While riding at breakneck speeds the back door will occasionally open as somebody climbs down a ladder from the roof and casually takes a seat. This leaves me to wonder how many people are riding on the roof of the bus and how they manage to stay up there while we fly through the mountains. Of course every bus ride is a unique experience as some owners take such pride in their bus that they deck it out with TV screens that show hilarious cartoons on repeat, or promiscuous music videos as they blare popular pop songs.
Some even have a disco ball. When entering a bus station the bus becomes engulfed by women tapping at windows until you unwilling open them to have dozens of fierce people pressuring you to buy the local fruit — or bright pink balls of popcorn. Until the mob is satisfied with the amount of products sold the bus is at their mercy. I love chicken buses, they epitomise so much of the Guatemalan culture and never fail to make for an exciting journey.
Hi Koala, Yet another highly entertaining post on Newly nomadic. Have a great trek and we all look forward to hearing of your latest adventure when you reach Todos Los Santos. Lots of love, Dad xxxO.
The Chicken Bus Experience - 43BlueDoors
Down here in Panama most of the buses are smaller seat, air-conditioned Toyotas. Most, but not all. One thing I enjoy doing since I retired down here is to just get on one of the many buses at the terminal and see where it goes. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Wait, are you letting more people on? On second thought, please just let me die.
Around the World by any Means
Those are some of the many thoughts that have ran through my head while riding on Guatemalan chicken buses. While spending hours with my arms squished down to my sides, wondering whether that stench of body odor was coming from me or the fat man smashed up against me, I had a lot of time to think.
- Guitar Method: Winter in Seattle;
- Kiseki wo yobu kin no tama Eld ball no monogatari (Japanese Edition).
- The Fear Of Denial.
- THE MULTIFACETED CHICKEN BUS OF CENTRAL AMERICA – LATIN AMERICA FOCUS.
- See a Problem?!
- Serenade No. 5 in C Major from Five Viennese Serenades (Cello Part).
- Night Rangers:;
And in that time, I devised a few rules to make your chicken bus experience maybe just a little bit less terrible. So get cozy with the three other people sharing your two person seat and read on.
Always keep your bags where you can see them: We met a British traveler who told us a story of one guy trying to steal her daypack right from between her legs as she slept on an overnight bus. For the most part, the buses are too crowded for anyone to really try anything, but just be aware.
THE MULTIFACETED CHICKEN BUS OF CENTRAL AMERICA
We always made sure we could see our packs in the overhead racks and never let them put our bags on the roof of the bus. Always put your bags in the overhead bins: Keep anything you need in a bag on you: If you think you can just stash your stacks and cash in the top pocket on your pack and get it out when you need, think again. Make sure you have everything you might possibly need for the ride on your person when you sit down.
That happens rarely though. Check and double check everything: This goes hand in hand with the last one.
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Know how much the ride should cost: Ticket takers will also lie to you about the price of a bus in effort to make a little extra cash off the ignorant gringo. Try to find the price of a bus online first. A lot of travel blogs, my own included, try to include the price of each bus ride on a journey. El precio es [insert correct price here]. Sit toward an exit: The closer you are to an exit, the faster you can get off the bus. More specifically, however, sit toward the back exit. Keep your things together and be ready to leave at any moment: The readier you are for this moment, the less shocking it will be.
Many travel blogs and forums will attempt to scare their readers by stating how dangerous many of the changeover towns are. The worst part about the changeover is their speed. Sometimes you hardly get a foot on the bus before it starts to speed away. One bus pulled out on us as Chris was still hanging on the back ladder.
Yes, the drivers are crazy, but all drivers in Central America are crazy, so it becomes a matter of conforming to survive.