Today we had the chance to ride on real chicken busses. We were some of the first to get on and so we actually had seats. It is amazing to me to see how many people can cram on those busses. They seat three to a seat, which makes for six on a row. Add on top of that people standing the entire way down the isle, and then add to that the very large man going down the isle collecting money from everyone. I don't know how the fat man fit down the isle in between all the passengers, but they all got really friendly with each other in the process. At one point some guy's package was resting on my shoulder. That wasn't cool.
Speaking of the chicken busses, there is this guy that handles all the luggage for people (including boxes of vegetables, cloths, and livestock). He runs all over the top of the bus, loading crates while the bus is driving down the road at full speed. I imagine it is a lot like those Indiana Jones scenes where he is on a train, battling the Nazis, running around almost falling off at every turn.
On the nicer of the two busses that we rode today, I had a chance to talk to some of the new people on this leg of the journey. Antonia and Shannon have spent the past two months traveling across Europe and are finishing their journey here in Central America. Talking to them about Europe has gotten me excited to travel there sometime, but I still have to convince Haley. It may be more of a technical problem, seeing as she doesn't know what her job situation will be next summer. I always thought of Europe as really expensive, but apparently you can get by cheaply if you visit the right countries (like the Eastern Block nations). Many of the people on our trip are world travelers, including Amy who has been traveling non-stop for the past 6 years or so. Hearing about places like Tailand, China, and Africa have given me the travel bug and can't wait for our next adventure.
It has been interesting on this trip to get to know so many people from so many different places. We all basically have the same beliefs, with some subtle differences in political orientations. It is also interesting how people view America. Though some may not love us, we really are the world's only remaining superpower, and it is interesting to see what others think of us. Many in the group are disgusted at our going into Iraq after the UN didn't give us their blessing, saying we made a mockery of them. I countered that they made a mockery of themselves when they never backed their warnings to Iraq. Fun Stuff.
On an entirely different note, we are now in Panajachel, a couple hours from Antigua. The small tourist town is very nice, on the shores of Lake Atitlan high up in the mountains of Guatemala. It is cooler here (a welcome change from most of the trip), and the air is very clean (as opposed to Antigua, where there is thick smog). Our hotel is about a ten minute walk from where the bus dropped us off. All the roads on the way to our hotel are lined by street vendors, begging to sell us their souvenirs. We did end up buying a couple things, not because we need them, but because the people are so desperate to make a sale. They begin by almost making you enter their shops, at which point they pull out all their goods asking you to name your best price. At one point, we were looking at masks and decided that we didn't want it. They the guy kept lowering his price as we walked away, starting at 200 quetzales, and as we walked further and further away, he ended up at 60 quetzales at which point we just gave in and bought the mask for about $8US.
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