Go Speed Racer

Mom - you would not enjoying driving (or riding) here!

There are at least 3 typos of streets here...
1) la calle - your average city street (in Guatemala their cobble stones and narrow)

2) el camino (easy to remember because of the car) - a two, maybe three, lane road through the country

3) la autopista - a freeway with all the luxuries of passing lanes and high-speeds

It´s the same everywhere, I presume. But, wow - I think a few more autopistas would serve Guatemala well. The road from Antiga to both cities is a camino...

Wow - I´m long-winded... Now for the fun part...

The road is up through the mountains and it´s one lane in both direction (with a very rare passing lane). Luckily though, the line in the middle of the street is only a single yellow line (occasionally dotted), but let´s be honest. No one cares about the line. The one lane road handles busses, cars, 18 wheelers, and motorcycles... as well as pickup trucks with 7 people in the bed of the truck. Basically, everyone one and everything going anywhere is on this road.

Now, who wants to be stuck behind a beatup pickup or especially a slow truck hauling tons of food/materials? No one...

So, let´s pass! Sounds simple enough, but passing here is a TEAM sport. You have to punch it at just the right time and hope that your team-mate (the truck you´re passing) will let you in before the truck coming at you (from the öther team¨) gets to you. I mean, sure - it would be nice to have an open road void of oncoming traffic to assuage any fears of a head-on collision, but where´s the fun in that?

Occasionally, that´s an option. But, often people are waving each other buy or waving them off. My favorite is the School-Bus type people trasports (called a ¨Chicken Bus¨) with a ¨co-pilot¨ riding shotgun. His main ¨job¨ is to invite people to ride the rus, but once enroute - he waves at the drivers of the vehicles the bus is passing to get them to back up and let the bus back into the ¨right¨ lane of traffic (in time)! Very cool.

I can´t really describe it atequately, but it´s an adventure for the faint of heart. I just found it amusing and took lots of pictures that don´t really do it justice!