerto
Vallarta Mexico. That music you were just listing
to is performed by Alberto Perez, the owner of the La Palapa group
of restaurants, La Palapa Restaurant is on the southside of
town, right down on the beach in Puerto Vallarta. La Palapa, and El
Dorado Restaurants. And if you play your cards right, you can hear
Alberto play his beautiful music and enjoy songs like Samba de
Puerto Vallarta when you enjoy dinner at La Palapa. Just saying an
added bonus to a great romantic meal on the beach.
Now before we get to buses in Puerto Vallarta I want to
thank a listener, Brett from Seattle Washington who reminded me
about a tip regarding filling out those immigration forms that we
talks about in show 2 and 3. You know, the one you get from the
flight attendant before you touch down in Puerto Vallarta, they are
called FMM’s
which stands for Forma Migratoria Multiple. Anyway, he says in his
note…Barry, Listening to your second podcast and noticed you didn't
mention that you can complete the FMM online. It's so much
easier, and you don't have to worry about a pen and writing small
enough to get everything in the tiny boxes. When printed,
fold it several times so they can separate the 'top' part from the
'bottom' like the pre-printed ones. I occasionally have to
tell them it's 'nuevo - en linea'. Big time saver!
Here's the site: https://www.inm.gob.mx/fmme/publico/en/solicitud ...
there's an 'ES' and an 'EN' button you can click for Spanish or
English. So I have added the links to download
that FMM online and you can find them at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com
in episode 4. And thank you again Brett,
by the way Brett has a really good story about timeshares and he is
a little shy, but I’m gonna try to coax him to come on the show and
tell you how he makes timeshares work for him. It’s really
interesting. And you..yes you can reach out to me and tell me your
Puerto Vallarta story, give me a suggestion by going to the
contact
us tab at the top of our webpage and sending
me a email. It’s easy and fun. This
episode I will be talking buses in Puerto Vallarta with my friend
JR in PV. Now you guys have to cut me a little slack here please
because I’m just getting used to the long distance interviewing and
the proper recording levels and all that other wonky tech stuff.
What I’m saying is that it will get better in future interviews so
please bear with me as I improve my technique I have been told by
the best in the business, don’t let perfect be the enemy of the
good. So with that that in mind, let’s ask JR, is
it okay to take buses in Puerto Vallarta? What about …. take buses in Puerto
Vallarta? JR, what about buses? Are the safe? Are you gonna find
chickens and livestock on them? What do you expect when you get
onto a bus?
JR:
We don’t have chicken
bus, going back we did. First what we have to understand the bus
system here was not built for tourists. It was built to get people
to and from work. For children to get o and from school, etcetera
etcetera. The roads tend to go through the residential areas. The
local residential areas where tourists will be completely lost.
Barry: Interesting, because I
found most bus drivers don’t speak English very well. I imagine
that’s why they don’t interact with tourists that much.
JR:
Some do, if you can say the destination in Spanish, they’ll either
say Yes or No. Another thing to consider of course is downtown, we
basically have two North-South streets. In other words, in order to
get to the South side of town to the North side of town you got to
go through one of those streets. Basically, if you’re going North
it’s one street. Going South, it’s another. Consequently, there’s a
lot of business that go through downtown then go off into all these
weird many areas that I’ve never seen.
Barry: You mentioned on your
website a very funny thing. You say take a mystery tour, hop
on the bus and see where it takes you. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Would there be a place that you would take a bus to nowhere that
you wouldn’t want to go.
JR:
No. It’s a cheap trip it’s just seven and a half pesos. There and
back it’s 15 pesos. You go to the end of the line. Sometimes the
bus will turn around back. Sometimes there’s another bus waiting to
go back. If you change course of course you have to pay twice.
Barry: Sure. So do you need
exact change when you get on a bus?
JR:
It helps. Seven and a half pesos. 50 centavo coin is a tiny thing.
Barry: You’ll lose it.
JR:
Very small and difficult to find in your pocket sometimes.
Barry: That’s for sure. What is
this little white piece of paper the driver gives you when you get
on a bus? First time I got on a bus I thought it was for transfer
or something.
JR:
No, that shows that you paid. And occasionally an inspector would
come in and look at the numbers at the bus drivers stack of tickets
and go through the bus and check the numbers if everybody's been
issued one. And that the driver is not cheating by not giving a
ticket.
Barry: That’s what
that’s for. They don’t have these cameras that they have here in
the States to keep an eye on your drivers and keep them all good
and honest. Actually they’re handing you their ticket which is a
receipt.
JR:
Yes, it’s a receipt. And also I believe it covers you in case of
accident. Although, I can’t even remember ever there being a bus
accidents where anybody got hurt inside the bus.
Barry: That’s good to know.
