Many Guatemalans use local buses for daily transportation since it’s cheap and the cost of car ownership is quite high for many who struggle to get by on very low daily wages.
They’re nicknamed “chicken buses” because you’re often sharing the bus with chickens or goats or just about any other animal you can imagine. There is a team of people working on the bus – the driver, a cash collector, and a roof-jockey, who is often up on top of the bus taking cargo from passengers and securing it for the ride and then passing it down when the passengers jump off the bus.
These buses are mostly old dilapidated Blue Bird school buses exported from the USA when they’re no longer deemed safe for the road. Once in Guatemala, they undergo extensive cosmetic surgery to make them appealing, often with shiny chrome bumpers and elaborate paint jobs, but almost never any mechanical upgrades.
On more than one occasion I was in a bus screaming down a steep mountainous road on a bus that couldn’t slow down because it was overloaded with people (and animals) and could barely make the corners.
The Guatemalan women carry their babies in a blanket tied around their back. This little baby was eyeing me the whole time.
Location: On a chicken bus somewhere in Guatemala