Daily Blog Post... Transportation Take 3!

This is one of many (hopefully) editions featuring aspects of daily life here in Guatemala... in writing these, I hope to share funny things, ironic things, and things I admire and I want to share them not as a form of judgment... in ANY way... but in a form of telling a story... with that being said...  here's information about more transportation!


Transportation, as you can tell by its ability to take of three weeks of daily life blogs, is a very fascinating thing for me.  Not only do we have the big buses and the little buses (both of which have gained recognition with their very own blogs that highlight the differences between the US and here as well as some fun anecdotes), but then we have the other things that are just so different that the differences captivate my attention…

Seatbelts.  Yep.  Not important.  Nor are seat numbers.  I instinctively reached for the seatbelt in our car the other day and not only did my sisters laugh at me, but I found out that they are as close to unusable as humanly possible.  Then, as soon as I recovered from the embarrassment of assuming that I would be able to safely sit in my seat, I was befuddled by how many people were crawling into our car. That number would be 13.  Yep.  13 people in a SUV.  Kids in the back, 5 people across the back seat, and 3 in the front.  Ridiculous.  I guess I didn't need a seatbelt after all...

Streets.  Psycho.  Not straight. Very skinny. Very pretty.  Slightly terrifying when  a car, driven by a very energetic and aggressive driver, comes careening towards your face.

Motorcycles (or Motos en espanol). Possibly the most dangerous idea ever.  Put lots of people, of all ages, on a two wheeled hundred pound (or more) piece of metal and drive around town like a bat out of hell who has no recognition for rules or traffic regulations.  This is made even more treacherous when you realize that the larger hunks of metal on wheels that they are cutting around and through also have little to no respect for rules and regulations of the road (that is terrifying as stated above).  

and helmets?  They're a fashion accessory.  I see them most often hanging off the handle bars. 

How many people can go on the moto?

Two Spanish teachers + a bag full of water + moto = relief car for our independence day 5k.

 Pick-ups.  They are by far the most useful car in Guatemala.  There is one town outside of Xela that is nicknamed Toyotalandia because of its influx of Toyota pickups.  They aren't lying in the name.  There are a ton of pickups.

Anyways, pickups can carry a lot.  They can carry 10-20+ people, ages 0-90.  They can carry bags upon bags of fruits.  They can carry enough food for hundreds of people as we hand it all out at schools. OR... they can carry ALL THOSE AT THE SAME TIME!

One of my favorite things about walking through the Market in the mornings is that the majority of the Taxis that are there are pickups.  Magical.

Stand up, sit down, stuff in the cab, or extend yourself over the luggage in the back.  How you ride in the pickup is up to you.

Laura modeling with a tuk-tuk!

Tuk-Tuks.  Aren't they pretty?  Sadly, they're outlawed in Xela... possibly because of the crazy other forms of transportation. 

But, let me break my mourning and describe these amazing vehicles.  First of all, every tuk-tuk has its own flair.  The one pictured here is pretty boring.  The ones out along the lake are crazy.  They look like bugs with their flying curtains as they careen and bump down the holy (not in the spiritual way) roads (often sandwiched between camionetas... in a collision, the latter would win).  They are decked out in hyper, flashing lights, and have extraordinarily tinted windows... so tinted that sometimes you doubt that they can see out the window at night but then you realize that there's a tiny hole, the size of a telescope, that allows them to see.  And at night, you sometimes question their sobriety.

Tuk-tuks, in design and by definition, are three-wheeled apparatuses that are driven by a joystick... kinda reminiscent of our the handles that steer and drive the airplane my family had when I was a child. Not reminiscent of our airplane, the average tuk-tuk pilot is a 20 year-old boy who is looking for girls and a party and as many people to ride in their tuk-tuk as possible, thus they drive REALLY FAST (afterall, you're charged for distance, not for time). 

Oh man, there's so many more types of transportation to tell and explore, but there just isn't the time... plus, so many other stories to share!  
Take care!