Guatemala Chicken Bus Travel – Guatemala

Guatemala Chicken Bus Travel
Guatemala

Picture a yellow school bus. Remember their small, green, vinyl seats (the low ones, not the high-back variety) meant for two children? Picture yourself sitting there, in the back seat, with two other adults wedged in next to you, and every seat filled this way. Now picture people lining the aisles, knees jammed against seats and legs of people on the aisle.

Well, let’s get this chicken bus going!

See your bus heading up a windy mountain road. Now smell the exhaust as you chug-chug-chug along. Whoa! Do you see that ancient, little, red station-wagon trying to pass you, uphill, around a blind curve? There’s a truck ahead of your bus, and another bus in front of the truck. The little-red-station-wagon-that-could, clears. That’s not as scary as your own chock-full, retired American school bus moving to pass the slllooow truck, uphill, around one of countless blind turns. You pass the semi and move behind the other chicken bus as a car headed for your own bus veers over to the shoulder.

You stop watching.

Welcome to travel in Guatemala. There are lethal wrecks here all the time. But one other thing…feel the heat. Now see the windows closing quickly. It has started to rain. What do you choose � getting soaked in a cool breeze, or staying dry in a stifling, musty heat? The choice disappears � all the windows close, and you, in the backseat, see the two adults next to you stand up serenely as water pours in through a crack in the back door. No one says a word.

You remember your backpack � with all of your “worldly possessions.” It’s on the roof. Oh well, you think, there’s nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.

Fifteen minutes pass and the downpour stops, so your two seat companions crowd in again. Suddenly a guy swings in the back door of the school bus, as the bus moves along at full speed. Where did he come from?

The driver doesn’t seem to notice. He’s concerned about passing the bus we’ve been following. He heads over a double yellow line to pass � and veers back in as the sound of a horn disappears behind you…from the car that would have been the object of the head-on collision. El chofer cavalierly pulls the bus out again and again thrusts the steering wheel back to the right. Now he ventures out slowly and sees it’s clear � for the hundred feet before this particular blind curve. He jams. After passing the bus ahead, there’s a pause of at least one second before you see a truck heading around the curve, overtaking the road we occupied a moment before.

Feel your bus slowing down. The police are present for an accident. Picture a smashed-up car and a school bus surrounded by smashed fruit, a casualty that probably won’t make the news. This is “taking the bus” in Guatemala. Bottom line: I love Guatemala, but chicken bus travel is loco!

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