I'm sure allot of you will be wondering soon-

"Where are the solstice trip reports and pictures"

I good time my friends. Oly mon and I have a large ammount of video and still photos to sift through and a long story to write.

I have decided the best way for me to organize my material is to tell a few other interesting stories first. This will help me to get rid of some frivilous info and get to the meat of winter solstice at Tikal 2011.

Now on to the thread!

Chicken Busses of Guatemala could literally be a NatGeo/discovery reality series. When I first heard of the chicken bus and that I would probably spend allot of time riding them I had this picture in my mind of old yellow delapitated school busses that were packed to the gills with people,produce, and of course chickens! Hence the name chicken bus. After riding on one I get the impression that the name chicken came from the way the drivers agressively move these busses from city to city, it is a constant seemingly dangerous game of chicken!

The drivers of these busses are amazing, fearless, persistent, and determined. Chicken bus driver is a proud profession. Chicken bus driver is a culture, it is a world of its own. A cult, maybe? Moving people and goods across a country with terrible roads and traffic is not an easy task.

The Chicken bus! The chicken Bus driver! An almost Super Hero of sorts. The first thing I noticed and What touched me the most about the chicken busses of Guatemala was the pride that the individual drivers/crews had for their busses and their service.

I have ridden on chicken busses all over the world and NONE were of the caliber of bus and crew that even came close to the Chicken busses of Gutemala.

No joke here people! This story had to be told. Really, you gotta go there and experience it to really get it.

If I had to use on word to describe the Chicken Bus driver it would be, PROUD!

These driveres are by no means rich, they make an honest but meager wage. These owner operators could easily take thier profits and invest in many things, like retirement, vacation, or savings. In a poor, underdeveloped country like Guatemala, what do they do with their profits?

LOL!!!!!

I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Enjoy!

Thanks for those nice photos, Icehouse. Chicken Buses in Guatemala are pretty cool,and pretty similar to most of them Central American buses to be honest: Try the ones in Panema if you were impressed with Guatemala's! .I don't wanna sound like a party pooper here.. ...It's not hard to make people go 'wow' when they start travelling out of their 1'st world countries...That's why i love to travel. Our 1'st world Countries are so clinical and DULL, so full of Complexity and rigidity it's a wonder anything get's going!...Why do we need the latest plasma tv's and pc's-i'll tell you why, cos our Countries are as dull as duck, and now controlled to such a point that the village priest is now starting to look as cool as a Hells Angel, that's why!


--Travel folk, leave your "country duties" behind , go travel, see some of the REAL world before you die, and leave the politicians and arguing persons to themselves-Happy new year!!

Love it, thanks for posting!

I saw a bunch of eagles, a swan and some wings but where are the chicken's Is this just the name?

My first thought was a bus full of chickens, hahahaha loved the pictures!

Amazing busses!

those are by far THE best buses i have ever seen.

Neat post IH!