Let’s say that you arrive at the airport and all you have is a
carry on baggage. Maybe a backpack, a roll-away, you’re traveling
light. Can you catch a bus from the airport to where you’re going
either North or South of the airport?
JR:
Only South, no, North or South really.. The ones going North will
be not city buses but long distance buses most of them because the
border of the next state is just north of the airport. Everything
going there is basically an intercity bus. The buses coming South
basically are coming from Ixtapa, Las Palmas not that many. One of
them that I’ve taken before is a magical mystery tour. Although it
said central, it eventually got there but it took a long long time.
We ended up in the hinterland. I don’t know where we were. I just
sat there and crossed my fingers. Eventually it got to the South
side where they all end up. In the case of coming through the
airport, avoid any bus going South that says Pitillal because
that’s the first place the magical mystery tour bus goes.
Barry: It kinds of winds it way
to Pitillal I imagine.
JR:
It goes to Pitillal and it goes to other colonias that I’ve never
seen before.
Barry: So you’re
gonna be looking for a bus going South that doesn’t say Pitillal on
it. But do you have a specific like Central on it. What does it
say?
JR:
Central. I don’t think there are tunnel buses that go by the
airport. I might be wrong. I should explain that if it says tunnel
which is spelled T-U-N-E-L pronounced
“too-nle” this goes
on the bypass road around downtown avoiding that constriction
there. If you’re going to the south side or going from the South
side North and you want to avoid downtown and the delay going
through that traffic. You take the bypass road which is called
Libra Miento which basically means it’s free.
Barry: Okay, it will also say
tunel on it right?
JR:
Yes.
“too-nle”. T-U-N-E-L. That will avoid downtown if
you’re going from the hotel zone, the Marina or any hotel towards
the airport you want to go to the South side of town you can avoid
downtown by taking the Tunel Bus.
Barry: Okay, got it. If you’re
taking a bus from from the hotel zone that’s pretty much just
going through downtown, isn’t it?
JR:
Right. They all go to the South side but from the hotel zone
some would take the bypass road. You can see it quite easily
on my map. And you can click on that. It starts from the Marina
airport area all the way down to Mismaloya.
Barry: Okay, and it actually
shows the right buses to take.
JR:
Yes. I also have maps of North of the airport.
Barry: Fantastic, so this is one
of the reasons why you all need to go to vallartainfo.com and click
on that map tab. Bring them down and you can see how nice and
detailed these are. They give restaurants.They give locations
ofwhere to catch those buses.
JR:
It shows the bus stops. Well, most of them.
Barry: That is so invaluable.
These destinations are put on the windshields of the buses right?
JR:
At the top of the bus, there’s a window that’s their main
destination window. That will tell you where they will end up. Then
right on the windscreen the various places that you might want to
go to. For instance Wal-Mart it might say IMSS which is the local
state hospital. It may mention markets like Mega or Soriana. It may
also mention places in between the main destination and the
origin.
Barry: So those are the tips
when you’re looking at the bus. To understand where they’re going
at the end which is along the top. The stops they make along the
way which is written on the windscreen.
JR:
For instance, Marine Terminal if you want to take an excursion
that’s leaving from the Marine Terminal you would want to look for
the bus that says Wal-Mart and Marine Terminal. If you go to the
Marina which is not the same as the Marine Terminal and is quite
the distance away. You need to take the Marina Bus. There’s only
one bus that drives into the residential area of the Marina. That
will say Marina on top. This particular bus is not very regular
about every 20 mins.
Barry: If
you want to go to the Marina you really need to plan for not having
a bus come pick you up right away.
JR:
Right, it’s not as frequent as the other buses. The other buses are
every five minutes there’s another bus.
Barry: It seems like it’s a
congo line of buses in Puerto Vallarta.
JR:
If you’re going South, let’s say to Mismaloya Boca de Tomatlan
There’s the bus that goes from the South side all the way to Boca
de Tomatlan and then turns around and comes back. That is eight
pesos.
Barry: So seven and half
for city bus all the way up to the airport-ish. If you are going to
catch that Mismaloya bus, it goes down to Boca that will cost you
eight pesos. What’s eight pesos today? About 40 cents?
JR:
Yes, I think. If you’re going further South to say to the
Botanical Garden or to El Tuito. There’s another bus that leaves on
the corner of
Aguacate and Carranza and that will
cost you 28 pesos all the way to El Tuito and takes about 50
minutes.
Barry: It’s a regular
city bus too?
JR:
It’s intercity bus because El Tuito is considered to be another
city.
Barry: And that one you
catch and will take you even further South.
JR:
Right, if you’re going to see the Botanical Garden. They say to
Botanical Garden it’s only 20 pesos but quite often just take 28
which is all he way to El Tuito.
Barry: Tell me what’s El Tuito
like?
