How We Go

I am sure you are getting sick of the posts every day, but there is so much I am trying to fit in before I leave! Sadly, for saftey reasons there are not many pictures on this post, but the transportation in Guatemala has been so memorable that I figured I needed to do a post about it, even without pictures!  There are many ways we travel here in Guatemala.  Car is not really one of them.  Here is how we do it here:

Walking

Patzacía is a small town, so we walk wherever we need to go!  I have learned to enjoy the 15-20 minute walk to school each day, or the walk into town.  It is a great opportunity to meet people, and fun to see Guatemalan´s in their element.  The sights are great!

Tuk Tuk´s

Okay, we don´t actually use tuk tuk´s all that often, but they are EVERYWHERE here, so I need to mention them!  Tuk tuk´s are small cart things that you can hire to take you short distances.  They remind me a lot of what we used in China, except it is a cart, not a bike on the front connected to a cart on the back.  They are small, though we did fit all three of us in the back when we went to Iximché. 

Shuttles

We take a shuttle most of the time when we go on our weekend trips.  They are slightly more expensive, but they don´t make stops which makes them faster.  Some rides have been better than others.  Shuttles can hold 10 people comfortably, but they like to put 14 or 15 in them.  When you have a 7 hour ride to Honduras it makes for a REALLY long ride.  Sometimes you luck out and there are only 6 or 9 people in one.  No air conditioning, and the seats are pretty small, but not a terrible way to travel! 

Chicken Busses

Oh my goodness.  Where to start with chicken busses.  I really had no culture shock when I came to Guatemala.  There was nothing about the country that surprised me, except for chicken busses.  Let me explain.  Chicken busses are old school busses from the United States that have been converted into public transportation busses in Guatemala.  They are extremely colorful, we recently learned, to let you know where they are going.  They are called chicken busses not because there are chickens on them, but because they litterally STUFF them as full as they can.  You know how we put two children in each seat in the United States?  Here they put three full grown adults in each seat.  If you end up in the ¨third¨ seat (in the middle) you hope to have someone in the third seat next to you.  That way your shoulders push up against each other and you hold each other up.  Once there are three people in each seat they start to fill up the aisle with people standing between the knees and backs of the third sitters.  Once the whole aisle is full they open the back door and people hang out the back.  They never turn people away  (you would lose money!) so once it is filled on the inside, they start putting men on the top (NOT KIDDING!)   Once the bus is full the helper comes up and down the aisle (often swinging from the bars overhead to move) to collect the fare. Personal space does not exist, it is hot and stuffy, and I have no idea how people don´t die from falling.  It took me a while to get use to the system, and I would dread the third seat.  I am now grateful if I have any seat at all, even if it is a third!  I have only been on one truly miserable chicken bus ride. I was in a third seat with NO seat under me.  There wasn´t a third next to me, so I kept flying all over the place.  It happened to be our longest trip on a chicken bus, of course.  A man behind me took pity, though, and held my backpack! I really wish I had a picture to show you how crazy full these things are, but it is not safe at all, so we keep our camera´s safely tucked away! 

Microbus

A microbus is really just a large van that they use like a chicken bus, but for a smaller area.  These microbuses are meant to hold 15 people, I counted 29 on one ride.  I ended up standing by the door (which was open) on one foot in the pouring rain.  It was a long ride! Krista ended up standing slouched in the front of one with NO space last week.  They forget that we aren´t built like Guatemalan´s and at 5´3 I am practically a giant.

The way these people manage to travel still boggles my mind!  But they do it!  When in Guatemala, we travel like Guatemalan´s!