Antigua, Chicken Buses, and Chichicastenango

Antigua

I originally had planned on staying in Guatemala City to wait for Christie to arrive, but after finding out that she was coming in the evening of my fourth day in the Country and after travelling around the city with Michelle and Bex, I decided that I would take Bex and Michelle up on their offer to head to Antigua with them and wait for Christie there.

We booked a shuttle through our hostel which turned out to be Grandma's mini van (literally) and it was running on Guatemalan time (30-60 minutes late). The trip was supposed to take approximately 45-60 minutes, but leaving on a Saturday at noon-time meant that it took 3 hours. Got to see a bunch of the city on the way out though because there are so many one ways and there is only one real highway (CA-1) in the whole of Central America that you have to transverse many of the zones to get out.

We were dropped off at the Gato Negro Hostel (Black Cat), which is considered one of the best and one of the worst hostels at the same time. It's got a reputation as a party hostel because so many people stay there and it's mostly dorms. This leads to many people up at all hours of the day and night and with thin walls and doors that don't lock, it can be a bit much. I loved the decor though...there were a bunch of the Spanish/central American colors that are popular in every country but the US it seems and the dorm that we were staying in was designed by someone into mid-15th century dungeons. The walls were dark blue and the bed spreads dark red. Add to that, cramped quarters and one small bare light bulb that illuminates a fraction of the room (we seriously needed a flashlight at certain times when trying to find wall outlets (which didn't turn out to exist in the rooms) or things from our packs). But the hostel has a bar with discounts for those that stay there, a movie room, free WiFi, and the best breakfast in the city (I didn't get to sample this though).

Antigua is the ex-capital of Guatemala. It was founded at the beginning of the 16th century and inspired by the Italian renaissance, therefore having a very colonial and European look and feel to it. It was made the capital city in 1541, but largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1773, thus causing the relocation of the capital to Guatemala City. Many of the buildings and old churches that were destroyed by the quake of 1773 remain in their destroyed state as a type of open air museum. It's neat to walk around the city and once every few street corners there is the front façade of a church or other building and if you look through the entrance you'll see a courtyard with large concrete bricks on the ground being slowly swallowed by the weeds.

Antigua is currently home to experts, foreigners that don't want to leave, tourists from everywhere, language students attempting to learn Spanish, and guatemaltecos (Guatemalans from Guatemala City that migrate over and stay). It's definitely very touristy, but has a certain charm to it. There are cafes enough to have you in a different one every day for months, a huge supply of restaurants to try and hostels to jump from, souvenir shops galore, internet, banks, and tour companies to everywhere. The city is surrounded by three different volcanoes and is the travel hub for the rest of the country, as well as the surrounding countries. All of this adds up to a very good reason to have left Guate City two days earlier than originally planned.

We dropped our gear at Black Cat and set out for food. As seems to be our luck, we couldn't read the map to save our lives and couldn't find the one restaurant that we were trying to locate from the suggestions in the Lonely Planet, but we stumbled by luck or accident another one of the places in the book: Rainbow Reading Room. This is one of about a hundred different cute cafes that are spread out around the city. The cafe has a very bohemian flare to it with tables set into corners and cushioned seats. There is also a used bookstore attached to it and if you buy a book, they'll give you a free tea or coffee to have while you chill out and read. The place also hosts bands in the evenings and is one of the few spots open after 9 pm. It seems that unlike other Latin American countries, Guatemala rolls up the carpets and dampens down the doors at about 6-7 pm. It's really weird.

Our first day in town, Michelle, Bex, and I just wandered around a bit, looked at the different shops, and sampled the local cuisine. There were these Mayan women in one of the plazas that were making pupusa's, a type of corn tortilla that has either cheese or meat in side and is cooked on a hot fry pan. Once it's hot and toasty, guacamole, a pickled onion mix, and salsa is added. It's really good and cheap.

While eating our pupusa's were met another adventurous couple of travellers, Scott and Sara, Australians that had been living in Canada and working at a ski resort for a year before travelling for the last two months. We got to taking and decided that they were pretty cool. It also turned out that they were headed to Chichicastenango the next morning, which is where I was headed.