JR:
El Tuito is quite a bit older than Puerto Vallarta. It was a stop
on the Camino Real, the King’s road from Barra de Navidad to the
mines. The Manila boat coming from the Philippines would stop
occasionally at Barra de Navidad and unload some goodies for the
mines. Maybe take on a little silver but mainly unload some goodies
for the mines. They would go by oxcart and mule all the way up this
road. It was quite primitive in those days and El Tuito was about
halfway and it’s a valley and it had grazing and it had
water. They would stop there and eventually they built some
accommodation and that was the start of the town.
Barry: I just saw not too long
ago a post of you going down to El Tuito.
JR:
We went to El Tuito which is on the way to a couple of beaches
called Playa Mayto and a fishing village called
Teramecle.
Barry: I think pretty much
covers most of what I want to talk about, well not really.
JR:
This bus is going North.
Barry:
Yes, that’s what I was gonna say what about the bus going North?
JR:
Right, do you want to get to Nueva Vallarta Bucerías, Punta de
Mita, Sayulita, Lo de Marcos
La Cruz de
Huanacaxtle and all those place in
Rincón de
Guayabitos, a lot of them are covered in the bus line
called ATM. Not to be confused with the cash machine. Compostela
Pacifico line the ATM only goes to Punta de Mita at around the bay
for Sayulita your location you need the Compostela Pacifico line.
These are all available at Wal-Mart. There’s a special bus stop for
these buses going North, not city buses.
Barry: You catch the buses at
Wal-Mart that sounds just like a commercial. I like that. You catch
a bus if you’re going to North and get the Compostela bus. You need
to get to Wal-Mart first.
JR:
There’s one stop before Wal-Mart, the first stop is right at the
end of libramiento departamento of the hotel zone. It’s marked on
my map. It’s a good one to get to if you want to get a seat if it’s
very busy.
Barry: It’s really
going to be busy going up North especially in the mornings
when people are going to work, right?
JR:
Exactly. This applies going to South as well. If you want to go at
Boca de Tomatlan went down to catch the first bus on the South side
you might want to go to next bus in line to get a seat. Because
quite often you’d be standing.
Barry: Those are fun trips when
you’re standing in the trips especially the South one. How about
the North one is it just as fun?
JR:
It’s good. It gets busy. I even had a lady offer me a seat once.
Barry: No.
JR:
I guess she thought I was really old.
Barry: These buses are
interstate buses. They go from
Jalisco to Nayarit?
JR:
Right, they’re considered inter-city.
Barry: What kind of pesos do we
need to bring along when we go to Punta de Mita and we hop on that
bus over at-
JR:
Let’s see, Bucerias is 14 pesos. Nuevo Vallarta is either 15 or 18
pesos depending on whether you go to North end or South end of it.
La Cruz de
Huanacaxtle is 18 pesos. Punta de
Mita is 26. Sayulita is 35 I believe. And that takes you right into
Sayulita and that’s the best bus to get for Sayulita.
Barry: Sayulita they go farther
North?
JR:
If you want to go further North let’s say San Pancho which is
actually called San Francisco but everybody calls it San Pancho. Lo
de Marcos, La Cruz de
Huanacaxtle are all on
the way on that road that eventually goes to Tepic the capital of
Nayatrit. Those buses won’t go into these various peach towns. They
will drop you in the highway and you have to huff it in to the
actual town. Usually it’s less than a mile.
Barry: All those buses you catch
at Wal-Mart.
JR:
Wal-Mart is the most recognizable location. Everybody knows what it
looks like. You can actually get earlier as I said at the beginning
of the hotel zone and it’s marked on my map. If you want to get
seat. It also stops at airport if you wave it down. Buses will stop
for you whether it’s not natural regular stop. On the South road or
Northern road as long as it’s a place they can pull off because
there are only two lanes. Then they will stop. In order to wave
them down, not wave at them. They’ll more likely wave back.
Barry: What’s the right sign?
JR:
The way to stop the bus is to point in the middle of the road right
in front of you. The bus will stop.
Barry: They take directions.
Instead of waving and saying hey there what you’re saying is stop
right here. Right where I’m pointing.
JR:
This is the tradition down here. They never wave and the bus
drivers know if that means somebody wants you to stop. If you wave
they might think you’re waving at somebody else.
Barry: If you are a visitor
coming to Puerto Vallarta would you suggest ever renting a car?
JR:
No I wouldn’t at all. Unless you’re planning on driving to
somewhere whether it’s not a regular bus service like San
Sebastian. You can’t really have a day drive on San Sebastian
because the time you get there it’s almost time to go back. Because
they have about four buses a day.
Barry: San Sebastian, that is
the silver mining town up in the hills.
JR:
Up in the mountains. 4,600 feet is pretty high.
Barry: Is there anything else
that you can think of that we need to know about the public bus
system down here?
JR:
Just be ready to hold on because quite often the driver will take
off while he’s making change.
