A brief discourse on Guatemalan buses.

The buses of Guatemala come in three types:
The Luxury Bus: a long- distance bus with A/C, a bathroom, and sometimes DVD movies. These would make Greyhound proud.
The Micro Bus: About the size of a mini van, these mainly short-distance buses use an ingenious combination of folding seats and people packing skills to cram 14 or more souls into a tiny space. It helps that Guatemalans tend to be small.
The Chicken Bus: so called because regular Guatemalans use them on a day to day basis, and in a country where refrigeration is a luxury, the best way to keep your dinner fresh is to keep it alive as long as possible. Someone had the bright idea of converting old school buses to form the backbone of public transportation. They spew huge gouts of soot into the air and sport slogans plastered across the windshield like "Smile, God Loves You" He clearly does, as only His divine hand could possibly protect the bus and its occupants as the crazed driver makes high-speed passes on winding mountain roads with sheer drops in both directions. We haven't taken a chicken bus yet.