Chicken buses and chicks on the run

Yess!!! Vacation, finally! We had a pretty late night last night playing cards in Charlotte´s and my room, so it was pretty hard getting up at 4.15am to catch the 5am chicken bus from Todos Santos to Huehuetenango. We rocked up at the plaza just before five, but realized two people were missing and went on a frantic search around town to get them on the same bus as us. It was a bumpy ride over the mountains, but beautiful to watch the sunrise at such high altititudes.

This is Veronica and me having a pretty amazing time waiting for the boat to San Pedro.

Oh well...I should really explain the chicken bus phenomenon a bit further. It is old buses from the US, which I am guessing was bought during the 50s or 60s when car companies in the States extinguished any chance of a public transport system by buying all means of public transport and selling it off to developing countries so the Yankees all had to buy cars. Nevertheless, it means the buses now cruising Guatemalan streets are big, yellow, polluting and all display "School Bus: Adequate seating for 39 adults or 59 children." But, who can read english? How about 65-70 adults crammed together with very loud meringue music blaring from slightly too old speakers...And this is at five in the morning! But you can not say they are not efficient. The driver and his assistant know excactly where you should get off, and before you and your nine friends accompagnying you (in our case), all our ten backpacks which had travelled on the roof are on the ground before we have managed to get out of the bus at the designated stop.

We had a stopover in Xela on our way to Panachael, a city close to Lago Atitlan, but managed to lose six members of the group. We really wanted to get moving so jumped on the first bus and with very limited Spanish managed to get there, avoid annoying middle-men wanting us to stay at their hotel and got a lovely little hostel in the middle of the city. Now it´s about time for a shower and then to check out the night life in this little town, which the guide books call a "gringo magnet". Should be fun regardless. Have a lovely weekend everyone!