Nicaraguan Buses

Nicaragua has a very interesting public transportation system. It consists of a large fleet of very old pimped-out American school buses. I have not yet figured out just exactly whether these buses are privately or publicly run. But, it sort of seems to be some kind of combination. I think the buses might be privately operated, but have some kind of contract or agreement with the government or each other. Here is what I do know about the way they are run. There are almost always 3 workers on a bus. The 3 workers include a driver and two guys that get everyone on the bus as quickly as possible, load bikes and other goods on the roof, and collect the money. The money collectors are an interesting breed. Collection does not usually start until the bus is pretty full. The collectors are often young guys, and I get the feeling that most of them think fairly highly of themselves. They walk down the aisle with a stack of bills folded around their fingers and shake the coins they have in their hand. I get the feeling that most of them try to put off a kind of cool indifferent attitude. They are very efficient and good at what they do, though. Sometimes they are not able to make correct change for a number of the people on the bus. They continue collecting money while remembering who they owe and how much. When they are finished collecting, they come back and give the correct change to those waiting. The bus continues to pick up passengers after the collection has taken place. The collectors do not always get the money from the new passengers right away, but they almost never forget. I ride buses every day, and I have only seen one person that they missed. They are kind of like really good waitresses who do not need to write down customers orders. Besides getting people on and off the bus quickly and collecting money, the bus workers are also in charge of loading and unloading goods on and off of the top of the bus. Bikes are the most common item, but a person can bring just about anything on the buses. I see a lot of goods being brought to the market and furniture. When the workers know they will be unloading something soon, one of them climbs up on the roof while the bus is still barreling down the road. As soon as the bus stops, the guy on top of the bus is handing the goods to the other worker below.

In the U.S., many jobs that were traditionally all male or all female jobs are starting to be integrated. This does not seem to be the case in Nicaragua. It really seems that there are a lot of jobs that are either for males or for females. This is true of the bus workers. They are all male.

And now for the buses... I have been in some pretty old school buses at home. But, I think if they brought the oldest bus I have been on at home down here, it may be the newest bus in Nicaragua. All of these buses are both tricked-out and most are pimped-out. They trick them out by adding a door in the back, large steel racks on top, and adding handles on both the inside and outside of the bus. These things are done for a number of reasons. They want to get people on quickly and get moving. This is the reason for the extra door. Some buses do not add an additional door with steps in the back. When one of these buses pulls up, one of the workers hops out the back emergency exit before the bus has even stopped. Another young man comes out the front door. Both of them holler a lot and seem to be in a huge hurry. They attempt to split the group. One shoving people into the front of the bus, and the other grabbing people's arms and ushering them to the back of the bus while jabbering constantly. The railings on the inside of the bus are for people to hold while they are standing. It does not matter how many people are on the bus. If another person wants to get on, they will find a way to fit them. The rack top of the bus is for carrying just about anything one can imagine.

When I say these buses are pimped out, I mean it. Few of them are still yellow. Most have bright and wild paint schemes. Some have streamers or other decorations hanging from the outside of the bus. A lot of the buses have horns that both look and sound fancy. Sometimes there will be a name or other decorations in the front window of the bus as well. Most of the buses have loud speakers that were added. These speakers are typically working hard blaring out Reggaeton music, but we occasionally hear an odd American song. All of the buses have stickers on the inside of the bus. Many of these seem fairly contradictory(see above picture for example). At some point, I will get around to taking more pictures of these pimped-out beauties and try to post them.

I have been thinking for some time that I needed to write about the buses here, but I think that about a lot of things. What inspired me to get to it today, was another true Nicaraguan experience that I had on Monday. As I said, they will not turn down a passenger even if they will only get a few cords from them(maybe between 5 and 15 cents). This makes for some extremely crowded buses at times. While heading home from school, I was ushered into the back of the bus with Tiia(a new volunteer and housemate from Finland). The bus was already quite crowded, with people lining the whole aisle. In the back, there was a bike wedged across the aisle. There were already a couple people crammed behind the bike when Tiia and I got in. We were very squished and could not move much. Then, the bus stopped, the door swung open, and the young bus worker pushed a big-butted Nicaraguan woman in the back with us. He then ran around and got in the front, leaving me to try to shut the door. I made an attempt but was blocked by the woman's butt. She either did not notice or could not move. So, I got on the step that had been welded to the back of the bus, grabbed the emergency handle of the door in one hand, and a handle on the back of the bus, which had also been added, in the other. I cruised down the road, hanging out the back of the bus, feeling quite cool and comfortable until a couple people got out. I then had to rejoin the hot crowded herd on the bus. As I was hanging out the back of the bus, which was rolling down the road at about 50mph, I thought what I often think here, "This would never fly at home."