We were out of the hotel at 4am this morning. Tony was waiting out front; Mike had made us each a breakfast burrito for the ride. Said our good byes, loaded up the Land Rover and began the drive.
You have to be very, very careful driving at night on the Pan American highway. Sure it’s a highway. But not like we think of them – for cars, busses, trucks and motorcycles. Yep, it has all of those and…hose drawn carriages, people on bicycles, people walking, people pulling wheeled carts behind them and ox pulled wagons. Horses and cattle graze on the shoulders. All of this in the hour before sunrise. Imagine a two lane road, in the dark with an 18 wheeler coming at you with its brights on, on the left shoulder is a horse grazing, on the right shoulder are two guys on bicycles, and an ox drawn cart ahead of them partially in your lane, and no, no reflectors or lights on anybody. Yep, interesting. It did get easier when the sun rose. One quick traffic stop and we entered the city.
Yikes! The traffic volume, cars, chicken busses, trucks, horse riders, ox drawn carts, pull carts, people. Absolutely fascinating.
So, what’s a chicken bus? It’s an school bus with the usual door in the front as well as a side door in the back in addition to the rear emergency exit, which is a third “working door”. They get the name because you can transport anything you can get on them, including chickens! They are the cheapest and truly are mass transit making many stops. You can bring as much of anything you can fit on or in the bus. The roofs are full of stuff and the insides are jammed with people. There is a crazy guy driving and a second “packer” that makes sure people get in the bus quickly. He rides on the outside of the bus and hops off to help “pack” people in. The busses are decorated with paintings and streamers. They are always adorned with the Catholic icons and images of the Virgin Mary or Jesus.
The drivers race from stop to stop, yanking the busses around slower moving vehicles or ox like they were handling a sports car. We even saw one slowing for passengers and a second chicken bus behind him passed him on the right while one went by on the left. At that moment there were three busses across a two lane road! Even Tony remarked, “loco!”.
As we neared the airport we hit a traffic circle that was insane. Three massive busses stopped on the side and people were streaming from them stopping traffic. The traffic just kept inching there way into and through the crowd. Tony was doing the same thing. It was a massive game of chicken between drivers, scooters and walkers. Finally a woman halted and Tony moved through. It’s funny though, nobody gets angry at the driver nor do the drivers get angry. It’s just how it’s done. The horn is simply a warning or a “what’s up” device. Not a tool of aggression as we know it.
We made it to the airport and we said good bye to Tony and thanked him profusely for an experience of a lifetime!
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