Oh Chicken Buses... What Would Guate Be Without You

Right now I feel like I have kind of hit a bit of a lull, which would account for my lack of posts recently. It’s not that there hasn’t been much excitement on my end, simply lack of ability to put it all to paper. So, to break this I have forced myself to take the time to simply sit down and focus on nothing else. Here goes nothing…

Since all of my traveling around Guatemala lately has been by chicken bus, I feel like I should explain first of all what this is, and some crazy instances that have occurred in transit. Basically, a chicken bus is an old school bus that is unfit to be driven in the United States or Canada, and has been driven down here to be used as their main method of public transportation. As is typical for this culture, the buses are completely decked out with lots of bright colours, tassels in the windows, and if your lucky… fur on the dashboard. That’s right, it’s the most pimped out looking bus you will ever set eyes on. If that doesn’t startle you or catch your attention the ‘Jesus Cristo es mi pastor’ printed in huge letters right next to a silhouette of a woman, or the extremely loud reggae tone beats, is sure to cause a double take.

These buses are packed to the absolute max. One morning while taking this bus into town for Spanish class, I literally had to climb over the shoulders of two women who were sitting in the two front seats (at least 3 people in each seat). They were simply heavier set women, which is just the norm in this culture, and together they blocked the entire isle. So, typical green-go me sees no other option here then to climb right on over. There was standing room only that morning, so I stood near the back next to the speaker blaring Guate beats at 7 in the morning clinging to the ‘oh crap bar’ overhead for dear life. The drivers of these things are insane, its that simple.

On the hour bus ride from Antigua to Chimaltenango, Evelyne and I actually got to share a seat. Having barely pulled out of the ‘bus depot’ (field at the back of the market packed with chicken buses going in every direction), the lady sitting in front of us wiped her screaming child’s diaper off and flung the dirty thing right out the widow. I couldn’t help but imagine an innocent bystander, walking down the street to the market only to get this pleasant surprise package right in the face. How traumatizing that would be. Ev and I silently gave each other a look, knowing what must be going on in each other’s head at that exact moment. A few stops later, we had a guest come to share our seat, sitting right beside me on the outside. He was a large Guatemalan man, complete with a large gun to match. Recently, since the election in Guatemala, there has been a lot of rebels holding bus drivers at gun point, and in this area alone in the past few weeks there has been around 18 drivers who have been killed. Needless to say, because of this information I was a little freaked out inside, but managed to keep that to myself, and remind myself to keep breathing, for the duration of the ride.

Stepping up onto a chicken bus is always an adventure, and there are few things that excite me more then to be apart of some crazy adventure… I am so glad for the ones I have already been a part of, and look forward to the ones to come.

** pictures are completely random... taken on the times when we had the school's bus to take us to various places. Chicken buses aren't the safest places to whip out your camera...