¿¿¿The End of the adventure???

Did we accomplish what we wanted on this trip?

We all had a great time as a family and an extended family. We are so happy Julie was able to join us, not to mention many of the new friends that felt like family which we met and with whom we shared experiences along the way.

We all learned Spanish. I am thoroughly impressed by the ease and speed with which both of the kids learned. Tias had been diligently studying for some months before our trip and was in a strong second place behind Linda before our departure. Willa and I had little prior study. At the end of the trip, Tias was negotiating prices for his souveniors in complete sentences that the vendors had no problem understanding. Willa balked at the formalized study of the Spanish courses as being a bit advanced for her age, with which we had to agree, so we backed her time off to an informal format for two hours a day. Well, later she started playing with kids her age, and her language ability left me in the dust. In fact, she was constantly correcting me and explaining to whom ever I was trying to converse with what I actually meant, also in full, complete sentences. I think a few times my jaw dropped open in observing both Tias and Willa's communication abilities. Not to mention Linda, who put over a year's worth of effort.

The kids learned more than we could have expected. On the surface, they have their home school projects that they will do at home. Far more important than those points though is the expansion of ideas of possibilities for themselves and the future world as a result of encounters such as these: glimpses of lives much more difficult than the ones we lead in WI; the people we met trying to make a difference in these difficult lives; seeing and hearing of the results of a relatively recent war; a casual conversation with an engaging volunteer; well, this list could go on, but you get the idea.

Naw, this is not the end, only of the story of this segment of the journey. This trip touched each of us in many ways; fun, learning, experiencing new things together. Most profoundly is the inspiration and awe we experienced seeing those whom we met along the dusty roads we travelled, with their intentions of making whatever improvements they could in other people's lives, will be always with us.

Our last stop, Antigua again!

Difficult to believe our time is all but up here for this visit to Guatemala! Our first day here of our last three in Guatemala, our Estonian friend Kate arrived so she would be close to Guatemala City and the airport for her departure early the next day. We had a great time showing her around a bit of Antigua, eating and playing cards.

On our second day, we had to say good bye to Kate. That afternoon we had scheduled a walk up to an active volcanoe that is located between Antigua and Guatemala City. What an experience that was, to see molten rock oozing up out of the side of the mountain! The surface would cool some before enough accumulating enough to calve off and become a boulder cascading down the mountain side. Many of the up to 4' diameter red hot boulders would shatter into fiery smaller pieces before coming to a rest and glow their orange red color. A few retained their size, lodging up against ridges of previously sloughed off boulders. If you looked closely at the boulders and fragments as they came to rest, you could see the molten lava sag and settle for just a few seconds until cooled enough to retain their shape. There were also the sounds associated with these red hot rocks tumbling and shattering, not quite the sound of breaking glass (too tinny) and not quite the sound of styrofoam shapes being thrown against each other, but perhaps a mix. We sat for an hour watching, hearing and feeling this process, close enough to catch the radiant heat from the 1200 F surface. One set of fellows even ran up to rock that came to rest and lit their cigarettes from the red surface. However, we could tell they fried their fingers!

We had signed up for the evening entrance to this mountain park. At dusk we had to start our trek back. We spent many minutes turned around looking back at that lava flow as we departed. The best way to describe that scene is to imagine a downhill ski resort mountain out in Colorado with no trees, black snow and all of the ski runs an orange red color. Magnificent! From that distance we also saw many more of the other calving points on the mountainside, and watched those boulders cascade down the mountain, shattering into more orange fireworks displays.

Tias summed up the experience best, ¨what a fitting end to our Guatemalan adventure!"

Lake Attitlan, San Marcos

Here are a few shots of our short stay on Lake Attitlan. We wanted to show Julie both Lake Atitlan, a very popular tourist destination, as well as San Marcos. This lake about 3 miles wide and 7 miles long, is surrounded by several volcanoes as you can see from the pictures. There are twelve villages along the shores named after the twelve apostles.

In particular, we wanted to show Julie San Marcos. San Marcos, reached by a 45 minute boat ride from where the highway ends, is very quiet, having the tourist area in a shady tropical setting. Transportation is only by foot along narrow, neatly kept walks, winding between trees, fences and buildings. Not just a few of the buildings and places to stay are quite whimsical. For instance, we stayed in a small thatched roof hut, two beds below, and a small sleeping loft for two more. The engineer in me noted how (structurally) poorly it was built. Our first night there, a wind storm really kicked up in the area, and more than one blast made that hut quiver more than a little. In the morning there were adjacent banana trees blown down across the walks, trees missing many leaves or branches, etc. However, all but some of the trees survived and we enjoyed a day of exploring the many whimsical buildings, nooks and corners, giving both Julie and us more ideas for our own places, especially in the use of glass and a leaded glass window type technique for house windows.

We also spent part of another day by boating across the lake to another of the apostle's towns and doing some shopping for natural dyed weavings and other specialties of the area.

home shopping (with a twist)

Shopping at home for an American might conjur up images of pouring through catalogues and, well okay, this is the 21st century, perhaps web sites too. Guatemala home shopping is different. With our improved Spanish, neighborhood women are able to approach us, ask us into their homes for us to see what (usually home woven) articles they have to sell.

