As I headed out the door to catch the bus across the street, the proprietor of my hostel questioned, “do you have a bus card”? I was surprised that a town this small would have buses that didn’t take cash, but he assured me that they didn’t. When I asked how I could purchase a bus card, he said not to worry, I could use someone else’s.

We went back inside the hostel where he drew on my map and explained the scheme I was to follow. First. I had to go to a different bus stop because the one across the street would not have enough people waiting to pull it off. He drew a line that took me a couple blocks from the hostel, through a park, down a staircase and another two blocks to the main bus avenue.

There I was to catch any bus and attempt to pay the driver in cash. He told me that the driver would decline but suggest I could pay one of the other boarding passengers in cash, and they would simply tap their card an extra time for me. It worked almost exactly as he suggested.

The only problem was that there were at least five stops on the bus avenue, denoted only by number and with no indication of which bus went to the long distance bus terminal. The proprietor had told me that every bus would go to the terminal, but the first couple drivers I questioned said they did not, despite signs in the window reading, “Terminal Nueva”.

Fortunately I wasn’t the only person in this predicament. A couple from Buenos Aires was also inquiring with all the buses that came by. I confirmed with them that they were also going to the long distance terminal, and we immediately found solidarity in our shared mission.

I was fortunate in that they both had bus cards, so when we finally did catch the correct bus, I was able to pay them and use their card, without requiring the driver to intercede on my behalf.

For the ride to the terminal we talked about our respective holidays. I think they were disappointed to hear that I was headed south since their objective was to go north. If we’d all been going the same direction, we could have shared a taxi instead of catching a bus at the terminal.

Having been to the terminal before, I had to remind them to get off the bus when we arrived since we were so engaged in conversation they hadn’t noticed the terminal. Sadly for them, a sign above the information desk inside said all roads to the north were closed. This wasn’t surprising since I had to delay my trip the day before because of multiple landslides along the northern route.

They decided to go to the tourist office to see how they would salvage their day, and I headed off to the ticket counter to purchase a ticket for my journey south but not before we exchanged contact information and took a couple photos together. It was a good reminder that despite being strangers, we often share the same challenges, and working together is more fun than doing it alone.