Fun on the Chicken Bus

The chicken bus is the primary form of communication around Nicaragua. Why are they called chicken buses? Because you can take anything on them, even chickens!

• Try and share a seat which is built for 5 year old kids (the buses are old American school buses)
• Talk to all the tourists (we stand out like sore thumbs)
• Check out local scenery, including the local baseball game (with two bulls fighting in the outfield)
• Watch as 25 people get on your bus that is already packed to capacity (they never say no to a ride here).
• Enquire about the local fare that venders sell by getting on at stops, wandering the bus, and then getting off again at the next stop (and never having the courage to try any thing).
• Listen to a presentation from someone advertising medications.
• Watch the tourists stress about their luggage (which has been chucked on the top of the bus, with no way of keeping an eye on it).
• Wait patiently as the bus reverses 2km up a side road to pick up some extra passenges.
• Wonder what the crowing at the front of the bus (turned out to be a parrot not a chicken!)
• Laugh when it rains and sticks get passed around to 'prop up' the windows.
• Admire the decorations (each bus is very personalised to the driver) - personally I like the ones with significant referance to God.. Might keep us safer as we fly past all the traffic and overtake on blind turns!.