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chicken bus

Chicken Bus Acrobatics by Rudy Giron - www.rudygiron.com

Chicken Bus Acrobatics

How many times is this image repeated every day in Guatemala? I’d say a few hundred times since the ayudantes, helpers, often …

Guatemalan Chicken Bus Kitsch by Rudy Girón

Guatemalan Chicken Bus Kitsch

I am truly convinced that Guatemalans can not do anything in a mild, neutral, gray manner. Guatemala is a country of extremes …

Much Ado About Nothing

The chicken bus barely stopped while crossing over 4a calle oriente; the main artery that becomes the exit to Guatemala City. A …

Guatemalan Chicken Bus Kitsch

Among my photographic resolutions for 2011, I have written down: Documenting all the chicken bus kitsch decorations. How about a teddy bear …

Tuk Tuk Toy

Believe it or not, the tuk tuk motorcycles which are used as short-run taxis, tourist police patrols units and grocery delivery vehicles …

Colorful Chicken Bus Terminal

A quick trip to the handicrafts market provides a handful of colorful images like the one above. Stay tune for upcoming photos …

From Blue Bird to Green Quetzal

The typical Guatemalan camioneta (public transit bus or chicken bus for those who like the colourful derogatory term) is based on an …

Street photography or voyeurism?

I believe that I do tend to be a voyeur or obsessive observer when it comes to capture the most natural street life scenes. My goal is to capture the intriguing split-second scene. I do not like posed photograph, especially posed street photos because once the subject is aware of the lens the natural feel is lost; the window that I open for you into the daily life of La Antigua Guatemala is broken.

Marimba Orquesta Chicken Bus Ave Lira

Like Manolo said, with Marimba music as the background for many parties and celebrations around La Antigua Guatemala and the rest of the country, I can almost smell the pine needles under my feet and the tamales and ponche (fruit punch) in the air. Oh what memories… sometimes I even wish I could like this type of music. 🙁

Marimba Chicken Bus and Church of San Pedro

Well, well, what we have here… what’s up with that, why are Guatemalans so enchanted with the infamous chicken bus. I mean what makes Guatemalans take on the crappy junk and retired school buses from up north and give them a second life as public transit chicken bus, mobile libraries chicken bus and now as a marimba orquesta mobile unit chicken bus.

Chicken Buses are The Second Life of School Buses

Unless you have taken the path of La Marche de l’empereur, you haven’t heard about how everyone is living a virtual second life through a community web site. Well, old and retired school buses from the U.S. get to live a real second life as camionetas (the street name for public transit buses in Guatemala). Revue Magazine had an in-depth article about The Birth of a Camioneta (available as a PDF download) which detailed step-by-step how an old retired school bus became a powerful camioneta ready for the curvy roads of the mountain ranges of Guatemala.

Chicken Bus and the Driver’s Assistant

Guate, Guate, Guate… vamos vaciooossss!

That is what you hear the chicken bus driver’s helper yell out as the omnibus makes its way back into Guatemala City. But there are all kinds of yellings: Antigua, Antigua, Chimal, Chimal, Chichi, Chichi, Xela, Xela and so on.

Guate, Guate, Guate… vamos vaciooossss! Guatemala, Guatemala, Guatemala, we are empty is what the driver’s ayudante (helper) would yell out if they are full, like this.