What goes up, must come down (read: a bus that goes one way, must eventually return in the same way)

So, having had some success with navigating the buses, I decided to try again, and hopefully continue my lucky streak.

Well folks, I should have just shelled out 15 pesos for the taxi.

Let me tell you the whole story.

So, I had left my jacket at a friend's apartment, about a week ago. I wasn't too concerned about said jacket (I brought two spares to BA) but I needed to get it back, and tonight had been chosen as the night.

I mapped out my route on comoviajo.com, proud that I was such a bus maven (they are called colectivos here). I walked to the two blocks to the stop, waited and boarded.

I pretty much immediately knew something was wrong, since we didn't seem to be going in the right direction. However, I put my faith in the route I looked up, because I don't really have the best direction sense. About 30 minutes in, when I should have been arriving at destination, we had just entered some darker, dirtier looking residential areas. At this point, I knew I was not getting the jacket tonight. I told myself not to panic, that the bus had to loop back at some point.

45 minutes later, we arrive at the end of the line and I get up, then ask the bus driver why I never got to my planned destination. He laughed, telling me I should have gotten on the same line but in the OTHER DIRECTION. He told me how to walk to the right bus stop (three blocks through some area that wasn't for gringas, let me tell you), then I boarded the bus and another 45 minutes put me right back where I started.

Lesson learned, look at a map, check the necessary bus direction before embarking on journey.