© meltravels — An old US school bus repainted into the infamous public ‘chicken bus’

If you’re flying into Guatemala City, upon arrival at the airport there are shuttles (even without prior reservation) to Antigua, from where you can then further your journey to other parts of the country. Otherwise, take a taxi to a bus terminal to catch a chicken bus to your destination.

Pros and cons between a shuttle and a chicken bus?

Truth is, they don’t differ very much in terms of comfort. Taking a chicken bus from Guatemala City, which is the starting point for most buses, you’ll be guaranteed a seat so you won’t have to be swaying interminably in the center aisle.

And in terms of time saved, I’ve found that there’s no significant difference between the two either since all the drivers drive like hell’s on fire anyway. The chicken bus will make stops for people to get on and off but that doesn’t contribute to a significant delay in reaching your destination. Any delays will be due to highway constructions.

In terms of cost, the chicken bus is generally cheaper, although for some routes there is no significant difference. For example, from Antigua to Panajachel or Guatemala City, you can get it as cheap as $5 or $7 with a shuttle, which works out about the same as a chicken bus. But for longer routes there might be a larger margin of difference.

Point is: if you’re hesitating about taking a chicken bus, don’t… unless: (1) you have a hefty amount of luggage, then you might want to consider a shuttle, or (2) if you don’t want to take the chance of being robbed while you’re asleep or unaware - I’ve had my wallet stolen from me before while I was asleep, and I met a traveler once who unknowingly had his pocket sliced open with a knife and his passport and cash stolen. But the better reason to opt for a shuttle over a chicken bus is (3) not having to make multiple connections. A shuttle brings you from A to B in one vehicle, sometimes even door to door.

However, for every first-timer in Central America, the chicken bus is an experience not to be forgone since it offers up a true local experience (once you’re a veteran you’ll probably tire of it). So here I’ve listed a few places in the country you might want to make your way to from la capital, with the bus terminal addresses provided in Spanish.

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It’s more exciting not to have anything planned, to have only one ticket in and one ticket out and know that in between anything is possible. That way, things never quite turn out the way you expect them to.

I now find myself in Antigua (the quaint little town in Guatemala, not the Caribbean Island by the same name, mind you) despite the fact that I never intended to spend any time here, or Guatemala, at all. I’d thought that from San Francisco I’d work my way immediately to Nicaragua, but that just didn’t happen.

People who know me can testify that I can - frustratingly - be a very last-minute person. I prefer to be described as ’spontaneous’ and I like to think that that makes me better able to deal with challenging situations under pressure, but I know my parents prefer the use of the unflattering adjective ‘haphazard’. Admittedly my last-minuteness hasn’t always proved to be a good thing, but more often than not I’ve found it to be quite useful, and it’s landed me in plenty of interesting spots I’d never have found my way to otherwise.

Basically, what happened was this:

I had a flight booked to Guatemala from San Francisco on October 16 at 8:05 p.m. and by 5:30 p.m. I still wasn’t sure if I was going to take the flight. You see, I’d fallen a little bit in love with San Francisco and wanted to stay longer, thought that perhaps later I could make my way down to Nicaragua by land via Mexico and Guatemala. But in the end, for fear of invalidating my return ticket home if I missed this segment, I decided to board my plane.

However, I had no onward ticket to Nicaragua and no accommodation booked in Guatemala. I thought that upon my arrival in Guatemala I would buy the next ticket out to Nicaragua, if there was one, or take a bus. Or maybe I would stay a night and make a little tour of Guatemala before moving on to Nicaragua, since I was already in the area. But honestly I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. So I waited till I arrived to survey what my options were.

In the end, what happened came completely out of the blue: two elderly women from Hong Kong adopted me for a little while and gave me a place to stay.

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