FOOLED BY CHICKEN BUSES!!

So… lesson – if you have to yell at someone in spanish, even if you don’t have the right vocabular, try anyway. A group of 6 of us were on our way to Las Fuentes Geroginas and the climb of Volcan Zunil for the weekend. We decided to take “chicken buses” for 5 quitales (5 Q) about 50 cents in the states. For those that don’t know, these are old US school buses that obviously don’t pass any of the requirments for safety or emissions in the states; therefore, they are shipped to Guatemala for the use of public transportation. Not just any public transportation, but for transporting TONS (and when I say tons, I mean if people are not stacked on top of each other the bus is not full) of people.
We declined a ride in a van for 10 Q because we wanted to save the money so that round trip it would only be 10q for the weekend, but in hindsight we should have jumped on the opportunity. We arrived at the bus stop (aka – side of street where hopefully a bus will stop because you’re standing there), and a few seconds later the bus came. We jumped on with SEVERAL other people and paid our 5Q. We made it about 5 minutes on this bus, and on the first hill the bus broke down. Yes, the hood came open, and the bus driver popped out to “fix” the bus with his small tool kit. YEAH RIGHT! The bus wouldn’t even move, it sounded like an elephant having a baby – the bus was dead. About 10 minutes later the bus driver had made a call, and began to yell at us to get off the bus and onto the other bus that had just pulled up behind us. He opened the back door and the front door and told every one in a loud spanish yell to get on the other bus, my ignorance thought that we didn’t need to pay the second bus because we already paid the first one. WRONG! I was fooled by the stupid bus driver, I swear this is a job they do all the time to make more more. A conspiracy in Guatemala! (I just know it!)
Anyway, success getting to the town right outside of Las Fuentes and Volcan Zunil… Now the way home. You would have thought we learned out lesson to just make sure the bus was working. I swear this one was fine. No crazy noises, and we made it successfully half way back to Xela before the bus stopped, the bus driver turned off the engine and we just sat on the bus for 20 minutes. Finally, Deny (one of the guys traveling with us) got off to ask what the problem was because we were NOT about to get fooled again by these Chicken Bus Drivers! Oh no mister, I learned my lesson, you were not going to take my 5 Q and try to tell me to get on another bus! He said the bus was not full enough, so we had to wait until the bus filled up with people. This is where I learned what a full bus was! I thought when the seats were full, and the standing room in the center of the bus (which they would NEVER let you do in The States) was full, that we were ready to go. WRONG AGAIN! People kept coming in the bus, passing me and I have no idea where they were going. I thought for sure that someone had the back door open and people were walking in the front door through the bus for a tour and then jumping off the back. WRONG AGAIN! They were just piling people in the back like sardines. Literally I had a womans belly hanging on me the whole time… Ah yes, personal bubble POPPED!

Moral of the story – PERSONAL BUBBLES DON’T EXIST ON CHICKEN BUSES, GET YOUR MONEY BACK FROM SOME GUY IF HASN’T DROPPED YOU OFF AT YOUR FINAL DESTINATION, AND YOUR SPANISH IS NEVER TOO BAD TO YELL AT SOMEONE TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE….