Bus Austin to Morelia

I recently had occasion to travel from Austin to Morelia by bus for the first time. Striking out with online searches, to find the bus that I thought existed I ended up driving to a bus station on East 7th Street in Austin. A very nice person there called three different bus companies and I finally found what I was looking for: a bus from Austin to Morelia with no bus changes and no stops in Monterrey or Saltillo. Once I obtained this information I was able to find the site http://www.omnibusmexicanos.com.mx/
which did not come up on my Google searches in either Spanish or English.

I phoned the Austin ticket vendor for information and, between side discussions of orders for taquitos and barbacoa, I obtained a departure time and price. The bus leaves daily at 10:30 PM. I reconfirmed this information with the bus office in San Antonio, which seems to handle only bus tickets.The company is Omnibus Mexicanos and the Austin ticket vendor is the abarrotes store, “La Moreliana”; they also call this bus La Moreliana. (The inside of the Austin store was full of dulces michoacanos and it was run by a michoacano.)

La Moreliana, Austin - 512-851-2909
Omnibus Mexicanos, San Antonio – 210-271-9559 

The skinny: Purchase the ticket at La Moreliana at 3600 S. Congress, Austin, approximately two blocks north of Ben White/Hwy 290, on the West side. The price is $118.00 payable in cash only. I purchased my ticket a few days in advance. They ask you to arrive at 10:00 PM. They say the trip takes 20 hours, plus any extra time spent crossing the bridge into Nuevo Laredo. I recommend taking at least 2 quarts of water and ear plugs to defend against a few of the movies. The bus is comfortable, seats recline, it has a bathroom, and the driver(s) pleasant.

I arrived at 10:00 PM, as recommended. It is best to have someone take you who can wait with you so you can sit in a car. The store is closed, and the bus came at 11:00 PM. The temperature at that time of night was 100 degrees F, and the bus was cooled down to the high 60’s F. I saw that most people had a pillow and a fleecy blanket. I needed both.

The bus originates, I believe, in Dallas. It stops in Austin, we stopped in San Antonio and then in Laredo. In Laredo a new “bridge driver” takes over just to cross into Mexico. Those on board who needed tourist visas said it was quick and that they received help filling out the forms. On the Mexico side, a person in camouflage uniform boarded with an automatic rifle. He picked two men who took their carry-on luggage with them and got their suitcases out from stowage to have them searched. Quick and no problem. Then the driver announced that if the passengers wanted to pay a cooperación, “entirely voluntary”, that we would get a green light and go through customs quickly. No collection was made. It did take an hour to get across into Nuevo Laredo. I could not tell what the wait was; there were buses in all lanes ahead of us and maybe it just took that long to process us through; we did not have any apparent problems with customs. I asked about this afterwards. The (new) driver explained that one of the passengers has to initiate the voluntary collection for customs and the going fee is US$10.00 per person. A Mexican friend of mine from Salamanca had told me some time ago that she paid this $10.00 when traveling home by bus. People often do it if they are in a hurry to be on their way or if they are loaded with gifts for family.

In Nuevo Laredo we went to the bus terminal. They dropped us off at the terminal for 20 minutes while they cleaned the bathroom. The special bridge driver was replaced by two new drivers. At this stop, everyone takes their carry-on items of value off the bus with them(not pillows, blankets, etc.) The luggage compartment had been sealed with an Aduana tape. The bus returned promptly and we departed.

At approximately 9:30 AM we stopped for breakfast for exactly 30 minutes at a roadside restaurant south of Saltillo. We bypassed Matehuala and stopped at San Luís Potosí. At approximately 4:30 PM we again stopped for exactly 30 minutes for comida. The bus would have stopped at Querétaro but no one was getting off there. The next stop was at Salvatierra; we did not stop at Moroleón, a regular stop, but no one needed to get off. We arrived at the Central de Autobuses in Morelia at 8:30 PM; the soonest arrival possible would be 6:30 PM.

Buén viaje.