Brian, a pilot from Atlanta Georgia was my housemate for the week. On Wednesday evening I asked if he’d like to take a ride on a chicken bus. I’d read if that if you haven’t ridden a chicken bus, you haven’t experienced Guatemala.
At first the plan was to just hop on and go wherever the bus took us. But at lunch the next day I spoke with the family, and they recommended Santa Maria de Jesus as a destination. It is a short 20 minute bus ride up the mountain on a windy road to this small Mayan village.
As we entered the pueblo, we saw women washing clothes in a central pool. We got off the bus, found a grocery store, and each of us purchased a bottle of beer. We had hoped for a restaurant or bar, but there wasn’t one in this small town. As we sat on the curb drinking our beer, two funerals went by, one accompanied by a solo flute, the other with an entire band badly playing a funeral dirge. We also saw burros that carried huge piles of firewood on their backs, and a strange animal we couldn’t identify, but sort of looked like a cow.
It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon.
(Photo is of central wash area in Antigua, but the one in Santa Maria de Jesus was the first I saw)
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