Friday 10 April 2009

Chicken bus vs. Mini bus

(Saturday, 4 April 2009)

Chicken bus vs. Mini bus: the mini bus wins by knock-out in early round 1. The competition for the most uncomfortable way of travelling, I mean.

Public transport is mostly private owned in Guatemala. Mini buses (12 to 15 seats vans) are in competition with the larger chicken buses, and often work alone in the least travelled routes.

I thought the chicken buses were bad: crowded, with bad suspension, even worse music (cheesy Latin American love tunes all the time) and always travelling at high speed.

Well, the mini buses can do worse. No new ingredient – just more of all of the above.

The Cobán – Sayaxché trip beat it all. The high land scenery was painfully cruised in a bumpy unpaved road for almost 3 hours. A van with 15 seats was taking 30 people most of the time. The cooler mountainous climate soon gave place to the damn hot tropical weather of the flat lands of the northern tip of Guatemala – the Petén region.

It was a really uncomfortable ride – bare none.

Seating in a very crowded bus, with not much space to breathe a too-hot-to-be-true air. And then having to wait for almost half an hour in a small village, where the bus got stuck in the middle of the road because of the market. There, even more people came in. And the crowd outside was so packed that it contributed to the feel of claustrophobia.

But hey, it’s cheap.

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