How to get to Irla's house

Derek, Bruno and Johnny on a walk in San Antonio Aguas Calientes

These are the instructions that Johnny used today for his first solo trip, on a chicken bus, to another town, to a house he had never been to:

1. Go to the bus station and ask which bus goes to San Antonio Aguas Calientes

2. When you board the bus, tell the driver or his helper that you're going to San Antonio, and that you'd like to get off at the corner with the cross statue. He'll let you know when you're at your stop.

3. At the cross, turn right and go up that street. It's either 4th Street or 4th Avenue.

4. Irla's house is the white one on the left side, between a peach house and a green house.

5. It's either number 10 or number 11, A or maybe B -- the white one.

Mind you, earlier this week it was decided that for the benefit of Johnny's Spanish skills, we should be a full immersion couple -- no ingles. As such, Johnny received the above instructions en espanol.

As his Spanish teacher said, he is very adventurous.

Good news everyone! In spite of just a few kinks, Johnny did in fact make it to Irla's (where I was waiting for him) just in time to help wrap the tolluelos (tamales).

If you're wondering what the kinks were, well...

First, when Johnny got on the bus, not many other passengers had yet boarded (there's sort of a bus schedule, but they usually just wait to depart until they reach critical mass). Johnny sat a few rows back, and by the time the driver and his helper/money collector got on, the front was full. And when I say full, I mean someone is probably sitting halfway on your lap.

He instead asked a fellow passenger, but that person was getting off earlier and wasn't too familiar with "la esquina de la cruz" since his stop was at the town before.


Johnny (Juanny) kept his eye out for a cross statue which turned out to be a bit problematic, because as it turns out, there is more than one around here.

Luckily, another person was able to point him in the right direction after Johnny handed her his paper with the clear-as-mud directions, and he found San Antonio and his stop.

I had confused 4th St. for 4th Ave. (because who really needs an exact address these days?), which would have sent Johnny to the other side of town had he not asked for "the house with the abuela who is 99 years old." That made things much easier for his kind strangers, and they pointed him to Irla's.

"Good job, Johnny, you made it!"

Congratulations to Johnny for taking a leap today!

The cemetery in San Antonio