On Tuesday March 24th we caught the 8:00am bus for Tepic. The bus was full by the time we reached Tepic with standing room only. There must have at least 10 people standing. Most of the riders got off at the first stop in Tepic instead of riding all the way to the bus station.

We got a room at the Nayrt Hotel for 200 pesos a night. We asked to see the room before we got it but the man acted like he did not understand so we rented it without seeing it. The only bad thing about the room was there was no tolite seat. We could have gotten a room at the Tepic Hotel for 235 pesos. We stayed there last year and had no problem there, the tolite had seats. But a friend in San Blas said Nayrt was a good place to stay. We wanted to try another hotel out too. I really think it is best to see the room before you pay for it. Both of these hotels are less than five minutes walking distance from the bus station.

We walked to VIP'S, was able to have breakfast as we were there before 11:00. Then we went to the Plaza, by bus, for 4 pesios.

We were told by the man that sells bus tickets that his bus line starts leaving for PV at 5:00am then every half hour until noon. Great, we were up by 5:00, walked to the station, was there to buy out ticket by 5:15. The first bus his line or the sister line did not leave until 7:00.

We bought a ticket to PV (150 pesos each) from TAP bus line leaving at 6:15. The first bus from this line left at 3:15, the next one at 4:15. Both of these busses were primo buses, which means no stops and you are offered food. The bus we had made less than 4 stops, and we had a movie (in spanish).

We arrived in PV around 11:00, was very lucky and got a bus to the airport in less than 10 minutes. We were able to get our airline tickets very fast as there was no line. Larry was able to take a half hour to go and get a torta before we went through the security gate which ment no return or escape from going home.

We almost had one problem before getting on the plane. When going down the stares to the plane we thought we were in the wrong line. We got on a bus that would take us to the plane. While standing on the bus, all we could hear was French, yes the bus was taking people to a plane to Monteral, Cananda. We just made it off the bus before it was leaving, in fact I felt the doors try to close on my backpack. We made it back to the correct line and our plane.

We arrived in Huston without no more problems, but then there was the lines to go through. I also had a small problem with needing to find a bathroom as soon as we got off the plane. The first one is close to the customs line but it was a long walk to get there.

The first custom line you go through, I feel is someone sayiny you can leave Mexico. Then you go through one that is more intence saying you can come back or enter the good old USA. If you have a laptop you have to take it out of your case for it. Take off your shoes, and make sure you don't have anything that looks like a gel. We were lucky and had nothing that looked bad. While I belive we need to be alert of things comming into the US, it bothers me that we don't have to do the same things every gate, for other countrys.

Ok so we are at Huston, we get through all the lines, we walk all the way to our gate. Nope, the gate has changed and we have to walk back, and beyound to another gate. We are getting to know the Huston airport a lot better than we realy want to know.

Our plane is able to board on time. But we set and wait for some people to board becust their plane is arriving late. No big deal, we start to taxi out half hour late, then we sort of taxi out to the take off strip for the next 2 hours. Yep we got to set on the plane for more than two hours before taking off, which ment we were two hours late landing at Portland Oregon.

We arrived home at 1:00am. I am so sorry for my friend that picked us up and brought us home as she had to get up at 4:30 am to go to work.

One of our cats was here when we got home, she came in with us, she was really happy to see us and really happy when Larry started a fire in our stove to heat the house warmer than she has had it while we were gone. Our other cat showed upnthis morning. He was not really sure about what was going on but when he realized who we where we couldent get rid of him to get started on things we needed to do. They have both settled down, she has gained a lot of weight, he is looking like a happy cat.

Mahya has gained a lot of weight

Spirit is looking good