Voyage , Voyage

Standing on one leg is pretty exhausting, especially when you're in an overcrowded bus with your backpack. Welcome on the chicken bus, Guatemala´s means of transport. In the chicken bus there's always space for more passengers somehow, and you can be sure that ANYONE on the side of the road is being picked up. It's pretty entertaining though, and the fare is a joke.

One might think that the chicken buses are named after your fellow travel compagnions - it would make sense but is not true. The chicken buses are named after the chicken game (situation where two vehicles meet on a narrow road - the one who stops is the chicken). And the chicken bus is never the chicken - actually no-one is the chicken despite the deep abysses.

The chicken buses used to be old US school buses, converted such that they can carry more passengers. In the US the benches have space for two kids, in Guatemala I've seen benches with six people on it. Guatemalan bus companies can buy the old school buses by auction, after which they are transported overland through Mexico to Guate. You can actually see the Bugs Bunny and Sesamestreet stickers on the inside, making it all a colourful bunch.

And so I chicken-bussed my way through Tikal, Coban, Antigua, San Pedro, Xela, Huehuetenango and Todos Santos. Next country: Honduras.