Buses that are too old to keep up to date with current US and Canadian emissions standards or just simply falling apart too much to move passengers safely according to the DOT, are reborn in South America.

Colloquially known as chicken buses, these buses move people, crops, tires, goods and freight of all sizes and the occasional chicken from town to town, stopping to pick up anybody trying to flag it down. Young people, old people, poor people, middle class; all go to the same destination on these brightly colored people movers.

Part of the transformation of the chicken bus often involves replacing the automatic transmission with a manual one, adding a cargo deck to the roof, painting the outside with bright colors to make it stand out, and deck it out in chrome. These buses are the cream of the crop and gather the most attention, but old rust buckets are still chugging along.

The price of the fare of these buses usually range from $1 to $5 from short to long distances so even the poorest can afford them.

Bus terminals in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala are complete chaos if seen from the American or Western European perspective. You get to the terminal and hear shouting from all over. Pretty soon you hear a man shouting the name of the city your going to and get on the bus. You find a seat, and then a sixty year old woman sits down next to you. And more women and men get on the bus selling food and goods ranging from fruits, vegetables, snacks, deserts, belts, wallets, snake-oils, and cellphone accessories. Some buses come frequently, some come rarely, you’re never 100% sure whether or not your bus is coming, but still confident enough that it will, if it’s between 7 AM and 5 PM. In these terminals the decked out and chromed up chicken buses gather all the attention but cargo vans that can stuff 16 people and luggage into it and smaller mini-buses are also there for your convenience for the same price.

As the bus gets moving, all the salesmen and women hop off and the attendant collects the fares from the passenger while the driver drives. From point A to point B thirty people get on and off along the way at seemingly completely random locations, but these are just normal stops where everybody knows where to get on and off from.

“From the top of my head, (chicken buses) they’re colorful, slow but still fun so its the mix of the whole culture (Latin America)” – Joerg – fellow solo-traveler from Germany

It is a right of passage for the backpacker to take a few chicken buses if traveling around Central America. Long distances in one day can be done on a chicken bus if you start early enough, but you will always be wondering whether or not you will have enough daylight hours to make it and you might have to stop in a city from a few dozen kilometers away from where you originally planned to go.

These slow and colorful chicken buses are a reflection of the people and culture in Central America. People don’t have much, but they are proud of what they do have. Drivers deck out their buses to be the flashiest on the road. Chrome decks, multi-colored headlights, flat screens TV’s (usually that don’t work) in the front, and a booming sound system are all part of the experience. The buses usually don’t go that fast, but that’s because they don’t need to. People in Central America live their lives a little slower. They go to bed early to wake up early to get the most out of daylight. They cultivate their crops, tend to their livestock and bring product to market.

If traveling for months on end, they are the cheapest method around, but their novelty wears off and private shuttles are still worth it if on a tight schedule to connect to a flight or move between two ends of a country in one day.