Taking a microbus in Guatemala

Most people here in Guatemala take public transit. If you're just going around town, the best option is a microbus. This is basically just a van (see above picture) that can fit like 30 people when it's full (this means that the seats are squished full of people and there are people standing, well, more like hunched, and there are a few people hanging out the door). The guy you can see standing out the door in the above photo works on that microbus. His job is to yell out where the bus is going, to wave people on, and to take their money when they get off. These buses are everywhere! I have to take one to get to where I work and I never have to wait more than 2 minutes for a bus because they come one after another all day. It's really funny sometimes because there will be people waiting at a bus stop-ish area and two buses will pull over to pick them up and the door-hangy-outy guys will run over and try to usher the people into their bus instead of letting them go into the other (even though they're going to the EXACT SAME place!). Today I was on a bus and the one in front of us pulled over to pick some people up and my bus swooped in between the people and the other bus so that we could take them instead of the other. 

These buses are great because you never know which route they're going to take to get where they're going and you never know how long they're going to wait at certain places. Sometimes they just sit at this one park by a big market waiting for more people to get on. They'll wait for like 5 minutes (which doesn't seem that long when you say "5 minutes," but when you need to be somewhere at a certain time and your bus is just sitting, it feels like an eternity!). One morning, I got to the school I work at in 15 minutes, the norm is about 30 minutes, but in the evening it can take up to an hour (and it's about a 45 minute walk). So sometimes it's really hard to gauge how long it will take to get to where I'm going. Another great thing about these buses is that they stop anywhere! If someone is walking on the side of the road and they put their hand out to be picked up, the bus will pick them up (there aren't really designated bus stops....well, there are, but really anywhere is a bus stop). And if you're on the bus and you want to get off, you can just tell them, "the next corner, please," or a specific place that's on the way and they'll drop you off. There are, of course, more popular stopping points and the guy who hangs out the door will announce it and if you want to get off you just have to say, "sí!" 

You pay, usually, when you get off. Sometimes the guy will collect money on the way though. It costs Q1.25 (which is about 16 cents). There are microbuses that do longer trips and the cost of those depends on the distance, but I think I prefer a chicken bus (old US school bus painted and pimped out with a nice stereo, and sometimes a TV to watch music videos) to a microbus for a long trip. All this is to say that I will never look at public transit the same way again. I might get back to the states and try to flag down a bus in between stops, or I'll be outraged at how much it costs, or I won't read the little reader sign that says where the bus is headed because I'll be expecting some guy to be hanging out the door yelling the destinations. I'm not really sure yet. All I know is that the public transit here is great...that is, unless you're really into personal space. But really, I love it! It's super frequent, easy to flag down, and so cheap!! Sure, it goes a little slower than I'd like sometimes, but hey, I'm on Guatemala time now. :)