In my first post in Guatemala, I mentioned the chicken bus. I think they deserve their very own post. They are a huge part of the culture here, and I think that other Latin American countries, but I'll keep you posted on this subject. As I mentioned earlier, the chicken buses are old school buses that have been downgraded and now serve as transportation for the masses. All sorts of people use chicken buses, students, businessmen, old ladies, chickens, dogs, etc. The first bus look like school buses.They are yellow, have stop signs on them, and often still have the school name or city where they originated. As time goes well, the owners of buses begin to customize their buses, so that at the end, no two are identical. It is common to religious quotes on the bus as "God protect us" or "gift of God". When you see how they drive, it is easy to understand references to God!!
In any case, there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of these buses in the country and in a small town like hundreds of Antigua to go through the bus on a daily basis. The bus transportation and cargo from town to town, from city to city. On some roads, like Guatemala City to Antigua, buses run every 10 to 15 minutes. Other ways are less frequent, perhaps only an hour or less.The road names are marked on the front of the bus, but this is not a problem if you do not see the signs, because all the buses have one driver and at least one other boy whose job is to yell at the course and to get people on the bus. Sometimes there is a third person and we'll handle it. The guy seems to always be yelling the same kind of booming voice and strangely, it does not really matter what they are shouting, it always sounds of nature. The nearest example I can think of is like a fair or carnival, all the "carnival" sound the same.When we have at home, ask one of us to imitate the appellants chicken bus, it's great!...
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