May 22, 2008. Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. Persistence Pays.

On Tuesday afternoon while on a long walk, an old open trolley car drove by. We hailed the driver and asked him what he was doing. He told us that this a tourist trolley, free, and it drives all around Nuevo Vallarta, all day. Of course he could not answer all our questions because our Spanish is so bad, but we thanked him for the information and told him we would see him tomorrow. Now this a welcome new addition to our town and we decided to take the trip tomorrow. While waiting for me outside on the hallway, Ken saw the trolley, so we decided to catch the train across the street. But the trolley did not come. Next plan was to walk down to the shopping mall, but no trolley there either. I suggested we walk down to the hotel and down we went, but it turns out the trolley only goes as far as the mall. While walking back to the mall, we saw the trolley leave without us, despite my loud whistle. So we waited, and waited and waited but the trolley never came back. It was actually an interesting wait, because the bus stop is busy with all kinds of sizes and shapes of people. Finally we gave up and went back home, pondering all the while the little man with the schedule at the bus stop.

The first thing I spotted was his Converse High Top shoes. They were shoes from my youth. His were purple. Then I noticed that he had a little black bag, and every so often he would consult his list in this little bag. So I moved to sit beside him. Now he had a very bad limp, and with every opportunity, he sat with his bad leg propped up on the bench, of course in the shade. He was a heavy set man of about 45, nicely dressed in a white polo shirt and blue pants. The most important thing about him was his face. He looked very happy and pleased with himself. While I watched him consulting his black bag, it was clear he had the bus schedule and he recorded the bus arrival at this stop. At every bus, he stepped onto the bus, recorded the time, and gave the driver a copy, all the while chatting away, laughing and smiling. If a bus arrived, he called out the destination to those waiting. This was a man on top of his data, and it was a pleasure to watch him in action. As an aside, when he saw me watching him read his schedule, he moved. The bum.

But today our persistence paid off. This morning, crack at dawn at 11:30, we walked over to the bus stop at the mall, and after a wait of three minutes, the trolley came to pick us up. We drove the whole route twice, because we spotted a new restaurant on the other side of town. Wonderful lunch, followed by the trolley ride home. Persistence pays!!