Spoke too soon

We thought we would repeat our bus ride to the city, since it went so well yesterday. We got to the stop and when the bus arrived at the designated time, I twice confirmed with the driver, "Obelisco?" He said yes twice, so I didn't think much about it, until we turned off the familiar highway. We wound through the city, dropped everyone off, and then he came to a stop. It was the end of the line. I made every effort to figure out what went wrong, but the driver and I were getting nowhere. He went and got his friend, who didn't speak any English but was more patient. He told us to get on the train, and that's about all I understood. Imagine being dropped in the middle of a city, with no map, no cell phone, and no way of communicating. All we could do was trust what I understood. Unfortunately, the train terminal had no map, and the pay machines weren't working. I tried to get information from an attendant, who got so frustrated, he just let us in for free and kept saying bus 98. It's great that I understood what bus to take, but I didn't understand where to get off the train. I figured the worst that could happen is that we get to the terminus and have to take a cab. So we rode to the end of the line, where we finally found a police officer that understood my Spanish and spoke very slowly for me. Thankfully, we caught the subway and rode it into town. Our 30 minute bus ride ended up taking over two hours, with a whole lot of frustration.

We spent the day touring the city by foot. The majority of our afternoon included the Japanese Gardens. Set in the middle of a bustling city, the Gardens are a serene, green hideaway, with miniature pagodas, lots of koi, and immaculately manicured landscaping. It served as the perfect rejuvenating stop, following such a chaotic morning.

Although we walked to the zoo, we declined to enter, as rain was headed our way. Instead, we opted to stroll up the avenue, next to the zoo, where a number of protesters had left their mark: "zoo=jail"; "animals aren't merchandise"; "free the animals"; and the like. Suddenly, I was glad we hadn't gone in.

We beat the rain but not by much. It is a welcome relief to the 85 degree day. We'll be heading to the airport tomorrow and are ready to get back home.Read more