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 llega llega… dale, 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.

Instead of writing all the possible things the driver’s assistant of a chicken bus can yell out I leave you with Zacatenango; an electronic-genre song with samplings of many different call outs from chicken buses and sounds of Guatemala. Zacatenango is the third song in an awesome anthology by the name of Democracia Sonora (Sonic Democracy) which is a compilation of electronic songs made by Guatemalan DJs with the common thread of samples of street sounds of Guatemala and its public transit system.

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