Ladies and Gents, boys and girls, people of all ages… Welcome to the blog that is going to illustrate the gloriousness that is Guatemalas public transportation.
*this blog is not for the faint of heart* (just kidding, keep reading)
No I didn’t take this picture, I just stole it from Google 🙂
Behold the chicken bus! These buses are old school buses from America that they drove down to Central America, gutted, painted in vibrant colors and crazy patterns, and “refurbished.” (when I say refurbished, I mean they put in seats that are a little bit bigger than normal so the aisle is half the size and they add several bars to hold onto and put bags on)
Now that you know what it looks like, let me paint a picture of the chicken bus experience. So each bus has a different route and the plate above the windshield has the names of the cities its going to. If the bus that coming has your city on it you flag it down. There is always a little Guatemalan man that stands on the stairs and looks out for people that want to get on. He is always having out of the open door of the bus and screaming the name of the city they’re going to. My personal favorite is when we go to Chimaltenango and the man on the stairs yells “chimal chimal chimal” really fast. all the words just run together until I’m left wondering what he actually was trying to say. 99% of the time, when you walk, or run rather, onto the bus, every seat is full and we are greeted by Latin dance music blaring from the speakers. The most you can fit in a seat is 3 but lets be honest, the third person is only hanging on by one butt cheek, so they take up most of the aisle. You kind of have to just shove your way through the crowded aisles while knocking people in the head and having full body contact with several people at a time. They pack everyone in there so tightly that there is no room to move or breath, but I guess that why they call it a chicken bus. Then, here comes the best part, remember the little man that stood on the stairs? well he squeezes his way down the aisle to collect money from everyone. I kid you not, I have had people squeeze past me through a space no wider than my hand. It always amazes me how he can fit down the aisle no matter how many people are on the bus. Then comes the part where people want to get off. Once again people are squeezing past you from all directions and all you’re trying to do is not smack someone. On a chicken bus, there are 2 ways out of the bus. The front and the back door. Yes, the emergency exit door that is used for fire drills is the secondary exit. My team and I are not strangers to jumping out the back instead of pushing through people to get to the front. Its so hectic and I kind of hate it, but it gets me from point A to point B and its cheap so I’m thankful. I hope you feel like you’ve experienced a chicken bus so that you never have to actually experience one (except you Mom and Charles, I’m going to make you ride one while you’re at PVT) Have a wonderful, chicken bus free day!
