La Vida Nica - Chicken Buses

I thought I would end my blog's long hiatus by doing a few posts about the 6 months I spent in Central America, most of that in Nicaragua. First up in the series is the iconic method of public transport in all Central American countries: the Chicken Bus!



These types of buses run inter-city and suburban transport routes across Central America. The name comes from the habit of some locals to take their farm animals with them, and the name has stuck in the tourist community. It isn't as common as people make it out to be - I think in over 100 chicken bus rides I only saw a handful of chickens and a few boxes of chicks. That said, it does always make you giggle when you hear the box above your head tweeting as you drive.



To run the bus you need at least two people: the chofer (driver) and at least one ayudante (assistant). The driver's job is simple: navigating the route in as little time as possible, usually achieved through driving that would make Vin Diesel nervous. The ayudantes have to collect the fares and take care of the big luggage. Fares are collected once the bus is on the move, which can be complicated when the bus is busy and there's no room to move between the passengers. Luggage is sometimes stored at the back on the bus on quiet routes, but more often it is tied on top. This is usually done while the bus is moving, with the ayudante performing some Spiderman stunts to get the job done without serious injury.

The shape of the bus should be familiar to you because they are the exact same buses used by schools in the USA, the famous yellow ones which if you haven't caught one yourself, you have definitely seen in movies.

Before...

Once those school buses hit retirement in the USA, they are bought at auctions and driven south across Mexico to a "chicken bus factory" somewhere in a Central American country. Here they get some important adjustments, with luggage racks added to the roof and interior, the dinky school bus engine swapped for the grunty engine and manual transmission of a semi trunk, and most importantly, they get a paint job.

...After!

And inside. The luggage racks are added by the locals at the chicken bus 'factory'. Sometimes the ceiling has bible verses painted on it or pictures of Jesus.

In Nicaragua, the buses were usually quite plain. Most of them were still the original yellow with their destinations carefully painted on the front, so not super interesting on the outside. However, I did catch this snap from inside the most packed bus I have ever taken, between Masaya and Rivas...

3 people stuffed on seats meant for 2, aisle packed with people and the poor ayudante squeezing past us to collect the fares and occasionally shimmying up to the roof to look after the luggage.

Almost all the pictures here are from Guatemala where the buses were seriously cool. The buses were heavily decorated according to their owner, route, and driver's pride. In the few weeks I spent there I tried to find the most creative and colourful bus of all, and as you can see from the pictures, there's stiff competition!

"Well hello handsome! ;)"





These buses are one of the best ways to get in touch with local life - perhaps too close if the bus is full! Catch one and see how you like it.

There's plenty to choose from!

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