Borderland Bus Bargain

Trip Start Nov 25, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of United States  , Colorado,
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Seems to be a major connection between the Borderland and Colorado, especially Denver. That promotes competition between buslines and an interesting alliance. A couple times we've visited family in Boulder, CO while here in El Paso. A few lines make the nightly overnight (12 hour) trip to/from El Paso/Denver. Paul booked us tickets on Autobuses Americanos, a Mexican company. Their buses look like Mexican buses (which is a complement--they do buses very well!). The travelers are primarily Hispanic, as are the drivers. All announcements are in Spanish, and maybe also in English. A DVD system pipes through the bus. Our first movie was a Rambo one that broke down after 45 minutes; nobody uttered a sound when the whole system blacked out. People simply settled down and went to sleep.

We picked up the Americanos bus at the Greyhound depot, but we were shocked when a Greyhound bus bound for Denver appeared one hour prior to our scheduled ticket excellent drivers
excellent drivers
 . The driver said we could wait for our scheduled bus if we wanted to, but we could also hop on his bus immediately--so we did. I was kinda spooked by that, but it seems like Greyhound and Americanos honor each others' tickets interchangably. Perhaps that's cuz both companies are in competition with another line: El Paso-Los Angeles Limos. It must drive down the prices, because both of us traveled roundtrip for $160, far less than the price of one roundtrip flight. Adding in an overnight motel to auto expenses, we couldn't drive it for that either.

The lines provide two drivers to each route for the overnight trip; they spell each other. All the drivers were excellent. We stopped for gas and a 15 minute bathroom break at a couple funky (to my Midwestern eyes) truck stops on the trip. See photos for Mexican-flavored truckstops.

Maybe there are alternative bus set-ups in other parts of the country. This bargain deal was unlike anything I've seen, tho.

P.S. When we bussed through Alamosa, CO in January, the temperature there was minus 34 degrees at 3 AM.
I also want to remember seeing the rings on the planet Saturn from my bus window seat. At least, I want to think that I did. At that Rocky Mountain altitude, I bet it's possible. But, in the middle of the night, I didn't want to wake Paul from his slumbering seat next to me to solicit his opinion.
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