Rio Dulce at 0800 on Sunday 17th July. In a bus operated by the Litegua company we set off for Guatemala City some 258 kms away (155
miles in English money) with a scheduled pit stop about half way. Antigua was a further 23 kms after changing buses. Safety and security when travelling about Central American countries is a constant consideration as reports of hijackings and robberies are commonplace. If you use what is known locally as the ‘chicken buses’ your chances of this happening are probably increased. These ancient vehicles, bright and colourful as they may be, have already completed years of service as school transport in the USA. They still continue to operate between villages throughout the region picking up passengers pretty much as and when with no apparent on-board security to lessen the chance of attack by ‘banditos’ . If that weren’t enough bald tyres are in abundance along with ancient engines that emit serious amounts of black smoke, so you need to be on a very desperately small travel budget to think about using these buses or crave adventure!  Besides the journey to the city would probably double in timescale if you did and you would not arrive in good shape!

 

   

 

   

 

The Litegua buses stop only at it’s own official agency locations in towns along the way where there is a ticket office and a permanent armed presence to ensure passengers safety. Many people attempted to flag the bus down along the route but this service doesn’t stop on request although we became familiar with the sort of road-side gestures people use after they have been passed by. Cost-wise they are excellent value as our trip proved, with the cost per person to Antigua from Rio Dulce amounting to a paltry Q106 (about £9) for over 280 kms travel.

 

   

Sitting in a busy bus station with a security man of diminutive stature close-by clutching a pump-action shotgun with a belt full of cartridges is initially alarming but then you wouldn’t want him to be too far away whilst you are waiting for your bus to leave. Passengers are frisked and carry-on bags are searched for concealed weapons on boarding the bus.

For reasons unknown Litegua seem to reserve the front section of the bus for the ‘gringos’ with locals sitting at the back. We joked that this was convenient for any robbers as the best pickings were in the front seats thus not unduly disturbing the locals travelling in the back. Typical British trench humour of course!

 

   

Some buses have air conditioning that actually works but a quick look at the driver's controls with so many missing switches reveals that much of the original equipment fitted has long since ceased to function including the aircon, although all Litegua buses have air pressure monitoring equipment fitted to the wheels which was some comfort. The driver has a ‘driver’s mate’ who takes care of the paperwork, checks numbers of passengers and climbs into the luggage hold to retrieve bags. These are all numbered airline style thus avoiding the possibility of somebody alighting at a town along the way and walking off with bags that don’t belong to them. Hopefully he’s also there to keep the driver awake! Our bus on the return leg had, along with several large cracks, what looked suspiciously like a bullet hole on the passenger side of the front windscreen......

 

   

As to the drivers, that’s where we had one or two moments of concern, especially the outbound leg, until we realised - silly us - that he must have developed X-ray vision over the years to know that there was nothing round the next blind bend that was bigger and heavier then we were – plenty lighter but they just had to get the hell out of the way.  What was a concern was that the driver was constantly on his mobile phone making and receiving calls in quick succession which often coincided with an ambitious overtaking manoeuvre up a steep incline with oncoming trucks fast approaching.  One lesser concern was the possibility of being showered by cow pee through our open window as we passed lorry after lorry jam-packed with the beasts who either had rears pointing inwards towards the fields or outwards onto the roads exactly at the same level as the open windows of the bus. We inwardly winced especially uphill as the bus would struggle to overtake a lorry belching smoke and leaking cow pats and liquids. And there were a lot of them!

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

Arriving safely in Guatemala City (it looked rough in Zone 1 where the bus station is situated) we waited for the smaller bus to take us up to Antigua. This was an uneventful trip in a packed 12 seater with the back three seats piled high with luggage.  It should all have been on the roof rack but we were glad it wasn’t as we went through a thunderstorm with torrential rain on the way - we had been pre-warned to pack everything into plastic bags just in case. Finding space for Phil’s legs proved a challenge so we were relieved when the trip terminated in the pretty main square quite close to the hotel we were checking into as a six-some.