Chicken Bus
Wednesday, December 13
No matter where you are in Guatemala, both in the big cities and in the small villages near Lake Átitlan, you can see huge, brightly painted buses driving through the streets. These buses are affectionately called "chicken buses" and are used as public transport.
The buses come from the USA and are decommissioned school buses. They are brought to Guatemala and used here as public transport buses. Here in Guatemala it seems to be common practice for every bus owner or driver to personalize their bus. We saw buses driving around everywhere in Guatemala and every bus we saw was brightly painted and individually designed. The design was so different every time we saw a bus that it was really exciting to watch the different buses. Some buses are brightly painted all over, some buses have patterns, symbols and letters on the aluminum side panels and some, a few buses, even have their own lighting and sound system installed. Those buses make noises and are equipped with flashing lights.
We took the chicken bus a few times and even though we arrived safely at our destination every time, it was always a little adventure. The buses are usually completely overcrowded and we were always amazed at how many people the bus driver squeezed into the bus. And how much large and bulky luggage the people boarding had with them. As the name "chicken bus" suggests, there were also a few chicken cages with live chickens on the bus every now and then. So public transport is not only used here to get from one location to another, but also to transport all kinds of objects (and animals)!
Since the bus is always very crowded and the seats are quite hard, I would recommend this type of transport only for short to medium-length distances. And even though many blogs on the Internet advise tourists not to use the chicken buses, in my opinion a trip on the chicken bus is a must-do on every trip to Guatemala. As long as you look after your valuables, nothing bad will happen to you. Every time Christoph and I were on a chicken bus, we were treated very kindly by everybody!
