Recently when I left the surf town of La Libertad about 40kms of San Salvador I got a crash course in how one gets on to a chicken bus at the station. Here is what I hope is a reasonable recounting.
It was hot. It was really hot when I sat my bag down at the parking lot that doubled as a bus station for the chicken buses. Everyone seemed to be milling around a wall finding respite in the heat, so I did the same being a big believer of when in Rome...
A bus came round the corner towards the crowd and suddenly there was a surge of people rushing it at both doors! Banging on the windows and jostling for position. I Candianly strolled over once the crowd died down figuring that they all just wanted the good seats. Nope the bus was packed out! There was no way my backpack and I were getting on that one.
I returned to the shade a little shell shocked. But ready for how it was done. When the next bus approached I was right there in the middle of the ruck, pushing and wedging myself in. (A backpack makes a great bit of a battering ram.) I managed to find a behind the back row for both my pack and I. I watched as the bus filled fuller and fuller the shoving and pushing continued. No one seemed to get angry with each other, it seemed to be merely a case of doing what needed to be done. I watched as women passed their children through the school bus windows! The seat in front of me, which in Canada would seat two, was filled with a husband, a wife, their child, a live chicken with its head sticking out of a plastic bag and then woman offered another lady on the bus to hold her baby as she was pressed into the middle of an aisle and with infant in hand had no real chance to grab a railing for balance. (Which is very necessary as the drivers push these buses through the curves at insane speeds.)
I counted seats on the bus, it was pretty clearly meant to seat around 48-62 people. I lost count at 250 people on board when we left the terminal and we kept picking people up for a while.
When one wants to get off the bus they bang the roof and shout "baja."
Good times!
Headed off to the Ruinas of Copan today and then to the Bay Islands later this week for some SCUBA diving.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Loved that story. A great read! Good to have you back at the pen... or should I say keyboard.
Post a Comment