Don´t be Chicken when you ride the Chicken Bus

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Fellow Gringos,
The past few days have been exiting. We have traveled to many smaller towns up and around the Highlands in Guatemala. One stop was Chichicastenango. This town has the largest street market in Guatemala. Walking through the streets one will see street vendors selling corn tortilla with meat, ice cream carts, shoe shiners with a small black tool box, and a variety of handy crafts such as wooden animal masks and bright colored blankets. There is an endless amouant of jewlery and the seller is aggresive. The hotels have been nice. The rooms typically have two small beds and a small table. The walls are usually barren, but some have Mayan art framed above the beds. The day starts around 6:30 am and the hustle is very loud. The cobble stone steets have no traffic lights. This makes for alot of Honkin´. So far I haven´t seen any accidents. The Chicken bus is the fastest and cheapest way to travel. These are old school buses painted in wild colors. There are three guys that work on the bus. The driver is responsible for getting to the next destination as fast as possible. This is no exageration! Driving down a two lane road he will pass every car in front of him, frequently on a blind curve while speeding down a steep mountain. The caller will hang off the step on the side of the bus. His job is to recruit passengers. He does this by holoring the next destination to bystanders on the street. If someone wants a ride they must swiftly hop on because the buses rarely come to a complete stop. The loader is a madman! He is responsible for putting large luggage on the roof racks. When we ride the buses we must put our Packs on the racks. This guy hangs from a ladder attached to the back of the bus and clips our bags to rthe rail. The crazy thing is that he does this while the bus is speeding off to the next location. Then he will climb down and enter through the rear entrance and begin to collect fare which is usually a buck fifty. He also climbs to the racks right before we get off the bus while the bus tears around corners and tosses our bags to the ground while the bus moves on. Another popular way of getting around is the "Tuk Tuk". This is a three wheel taxi with a driver in front and a three person seat in back. They look like oversized Vespa´s with a roof and carriage. OK this is getting long and I haven´t bagan to talk about The Mayan Ruin of K´umarkaaj, The psychedelic church, The cultish San Simon, and the first Catholic church built in all of Guatemala. These adventures were really exiting and I will write about them in my next blog. If you have not been able to view my pictures yet go to the gallery icon and then double click on the picture. This will bring up all the pics that I have postd so far. Enjoy. Tomarrow I start Spanish lessons four hours a day for the next week.
Adios Amigos,
Chad

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