seat has fallen out, or if the breaks emit horrifying noises every time they are applied? The only thing that matters is that the bus is still moving and can still fit upwards of 100 people into it.
These school buses, commonly known as chicken buses due to the fact that in Guatemala they are often used as a form of transporting livestock, are prolific in these Central American countries. We came across our first chicken bus experience in Panama City. There they were the primary mode of local public transportation used within the city and for short distances. Most long distance buses were of a slight more sophisticated variety. In Costa Rica, on the other hand, chicken buses were quite rare. However, once we made it to Nicaragua, I don’t think I’ve seen anything else other than these eternally reliable yellow (or formally yellow) vehicles.
It is quite the amazing form of transportation. Take as an example our trip into Granada. We had gotten onto one of these chicken buses upon leaving the ferry from Ometepe. It in turn dropped us off at a rondo some kilometers before Granada with instructions that another bus would come and take us. After 15 minutes of waiting, we saw a bus approaching and loaded all our gear onto our backs. The bus came to a stop maybe 40 meters past us, a guy jumped out and started waving for us to hurry up. He opened the door on the very back of the bus, yanked off my big backpack as I was still running towards it, jumped on the ladder at the back of the bus and in a quick set of motions hoisted the backpack onto the roof. Before I had even managed to scrabble my way into the bus he had already done the same to Julita’s bag. Sitting spots were not to be found, so we squished in desperately trying to keep our balance as the guy kept on shoving more people onto the bus, banged the side of it and whistled in a signal to the driver for him to get going. Once the bus was in motion he managed to slam the back door shut, sprinted alongside the bus to climb in through the front and then proceeded to weave through the crowd and collect the fare.
This process was repeated what felt like every few hundred meters and at times the bus would merely slow down as opposed to stopping. We saw him virtually chuck an old grandma into the back (she couldn’t reach the steps and didn’t have the strength to scramble up). It is absolutely amazing how fast and efficiently they can do all this and how many people they can fit onto these old buses.
In contrast, from Granada to Leon we ended up taking microbuses. These are slightly newer and potentially a bit more comfortable being essentially supersized minivans. However, on our first leg of this journey, the microbus functioned in essentially the same form as the chicken bus: we were loaded onto it in a sprint; before I even managed to take my big backpack off the bus was already moving; it was fully packed and the aisle was not even wide enough to fit the backpack comfortably; people got loaded onto it like sardines; there was no roof rack to put the baggage onto; and the driver was a maniac swerving in and out of traffic, passing, breaking abruptly to pick up other passengers and accelerating at break-neck speeds. The second leg of our journey was not so much a microbus but a minivan, which, when full, goes direct to the destination. However, they manage to fit 15 passengers into the minivan (including their luggage) and with all windows closed and crazy drivers, the experience is not any more pleasant.
By the time we had reached Leon we had decided that we probably prefer the colorful chicken buses. However, today that conclusion has been slightly undermined. We were heading from Leon to Somoto via Esteli. The only morning bus to Esteli departed at 5:20am so we were left with little choice. This 3.5 hour journey started out alright. However, after 2 hours sitting in cramped school bus seats, your entire body starts falling asleep, starting with your legs/feet, butt, back etc. The situation is then made worse when at this point in time the bus starts filling up to, or rather way past, its capacity.
School buses tended to have a narrower set of benches on one side (i.e. for say 2 little school kids), and slightly wider benches on the other side (i.e. for 3 little school kids). Well, with 13 or 14 rows of benches, all mandatorily filled with 5 adults (often of the curvy variety), the bus is already quite full. Add to that about 30 or 40 additional passengers crammed in the narrow aisle and you do not even have an inch to move. However this is not all. Most of the travelers tend to have bags of rice, baskets of vegetables, bicycles, bags and other forms of baggage, not to mention our gigantic backpacks that also have to be crammed into or on top of the bus. It is quite an amazing feat, but one that gets quite tiring especially on such a long journey.
Two chicken buses and a taxi later, we had finally reached Somoto around 11am. In a couple days time it will be another chicken bus to the Honduran border, a further one on the Honduran side to the El Salvadorian border, and most likely a third one in El Salvador. I will never again complain about the quality of our city buses or Greyhound.
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