You have never truly experienced all that public transportation has to offer until you have ridden in a chicken bus.
The “Chicken Bus” is an elementary school bus that has been imported from the States, slapped with religious decals and family names, and has been known to carry, on average, 80 – 100 Hondurans at one time. But don’t let the exterior façade fool you, there are little things in the bus that still remain true to form. For example, my Honduran friend once leaned over, pointed at a sign posted at the front of the bus and asked me what “no bullying” meant.
You can imagine that this mix of nostalgia and unique Honduran renovation sets up any gringo rider to have quite the unique experience with every ride.
Lets take a look at the passengers on board this vessel, which runs from around 5:30am until 8pm. On any given day one might find one of the following on board a chicken bus:
Street Venders – now by street venders I mean people who walk the streets (literally…like in between the lanes on the major highway) selling anything from peanuts, sodas, and pre-cut fruit to toothpaste and pirated movies. When a chicken bus passes by these ”business folk”, at a speed conducive to running, they hop on board and walk up and down the aisle shoving their products in your face while yelling out agua, dos lempiras! dos lempiras! Agua, dos lempiras!
P.S.A Representatives – there are two types of Christians that live in my neck of the woods: Jehovah Witnesses and RRCs – REALLY Roman Catholics. The public service announcement representatives, as I like to think of them, are those that get on to the chicken bus and proceed to inform the other passengers that unless they are (insert one of the two religions here) they are undoubtedly living a life of sin and this is why. However, fear not for like most P.S.A., the announcement was intended to benefit the “public interest” and thus these PSA representatives most graciously provide us with information regarding locations of local churches, etc.
My favorite P.S.A. Representatives were actually two kids who painted their faces like clowns and wore what, I can only assume, is the Honduran rendition of wacky clown clothes.
WTF – The WTF passenger is the most entertaining, and in my opinion, most common type of passenger aboard the Chicken Bus. The WTF response that they elicit from us Gringos can come in a very subtle or direct fashion. For example, I was once riding back on a bus during its “busy hour” – three people to a seat, aisle completely full of passengers unable to turn their head in the opposite direction – when a lady that was standing in the aisle with her toddler asked if the girl sitting with me could hold her child while she placed her bags on the shelf. I immediately knew this was a bad idea as any means of changing your position during a time like this will cause a total reconstruction of these people who are already packed in like sardines. But the nice Catracha, who had her own grocery bags in lap, agreed and took the child. The little girl immediately fell asleep and the poor Catracha ended up having to hold this little girl for the rest of our 35 min ride back to the Cof. Even when the aisle cleared up and the kid’s mom was able to sit down in her own seat, the woman simply grabbed her bags and smiled sweetly at how her little angel looked sleeping and drooling on this stranger. WTF?
The more direct WTF reactions happen immediately – like a man who has to board the bus from the back because he is carrying a clear plastic bag that is filled with so many personal-sized Disney pillows that the bag hits the ceiling and thus can only fit in the back of the bus. WTF?
Yet, all of these passengers make the chicken bus experience what it is – a “you’ve got to be kidding me”, yet, “im not surprised at all” experience in Honduran public transportation. Experiences that serve as perfect material for our “You know you’re in Hondo when..” list.
