Chicken Bus, Hold the Chicken...

It's that time of year again.

Guatemala for this round, as the Project is building steam from back home this year and I figured it'd be nice to try at least one of the countries in between my home of Northern California and my usual South American stomping grounds. This year, it really is hard core All About the Spanish--as it stands right now, I only have a few tourist days on either side of a solid month of language study.

With such a tight schedule, I've bid a sad farewell to my normal means of Latin American transit and am keeping largely to the tourist shuttles and more travelled paths. Guatemala's main transit option is the repurposed American school bus, often still with the words Omaha Unified School District etched in black on the wide yellow side that stop everywhere up and down and all around, including in the center of the highway if you ask nice enough. But a growing option in all the areas frequented by travellers is the shuttle, which goes from exactly one place to exactly one other place, stopping only at the fanciest gas stations for the discriminating consumer's snack and digestive needs. Chicken bus, hold the chicken, as it were.