On the road again...

I was still hanging in there come Sunday morning and it was time for me to depart to Xela - my home for the next two or three weeks while I study Spanish...It was Sunday and there were no shuttles so I knew I'd be commuting via Chicken Bus.

From everything I'd read and heard, the chicken bus is the ultimate Guatemalan experience. American school buses, functioning as the country's bus arsenal, painted in various vivid colors and designs, take the locals to any and every destination around the country. They're called chicken buses because apparently you can bring on anything you want, including chickens...hence the name. What you CAN'T take on are large travellers backpacks, so they have to go on top of the bus, OUT OF SIGHT! I kept my fingers crossed and my eyes open.

Now, after having ridden on not one, not two, but three chicken buses en route to Xela, I can attest to the fact that these buses are truly the ultimate Guatemalan experience.

But first about just finding the right bus, or any bus at all....

I had been informed the bus to Xela would be leaving from El Centro at 11AM. I arrived in El Centro, near the Church to find a parade going on with marching bands and princesses tossing candies from floats, i.e. decorated truck beds...While observing the local festivities, I inquired w/ a local woman about whether or not the bus to Xela was coming at 11... She shouted to ask around and then told me something along the lines of: There was no bus to Xela, and/or something regarding the number 148....

Ten minutes past 11 and no bus in sight....BUT there was another gringa in sight, and when the parade passed, I asked her, and she said the bus was coming at 11, and I told her what I knew.....We THEN learned that the bus to Xela was indeed arriving. But was it really was was the bus to Guatemala City, and after travelling for 148 km toward Guate (the wrong way!), we could transfer to a bus heading to Xela.

Turns out the gringa, Erin, is also studying at Juan Sisay, my school in Xela, and returning after a weekend at Atitlan. What a coincidence! We were told there were buses to Xela from Pana, so we went to the dock, took a boat to Pana, only to learn what I began to suspect during the ride to Pana....

LESSON: If you're looking for a direct route, you have to be specific in what you ask about! Of course there were buses to Xela...just not going directly, of course! Of course!

We ran to catch a bus to Solola, then to Los Encuentros, and then to Xela...Now, to the experience of the bus itself....When we hopped on, I thought, what has she gotten us into?!? This bus is completely full. I learned quickly that a school bus seat "fits" three to a seat. I also learned that the chicken bus is the best full-body workout as my biceps triceps, quads, calves and glutes burned as I grasped seatbacks and pushed on seat legs and the floor to keep me secured to less than a quarter of the seat! I learned that it's better to be as crowded as possible, that way you can just lean into each other instead of having to hold yourself up! The bus will ALWAYS let people on the bus even when the ensuing situation of people-Tetris seems absolutely impossible!

After winding roads, rough rides and many transfers, I, and my bag, arrived safe and sound in Xela! And it's true, the men who work on the bus know exactly whose bag is whose. Amazing.

p.s. Kate and Brian - I noticed that my chicken bus to Xela was a BlueBird North Georgia, registered in Lafayette, Georgia!!! Always thinking of you...

p.p.s. Luckily no actual chickens, or livestock of any kind, during this trip....