Day 5 – The Apartment that Got Away (Thankfully)

Day 5

Today we will look at 2 places to stay.  One is a room in Adriana’s house at the Division del Norte metro stop.  The other is Gabriela’s 2 bedroom apartment that we would share with another couple.  It’s the last stop on the Pesero Fuentes Brotantes, the Mirador stop.  Mirador means view, sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

View from Gabriela's apartement at the El Mirador pesaro stop.

Our appointment is first to see the room in Adriana’s home.  We easily find Adriana’s house, about a 5 minute walk from the metro.  She greets us in the same slow, clear Spanish she used on the phone.  She’s the cutest little abuelita.  The house is goreous!  It’s 3 floors, with a beautifully decorated living room and dining room.  The kitchen is huge and there is the large patio out back with lovely plants and birds chirping.  The bedroom is in a former bar, larger than our current hotel room.  There’s laundry and WiFi.  She has a few others staying there, an American, a Canadian, and a couple Mexicanos.  We decide to look at the place with a view before making our final decision, but we tell Adriana we will call her in a few hours.

And good news regarding all that rain yesterday, apparently it never rains like that all day, according to Adriana.  It was hurricane Arlene.  David said it’s important to include those details.

Despite loving Adrian’s house, we are going to check out our other option and see Gabriela’s apartment.  We board the Metro and take it to the most southern stop, the University stop.  From there we ask around for the Fuentes Brotantes pesero.  A pesero is a small bus that takes people places the metro and the metro bus do not go.

Riding that pesaro

They’re kind of ramshackle, and the driver is often playing his favorite music quite loudly.  We ask around until we find the pesero we are looking for.  And so begins the pesero journey to el Mirador.  On and on the pesero slowly crawls in traffic, over speed bumps, and through intersections, techno blaring.  I begin to wonder if we’ll ever reach our destination, the last stop.  I’ve already decided I will never do this again, let alone every day.  The pesero begins its ascent up the hill to el Mirador. Finally, 45 mins later, we have arrived.

Nice view but the location is less than to be desired.

It’s a huge housing development, well, it’s the middle-class projects.  We wonder around looking for building 5a apartment 501.There’s dog shit everywhere.  Eventually we climb the five flights of stairs to find the most disgusting apartment I’ve seen in awhile.

David out front of Gabriela's apartment.

I had already called Adriana when we got off the pesaro and told her we’ll take the room in her house.  We move in Sunday.

We spend the rest of the day celebrating our new home! Pics of the new place will be posted soon!

Let's get out of here!