Transportation in Guatemala..(to be continued)

Much of what is done in this country is still done by hand and often a team effort. The Mayan population has toiled in the hills for centuries, cultivating crops on slopes so steep, I doubt many Americans could even walk up once, no less work on all day. Human labor has until very recently been the only methond to get things done with the exception of the horse brought over with the Spanish Conquistadors 500 years ago, little has changed in this underdeveloped country until the turn of the century when Europeans, mostly Germans, set up plantations and introduced modern methods of production and transportation.

Roads in this tall mountainous country are a serious challenge to build. At the moment, Tiawan is building many of the roads here..not sure what the arrangement is, but there seems to be a big plan, country wide.

Paths worn into hillsides show the centuries of foot traffic patterns. Roads however are relatively new or quite old and the quality of each is similarly different. I have noticed that vehicles here normally do not show high mileage and that makes sense considering they usually do not have to go far until the road becomes unbearable and you return home! The condition of cars and trucks due to the stress of conditions here are sometimes quite poor.

Horses are used by those in the country and in many ways I guess it's like the old West here. In towns, even small cities, caballeros are seen galloping down the street.

Cars are fairly new to the country, again, as road conditions are generally poor, but work vehicles are common. Trucks and buses abound as well as other smaller vehicles.

The buses now range from the so called Chicken Buses, which are actually old U.S. school buses used to transport the local population around, to the new Mercedes and other big name monsters that carry tourists and those better off financially. The chicken buses are hell to ride on but cool to look at. Overloaded often on the roof and inside, with people and cargo. Bicycles, sacks of potatoes, oranges, avacadoes etc. on the roof and People packed in 3 or 4 to a seat. The standing room is-well let's say tight...'real tight'.

One thing nice about those chicken buses though is their usually painted up neat and real eye catchers.
Some are on their last leg, as is the one on the left, but I bet it's still functioning many years from now. Unless it goes off a mountain road one of these days for loss of brakes!



Painted up and trimmed out in after market chrome goodies, they almost look luxurious.