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| - My wife and I recently used Tufesa to travel from Phoenix, AZ all the way to Guaymas, Senora, Mexico. We'd been planning a trip to visit my uncle, who lives in San Carlos, but we we'd never driven in Mexico before so we were nervous. My uncle recommended Tufesa since he'd used it numerous times to travel between Mexico and the U.S. So, we gave it a shot.
We arrived at the Tufesa station in Phoenix around 10:45pm. The bus depot isn't much bigger than a gas station and looks very much like one. The place wasn't crowded.
We bought a tickets on their "Executive" bus, which costed around $85 per person, and boarded the bus at the expected time of 11:00pm. Upon entering the bus, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the seats were clean, cushioned, and had plenty of space both in front and behind. Rows consisted of 3 seats; 1 seat on one side of the aisle, and 2 seats on the other side of the aisle. Each seat had a leg rest that could be folded down so that you could recline. Extremely comfortable for a bus, I must say!
The bus leaves Phoenix and makes a few other stops along the way before reaching our destination. It stopped in Tucson to pick up other passengers and then headed south to Nogales to cross the border. At the border, we pretty much just stayed in the bus and waited for the border patrol officers to come by and scan our passports. We also had the bus driver wait for us while we got our visas. After that, we had several hours to sleep while the bus drives down to Hermosillo and Guaymas.
The inside of the bus is really nice. TV screens fold down from the ceiling to play a movie (however the movie is dubbed in Spanish). Otherwise, you can sleep pretty comfortably since all the lights are turned off and all the windows have thick curtains to block outside lights. There's also electrical outlets in each aisle, so you can charge your cell phone/tablet while your resting. EXTRA POINTS FOR THAT!
My only gripe about the bus?... you guessed it...the restrooms. I had eaten just before the trip and didn't do #2 beforehand, so during the drive, I really had to go. I stood up from my seat and stumbled blindly to the back of the bus (note to self: bring cell phone or small flash light with you to the bathroom to avoid tripping). After figuring out how to open the door, the next step was trying to figure out how to close it. It wouldn't seem to latch closed. Eventually, I figured out that you really have to slam the door to close it properly. Once inside, I found myself in a cramped room with nothing more than a metal sink and metal toilet. (Claustrophobes, beware). The toilet seat appeared to be made of 1/4" thick sheet metal. Sitting on it was cold & uncomfortable. It seemed like the edges of the toilet hadn't been sanded or smoothed, so sitting on it felt like having a large ring shape carved around my bottom. Let's move on...
The flush of the toilet is automatic. It apparently is triggered whenever the restroom light turns off. The restroom light is motion-sensor'd. And in my case, the sensor wasn't very sensitive. So the light keep shutting off every minute and then the toilet would flush a couple seconds afterwards. Despite me continuously waving my hands around while I sat on the can, the lights would still shut off. Now I know its considered good manners to do a "courtesy flush", but after hearing the bowl flush a dozen times, I'm sure the people on the bus thought I was taking one serious dump. But wait... it gets better.
When the toilet does flush, a few spouts of water shoot down into the bowl to clear it out. Or rather, they're suppose to shoot down. One spout didn't. It shot up... right at my rear end. Can you imagine was it's like sitting cramped in the dark, waving your hands around like a madman to make the light come back on while having water shot up at your butt a dozen times? Thank GOD they had stocked a full roll of toilet paper! I ended up walking out of the restroom feeling filthier than when I went in. My wife complained that her restroom had no running water in the sink, so she couldn't wash her hands after going. Poor baby...
All joking & criticizing aside, my experience with Tufesa was a very enjoyable one. I think it's an excellent value and a great way to travel to & from Mexico. I would recommend it to anyone. And for those who are nervous about trying them out, rest assured you'll be fine. (Just be sure to bring an extra underwear and a bottle of hand sanitizer)
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