On Day 3 in Guadalajara we had our first encounter with the Central Nueva, the city’s main bus terminal nightmare.

For one thing it isn’t actually in the city itself but way out on the outer edges of the tony suburb of Tlaquepaque. We called a taxi to take us from our hotel in the city centre out to the Central Nueva.

Our driver peppered us with questions about where we were going (Barra de Navidad) and finally decided, somewhat hesitantly, to drop us of at one of a multitude of stations.

Google satellite shot of Guadalajara’s Central Nueva

Yes. You see right. Every single bus company in Mexico has its own station and its own selection of destinations. Even the local taxi drivers aren’t entirely sure which bus line is the best choice for any particular destination.

At any rate, the station our taxi driver chose did have buses to Barra de Navidad and we did end up where we wanted to go.

I know for a fact that one can take a city bus out to the Central Nueva because we actually did it when we were looking to make a day trip to the town of Tequila.

This consisted of asking masses of people where we could catch the bus to Tequila. The only person who actually knew was Hector and that was because he just happened to be going to Tequila right then and there.

Apparently, there wasn’t a bus in the city that went to Tequila, one had to go out to the Central Nueva and catch the bus from there.

He helped us catch the bus to the Central Nueva, got us off at the correct terminal and literally deposited us on the bus to Tequila. Without his help I sincerely doubt that we would have made it! (Travelling to Tequila.)

Several times on this trip we met up with travellers that were obsessed with getting to destinations without having to go to the Central Nueva but this station is THE major hub of the region and it appears that it can’t be avoided unless one takes the milk-run buses to relatively nearby destinations – these end up downtown…