Survive - Guatemala - page 620

In general, more buses leave in the morning (some leave as early as 3am) than the afternoon. Bus traffic drops off pre-
cipitously after about 4pm; night buses are rare and not generally recommended. An exception are the overnight buses
from Guatemala City to Flores, which have not experienced (to our knowledge) any trouble of note in several years (we
hope we're not tempting fate here).
WARNING
While bus travel at night in Guatemala is rarely a good idea for anybody, it is strongly advised that solo female
travelers not catch buses - Pullman or 'chicken' - at night time, the exception being the overnight buses traveling
between Guatemala City and Flores. There have been no incident reports regarding those services.
Basically, what you want to avoid is being the last person on the bus when it arrives, if it's going to arrive at
night.
Distances in Guatemala are not huge and, apart from the aforementioned Guate-Flores run, you won't often ride for
more than four hours at a time. On a typical four-hour bus trip you'll cover 175km to 200km for Q50 to Q80.
For a few of the better services you can buy tickets in advance, and this is generally worth doing as it ensures that you
get a place.
On some shorter routes minibuses, usually called 'microbuses', are replacing chicken buses. These are operated by
the same cram-'em-all-in principle and can be even more uncomfortable because they have less leg room. Where neither
buses nor minibuses roam, pickup (picop) trucks serve as de facto buses; you hail them and pay for them as if they were
the genuine article.
At least a couple of times a month, a chicken bus plunges over a cliff or rounds a blind bend into a head-on collision.
Newspapers are full of gory details and diagrams of the latest wreck, which doesn't foster affectionate feelings toward
Guatemalan public transportation.
A CHICKEN BUS IS HATCHED
If you rode the bus to school 10 years ago or more in the US, you might just end up meeting an old friend in
Guatemala, resurrected and given new life as a 'chicken bus'. Love 'em or hate 'em, chicken buses ( camionetas
or parrillas to Guatemalans) are a fact of life in traveling around Guatemala. A lot of times there is no alternative.
As you can probably tell by the signs that sometimes remain in these buses ('anyone breaking the rules will
lose their bus riding privileges'), these buses really did once carry school kids. In the US, once school buses reach
the ripe old age of 10 years, or they do 150,000 miles, they're auctioned off. This is just the first step in the long
process that results in the buses hitting the Guatemalan road. They then get towed through the States and Mexico,
taken to a workshop here where they are refitted (bigger engine, six-speed gearbox, roof rack, destination board,
luggage rack, longer seats) and fancied up with a paint job, CD player and chrome detailing.
Drivers then add their individual touches - anything from religious paraphernalia to stuffed toys and Christmas
lights dangling around the dashboard area.
Thus, the chicken bus is ready to roll, and roll they do. The average bus works 14 hours a day, seven days a
week - more miles in one day than it covered in a week back on the school run.
If you've got a choice of buses to go with, looks are important - chances are that if the paint is fresh and the
chrome gleaming, the owner also has the cash to spend on new brakes and regular maintenance. And, with a con-
servative estimate of an average of one chicken-bus accident per week in Guatemala, this is something you may
want to keep in mind.