Chicken Buses and Chichicastenango

I decided that I wanted to try a chicken bus up to Chichicastenango (which is known primarily for its Thursday and Sunday markets and the local Maya dress). Chicken buses are old school buses that America has decided aren't safe or suitable for American children to ride in anymore and therefore are perfectly suitable for the inhabitants of third-world and developing nations. These buses, once in country, are painted gaudy colors, adorned with religious phrases, and then used to ferry the lower class citizens all around the country. They're inexpensive, pack you in like sardines, and the drivers have no regard for safety, speed limits, or human life. I couldn't wait to try one out so I headed out of my hostel at the wonderful time of 6:30 am in order to catch the 7 am bus. On the way I was reminded of home as I passed by an area cordoned off by the cops and surrounded by gawkers trying to glimpse the unfortunate that had passed away during the night (the glimpse I got showed a local transient and not a tourist so don't fear, it's perfectly safe here).

After walking around the bus area a bit, a local asked where I was headed and pointed me in the correctly direction for the bus that I wanted and then shouted at it to stop when it was pulling out of the station 20 minutes earlier (always nice to know that Guatemala time doesn't necessarily mean running late, it can mean running early). Scott and Sara were already on the bus and told me they were glad I could make it when I hurried on.

The first half-hour of the ride was nice and I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. Since we were in the first station when it pulled out, there were only about 7 people on the bus and tons of space. As time wore on, this soon changed. More people filed on after hailing the bus (as you would a taxi or when trying to hitch-hike...there are bus stops, but the bus were stop wherever people want it to) and soon there were up to 5 people on a seat meant for two (usually three adults and two children). An hour into the journey, the conductor's assistant tells us to get off and drives away. We're in the middle of a busy thoroughfare and it doesn't appear that there is a market anywhere around. We wander a block and ask whether we're in the right place and are told to hold on a bus will come. We were actually in Chimaltenango, which is a hub for Chicken buses as they all come through here. Apparently there is no direct chicken bus to Chichi and you have to catch another one. Our helpful locals told us where to wait and willing flagged the needed bus down when it arrived, but refused to sell up some of the tamales that they were cooking and selling to others on the street. A weird kind of kindness.

Eventually the other bus arrived and we were loaded on with all due haste. The chicken buses don't really actually completely stop. They kind of slow down to a mile and hour and kick you on or off as fast as possible. There's a helper to the conductor that’s job is to grab people and push them on, or push others off, and then collect money for fare. The thing is that the conductor won't wait for them either so there are a lot of times where they're running to get back on as the bus takes off down the road or they grab on the back of the bus and then walk across the roof and climb in through a window.

This new bus was completely packed to the gills. We were stuffed in the stairwell at the front and the conductor's assistant is yelling for us to head further back, and it's like "where?". We ended up squished in the aisle, being held in place by core muscles, overhead rails, and the ten bodies pressed in close. This is definitely not the mode of transportation to take if you're claustrophobic or don't like being touched. It's a good work out too as you need to use your core muscles and your arms to keep you from crashing into your neighbors or the sleeping family in front of you (how they could sleep is a mystery to me). The driver of the second bus gets the award for craziest driver I've ever had. The road to Chichi twist and turns and there have been landslides all across it where they've just diverted the traffic to the other side of the road. The driver drove around these curves so fast that even he had one hand braced on the window so he didn't fly out of his seat at each 30 kph turn were took at close to 70 kph. Add to this the driver's inherent need to pass everyone, including other chicken buses, and it was a little like living those car racing video games that were so popular when I was a kid.

Two hours of speedster later and we arrived in one piece in Chichi at the start of the market. This is considered one of the largest and most colorful markets in the country, thus being a great tourist trap. The market reminded me of the schuks of the Middle East, with its numerous stalls all selling similar merchandise, the children trying to sell you the same in the streets, and the hordes of people.

It was fun to explore and Scott and Sara and I found our way into the center area (literally in the center, you had to spot the narrow pathways between the stall the form the walls) where the local comedores (food stall/restaurants) where. These restaurants were little more than a few tables and chairs, five local women, a boiling pot, and a fry pan. You pretty much pointed at what someone was eating and said that you wanted one of those. We got a tamale and chicken soup with an entire chicken leg in it. Very good and very cheap.

After wandering a bit and buying some gifts for people back home, I said goodbye to Scott and Sara (who where headed to Lake Atitlan) and went to find my chicken bus back home. The ride home was slightly less exciting then the ride up. I got a quarter of a seat to myself and the driver was slightly slower, but that could have been due to the fact that the radiator was overheating and the assistant kept having to jump out and grab water from streams to dump on it.

I made it back to Antigua safe and sound and waited around for Michelle and Bex to find out how their day had gone. They had gone to Volcano Pacaya, which I was waiting for Christie to check out.

Since this entry has gotten way longer than I intended and I already know that most of you won't read it all, I will end here and save the last day in Antigua for another entry.