Barry: Keep an eye on that. Make
sure you always turn around. Don’t leave anything on the bus,very
important, before you leave because you may not get it back. Or
maybe you will?
JR:
People get their stuff back right where they left behind sometimes
but there’s not central garage or anything. A lot of these buses
are owned by the drivers and they drive them home.
Barry: I didn’t know that.
That’s very interesting.
JR:
The bus companies but they’re like cooperatives in a way. Some of
the bus companies own a bunch of buses and in effect rent them out
to the driver. Other drivers actually own the bus. And work with
the cooperative and pay cooperative a certain amount.
Barry: That’s pretty precise
description of what’s going on down on the ground in Puerto
Vallarta regarding buses and bus system there. Just remember
everybody; if you have the urge to rent the car don’t. Unless
you’re gonna go where the buses and the cab won’t take you.
Speaking of cabs, in another episode you and I will be talking
about taxis. Is that okay JR?
JR:
Sure that’s fine. I would interject also if you’re going to rent a
car, the only rental company I can always really 100% recommend are
Gecko Car Rental. They’re not in town they’re in Bucerias. But they
will come and bring your car anywhere including the airport.
They’re the only ones that don’t have bad press.
Barry: Thanks that a great tip
then. Gecko for those of you who are thinking about renting a car.
If you really really got to do it. Do it in through this company in
Bucerias called Gecko. JR once again, you are a huge fount of
information for us , for my listeners, for our listeners. I really
really appreciate you coming out today again.
JR:
Welcome Barry.
Barry: We’ll talk
again soon maybe about taxis.
JR:
Okay, I’ll try and think of good things to say.
Barry: Sure you will. Thanks
again JR.
JR:
Okay, bye.
Barry: Bye now.
So that was quite an in depth look at taking buses in
Puerto Vallarta Mexico. A couple of items I want to touch base on
before we leave this subject behind and that is the conversation I
had with JR about taking a bus from the Airport. I would never
suggest that you take a bus if you are a first time traveler to
Vallarta. That is a bus from the airport to your hotel. It would be
silly. I’m just talking about the seasoned traveler who is
traveling light. No luggage just a backpack. That bus you can catch
along side the arrivals terminal under the pedestrian bridge and
look for a bus that says Centro on it. The other item I wanted to
mention is that the Mismaloya bus that also goes to Boca de
Tomatlan can be found at the corner of Basillo Badillo and
Constitution. They are orange and white buses and will cost you 8
pesos.And I just want to remind you that the bus to El Tuito
and the Botanical Gardens is at Aguacate and Carranza.
Check in my shownotes for all of the routes and costs for
buses in Puerto Vallarta and you will find them at
www.puertovallartatravelshow.com
and the notes will be right there with this podcast post. I
should also mention, since we are talking pesos and dollars, as of
this podcast, January 22, 2017 the Mexican peso to the US
dollar is almost 22 pesos to 1. I also have to add that we
have experienced an increase of up to 20% in fuel prices in the
last weeks here in mexico so taxi and bus prices are expected to
rise in the near future but never fear, we will keep you up to date
as things on the ground change. Thus far however, we haven’t seen
any drastic changes in transportation costs to the end
user. Okay, Again you will find all of the show
notes to this podcast and others to come including the links to
JR’s site and to the website where you can purchase the fantastic
music of Alberto Perez who we will listen to as we play out this
episode at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com,
just click on the show links tab at the top of the home
page. Remember that this show is an interactive
one. I need your participation by sending me
emails with questions for JR that you would like to hear him answer
on air with me. And please Email me your suggestions for show
topics that you think I should be talking about, please reach
out to me by clicking on the contact
us tab on my website at the top of the home page at
www.puertovallartatravelshow.com.
And remember, if you are considering booking any type of
tour while you are in Puerto Vallarta, you must go to Vallartainfo.com, JR’s website and
reserve your tour through him, right from his website. Remember the
value for value proposition. His experience and on the ground
knowledge of everything Puerto Vallarta in exchange for your making
a purchase of a tour that you would do anyway, you’re just doing it
through him as a way of saying thank you. It costs no more than if
you were to use someone else so do it. Really. And when you do take
one of these tours, email me about your experiences. Maybe you can
come on-board and share with others what you liked or didn’t
like about the tour. Again, email me with your
experiences. And one more favor please, if
you like this podcast, please take the time and give me a good
review on iTunes if you would. It would be so appreciated if you
would just take the extra time to do that for me. That way we can
get the word out to more and more people about the magic of this
place. So, thanks to you for listening all the way
through Thank you JR for sharing all you know about buses and
answering all my goofy questions. Thanks again my friends, this is
Barry Kessler signing off with a wish for you all to slow down, be
kind and live the Vallarta lifestyle. Relax, Manana.
Nos Vemos amigos!