Los buses

My Ode to buses:
Ohh Central American buses, how I love your chaotic stations, the million "helpers" all willing to help the gringas with their backpacks. The dirt corrals that sometimes serve as stations. The attentive state one must be in as they guard their pockets. The fact that I am told I am loved/beautiful/or asked to be married just for walking by. The bus drivers and ticket collectors all yelling out the destination of the bus, trying to squeeze as many occupants on as possible. The men, women, and children walking in, out, and around the buses selling "Water! Water! Water!" or "Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" or "Mangos! Mangos! Mangos" (among a plethora of other tasty treats). The fact that one never knows whether they will board a charter bus with assigned seats or a retired US school bus with seats made long before my time. And those old school buses, still with the name of their previous district painted on the side, sometimes repainted in bright, playful colors, but always including the front window and dashboard covered with Jesus stickers and cheesy love postcards.

Ohh Central American bus trips! How I love the fact that you'll stop to pick up or drop off anyone, anywhere, anytime. The fact that there does not seem to be any kind of capacity and the aisles would not be good for anyone with claustrophobia. The hot, hot sun that sometimes the open window does not do much to combat. The man selling Vitamin XYZ that he promises will cure your headache, backache, upset stomach, knee pains, tiredness ... for the low, low price of only $.05 a pill! This offer is not available in stores and this is the last day to buy them! (It's kind of like a live infomercial). Or the music selection that is as random as one can find, will it be 80s English hits? Will it be the latest thumping reggaton? Will it be Bob Marley? Will it be new, Spanish love songs? Who can tell? Or the endless surprises of women carrying giant, hot-pink cotton candy balloons through the bus, the man who loads 25, brightly painted carts onto the back, or the cows that could care less that the road is for cars and would really like to graze on the streets.

Three days of what felt like endless bus travel could have been painfully tiring ... but the continual entertainment that buses bring, mixed with the beautiful country side, made busing it up through Nicaragua an incredibly entertaining experience. Because can we get more entertainment than live chickens on the bus, people leaning up against your seat so strongly you question if they are actually sitting on you, or children in rural areas who race the bus as it passes by?

Thank you Nicaragua. And your buses. That was fun!