Daily Life Blog Post ... Transportation take 2!

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 microbuses!

I can only guess how many people are in the red and white vans...

Microbuses, glorified 12-16 passenger vans, are another marvel of the Latin American world.  They are small, yet mighty.  Predictable, yet mysterious.  Structured, yet not at all.

The crazy terminal...

 Not a day goes by that I don’t walk down the road and hear, “Rotunda, Rotunda”, “Parque Parque!”, “Calvario, Calvario”, or “Terminal, Terminal!”.  These buses, staffed with the standard ayudante and peloto are constantly campaigning to have your business.  When I first moved to Xela, I almost gave into the campaigns a few times thinking, “I don’t really need to go to the Parque, but I could walk back and get some exercise and help this poor, desperate sounding man out”.  Then I wised up and realized that every one of the 100+ buses in the city has the same poor, desperate sounding tone to the campaigning ayudante.

This is, unless the ayudante is 8.  

I hate child labor.  

The standard peloto seems to be around their 30s, and the ayudante in his young 20s/late teens.  However, especially during the holidays, the peloto would use what seemed to be his son, so in the mix of men whose voices have changed, you have a little kid yelling, “Parque!  Parque! Parque!” trying with all his might to sound like an adult, but nature just won’t let it happen.  

Another interesting fact about microbuses is that they magically can never fill.  The other night, we had 26 people on our bus coming home, and our peloto stopped for more people (and also because the bus was having a really hard time getting over the speedbump) and kicked his son, the standard 9 year old ayudante, out saying, “I’ll come back for you”.  So, then we had 29 people in the microbus, having traded a 9 year-old for 4 fullsized adults.  Yet, we all fit!  Kinda.  

Finally, there’s the mysterious route system of these buses.  My host dad, who up until recently was the president of a microbus cooperative, tells me and shows me that there is a schedule for the buses, but I have a hard time believing this.  I often arrive at the terminal to see three of my bus numbers leaving and then wait for 10 minutes until a mob of them return.  Space out the times?  Why?  That would be silly!  There’s also this silly bus route entitled 20B.  When I ask for the best bus to go ___________, the answer is always 20B.  The thing about 20B is that I never see it!  The three times I have seen it, one time the bus was broken, another time I got on and went in the wrong direction, finding myself back at our house, and the third time, it wouldn’t stop for me.   My host parents claim that it’s mysterious because there’s only three buses on the route, but they always seem to be able to take it home, thus getting home in less than ½ the time it takes me.   It’s becoming quite the house joke.

Microbuses, like the crazy cars (upcoming blog) and insane buses, keep you on your toes.

(ps... thanks for the pics, juli!)