If you live in America Central, you might use camionetas to get around.
At 3 quetzales for a short ride, 3 quetzales equaling less than 50 cents, you can take the bus for 20 minutes at this price.
There are rails above the seats to place your bags/backpacks.
It’s better to set your bags on your lap to lessen the chance you’ll be theft bait.
After we got to Antigua, hopped off the camioneta and walked to the shuttle pick-up, we boarded the next bus to Xelatenango (2.5 hours). We got to Xela, met our host volunteer Suzy, and got on a bus to San Marcos (2.5 hours). After San Marcos we got on another bus to Comitancillo (1.5 hours).
As we bumped along like choreography to a horrible musical, I had to clench all my muscles and tense my weight not to fly into the aisle. The beauty of the mountain view was discarded by the discomfort of traveling through them.
When we subir a mountain, we wind around like we’re going straight back and forth, clipping wide turns and hoping for the best. If you are car sick, you can’t pull off a camioneta ride without serious bonine backup and intense focus on the horizon. Even then, you might not make it through scott-free. And there’s just no way you could read on a camioneta ride. You are getting pushed around so much that there’s just no way. You can either chat idly with your neighbor, headphone up or doze off.
The camionetas generate billow after billow of street pollution. I don’t think that school buses were designed to blast down highways or operate for so many years. Wonder what emissions testing is like in this country? When the buses pass you on the street, be prepared to bañarte in black smoke. There’s no avoiding it. Your lungs and eyes are not spared.
Seat-Sharing:
As we walked to our first camioneta, I said “We can sit together” and Suzy said: “If we get a seat..” My heart sank. Thankfully we got a seat. Before you know it, more people are loading on than can be seated. I don’t make eye contact in hopes no one tries to squeeze to the my right, rendering me three-to-a-seat lunch meat of a sandwich. The bus stops, more people pile on, I manage to maintain a 2-person-a-seat status. Eventually, I feel it, a tap on the shoulder. I’m boring a hole into the seat in front of me through tired eyeballs. He asks, I scoot over, I’m lunch meat.
Size:
School buses are designed for young students with short legs. The seats are not built for grown adults with long legs.. in the USA. But in Guatemala, the average height for women is 4’10.”
My knees not only befriend the metal back of the seat ahead, I actually learn to lean further into the metal (if that’s even possible..) to prevent myself from sliding into the aisle when we turn corners.
By the end of an 8 hour day on camionetas, my knees are actually sore. Bummer.
The ayudantes come through and collect payment. You want to have your money ready so you don’t have to fiddle with your wallet and flash your cash. The ayudantes hop off at all the stops and yell the name of your destination rapid fire, and with feeling. I’ve had the same guy yell “Guaté Guaté Guaté” at me and by the 6th Guaté I just wanna be like “Okay yes, I was actually going the other direction, but now that you’ve accosted me with your close proximity and auctioneer voice, Guaté it is!”
Camionetas: my new ride for 2 years.
