The Bus System!

Ok, I´m going to try and keep this simple because there are a ton of little details I could include. I´ll try to hold back and not write a novel every time I get on the computer!

First of all, the Guatemala City bus system! As a frequent patron of the Denver city buses I feel like a seasoned rider, but there is no comparison. The city buses are generally old school school bus style, and are in varying degrees of safety and repair. There are established routes, but not exactly established stops. There are always obviously places to load and unload, but if you feel like getting off between designated stops just whistle as loud as you possibly can. We haven´t mastered the whistle just yet. The buses are generally always very crowded, even to the point of people hanging off the back and front. However seats tend to open up quickly with so many people moving en masse.

When we all first arrived in the city we were able to enjoy this crazy, pack ém in like sardines style of transportation, and it was actually a great way to bond with each other. In one instance we made the unfortunate decision of hopping on a bus making scary, death throw kind of sounds. On the way up a small hill, all of a sudden we were rolling backwards gently. The bus driver threw the emergency brake, fiddled with the gears and got her moving forward again. However about 1000 meters down the road the same thing happened. Only this time about half a dozen men jumped off the bus, ran around the back, and actually started pushing the bus uphill! Amazingly it worked. They jumped back on and we were rolling again. A mile later, we´re on an even steeper hill, and we´re not just rolling gently backward, we´re lurching violently backward. At this point all us American kids used to padded seats and safety codes start freaking out, which I´m pretty sure really amused the locals. Our host mom, who was escorting us, made the decision that after the next lurch we all needed to scramble out the door. Naturally the second we made it on the ground, the bus sprang to life and continued rolling along. The native Guatemalans must have gotten a kick out of us. I felt a little foolish, but I was having visions of Guatemalan hospital beds and lost limbs.

That might have been a bit out of the ordinary, but for us thats been a typical bus experience. We were just getting comfortable with the system and where to get on and off, and were actually looking forward to the day our host moms would decide we were capable of riding on our own. However we all woke up two days ago to news that almost all the bus drivers in the city had gone on strike due to the outrageous gas prices and no increase in wages or rates. Currently the state and local government are working with the bus drivers union to try and reach an agreement. This leaves literally tens of thousands of people living on a very fixed income in a very precarious situation. GC is not the kind of metropolitan area where walking great distance is safe or even possible. In addition, taking a taxi to get where you´re going can cost as much as 100 times your bus fare. It makes it nearly impossible for people who live on one side of the city and live on the other to make it on time and not risk losing their job. Theres a lot more I could say about the social justice aspects of this issue, but I´d rather wait for it to play out and see how the gov handles things. Hopefully this matter is dealt with fairly and soon, I really miss the bus!