The Buses in Guatemala

Yesterday I spend 6 hours traveling from San Martin to San Marcos. What an experience I had.  First of all I had a fever, headache and congestion that required that I carry a roll of toilet paper to hack into every few minutes. I really felt bad for the people around me.  But then of course I probably got this cold-flu from someone else on a crowded bus.  These buses are old Blue Jay school buses from America that have been put out of service and sold down here. Some are brightly painted, but most are not.  They are always PACKED.  Typically 3 adults to a seat, shoulder to shoulder small bags in an upper luggage rack or under your feet. Children on your lap.  The big bags go on the roof of the bus.  Yesterday I was draging 4 bags weighing over 100lbs total. Randy gave me most of his gear to give to our good friend Rodrigo and his family. At about 1pm Randy helped me get to the bus, but after that I was on my own.  Now I was going solo.  My spanish is marginal, Randy´s is a little better. But with our combined skills we did ok.  I was a little nervous.  I had to get to Chamaltenango then transfer to another bus in Quetzaltenago, a big town, then to San Marcos. It was tricky but clear and I knew I could do it.  And I was reminded regularly by Randy,  ¨Noth´n to it but to do it¨ so I just did it.

The bus experience truely has to be lived to ¨get it¨but I will try to explain it for you.  The driver (dare devil) is always making passes around blind curves guaging the distances with oncoming traffic by inches at times.  Tooting the horn is both a signal of hi to friends and an invitation to join the bus.  It is never considered full.  Some times people squeaze in the isles and in the front.  There is also the Barker-money collector.  As the bus goes through town if a person resonds to the the Barker´s call or the horn with a hand signal the bus swings over and the new stew ingredient has about 10 seconds to hop on before the bus moves again some times they just slow down a little. Its amazing.  Getting off the bus is simular except you have to plan ahead and extricate yourself from your seat and that in it self can be a long ordeal.  If its only one person with no cargo on top they rarely fully stop. The fun happens when there is cargo on top. The Barker climbs on top and grabs the person´s bag (incredably he seams to remember everyones bag) and drops it to the departing passenger. Then he yells  alle alle¨ meaning¨go go so no time is wasted waiting for him to get back in the bus. He climbs down the side of the moving bus and swings into the front door without missing a beat.  Then he goes about collecting the money from those people who hopped on while we went through a town.  He remembers everyone.  There is no time to collect as they are driving through town because another bus might get to the passangers ahead of them or they will fall behind there schedule.

The bus fare is extremely cheap.  I rode half way across Guatemala for almost 6 hours for about 42 Quetzals which is about $5 US.

The worst part of the whole day was when I miss  my stop by 3 large block in Chamaltenago and had to carry-drag all that ¨·"·@/ to the correct stop. A police woman who helped me with directions looked at me with concern because I looked pretty ragged and said to go slow. I did and then was rewarded within 10 mins with a bus that not only went to Quetzaltenango but after a short (bathroom break) continued on to San Marcos.  I felt God was taking pity on me. 

And then then the Adventure continues......