Pictured here is Willa and her first friend in Nebaj, Norma. Willa and Norma see each other just about daily while in Nebaj. In fact one day, Norma took Willa to school with her. Linda and I had a preview of available items during our previous visits. We wanted to wait until Julie had arrived to do any serious thoughts of buying. They live in a two room house (one bedroom and one eating/living room,) and have an outdoor kitchen. Included are pictures of Norma's Mom weaving, their wood burning cooking stove and their pila. The family picture shows Norma's brother, mother holding their baby, Norma, Willa, Julie and Norma's father. Missing is another of Norma's brothers.

Even under the best of conditions, most people in these outlying villages and towns, (and probably alot in the cities) are desparately poor, living hand to mouth. With the world economy slowing quite noticeably, conditions are worse. Norma's family made a list of the considerable expenses of sending their kids (4 total counting the baby) to grade school and linked that with the need to sell some of their weavings. I'm convinced some of the items were right out of their closet (literally.)

We were invited over for a light lunch. The lunch was a special local dish that is made only in this immediate vicinity of Guatemala called boxbul. When in season, hueskill leaves are rolled around corn made in about the same way as for tortillas and then boiled. When hueskill is not available, they can be made with swiss chard or other similar greens. The resultant broth made a really great thick soup to drink, tasting surprisingly like chicken broth.

There was a weaving (huipil) that Norma's Mom had made extra tall. She had been nearing the completion of the three month weaving process during our first visit, and when we said we wanted to wait for our very tall Julie to arrive, she finished the weaving for extra tall. A beautiful weaving it is, and maybe partly or mostly out of their truly desparate need, perhaps sprinkled with the idea it was finished just for her, Julie bought it.

We have purchased items directly from other families as well, this was not our only such experience.

working at the Mayan Hope school

The Mayan Hope school for the disabled was scheduled to start Monday, Feb 1, so we had a week to get done whatever all Don wanted. This included finishing the fencing so the poultry could get moved out of the courtyard and into a corner of the garden area. To make especially the ducks happy, Tias dug a depression for a pond. Tias and Willa set up a plastic liner and covered it with roofing tiles for protection. Also pictured here is Don and Julie standing in front of the still wet Mayan Hope sign painted on the inside courtyard wall.

The fencing involved topping the existing fence along a street with broken glass set in mortar, as well as drilling 18 holes for rebar so that barbed wire could be strung over the glass. We also had to finish the installation of a fence along the side of the yard, and create the poultry area with chicken wire. Some of the work took much longer than it normally would have had we had more appropriate tools. However, alot of the challenge here is accomplishing your goals with what you have available at hand.

Julie immediatey applied her specialty, painting. First the doors had not been painted either since being replaced or repaired. Now they all match in cheery colors. Julie's enthusiasm and beautiful execution of the work had other travellers at Popi's volunteering to paint as well. Pictured are Julie, our friend from Estonia, Katé, and Linda
painting doors.









The scope of painting expanded beyond the doors to a sign that will soon hang prominently out over the street. The inner courtyard walls were painted to match the building. Also pictured below are two others of the work crew, Mattias, note his new hair cut, and Willa. Helping Don achieve his objectives has been quite rewarding and fun for all us!

Julie's grand arrival

I arrived in Antigua about an hour before I expected Julie. I headed off to the bakery to have some treats awaiting. Upon my return, there she was! So wonderful to see her, especially on her birthday! Of the five us together currently, 3 of us have had birthdays on this adventure in Central America. Julie and I wandered the town, focusing especially on the many ruins that abound so artfully in Antigua

By 530 am the next morning, we were sitting on a bus headed to Nebaj to be reunited with the rest of the family. We made good time in the buses while at the same time, Julie got a taste of travel by bus. By 11 am, we had arrived in Nebaj!

Julie's reception in Nebaj was much anticipated by Linda and the kids, not to mention Julie and I. We walked up to the doorway of Popi's laden with many items to give Don (with whom we were staying) for his various projects. As I approached the doorway, I saw all three retreating down the hallway to go to our room, so I called out to them. Tias was nearest, he spun around, so I handed off the big duffel in my arms to him to put down out of the way somewhere. Linda and Willa rushed past me as if I weren´t there to see Julie who was waiting on the street with camera in hand. (Hence the two pictures.) Tias did give me a hug on his way out to see Julie after finding a suitable spot to put the duffel down, and eventually the girls remembered I had arrived too!

We are so happy to have her here with us!

Momostenengo

We travelled to Momostenengo after leaving Todos Santos. The last 12 miles to Momo were the most interesting travel. We were dropped off at the edge of town along the Pan American highway. At first, we thought the bus to Momo would pick us up there. We soon learned we had to walk to the center of town. No problem, we see a hill and the town center is at the top. Well, the town's name was San Francisco el Alto. Alto means tall. But tall does not come close to describing the walk we encountered, ever upwards! Surprisingly, we walked past about one mile (yes that's right, one mile) worth of vendors set up in the middle of the closed off road upon which we walked, every one of them selling new clothes of typically American style. This is not to mention the permanent tiendas which lined the road also selling these same clothes. We have no idea how there would be enough market to support this many clothes sales.

We did finally reach the top and the town center to await a bus. Two came, but they were so full, we weren't even going to try to get in. A pickup truck came by so I asked if they were headed to Momo. Indeed they were, and we could travel there for 75 cents each. In we jumped with a bunch of other people. What a glorious ride. For all but the last couple miles of those 12 miles we seemed to be driving through a National Park. A narrow road, winding through some of the tallest standing pines we have seen on this trip. Once in a while you break out of the pine forest with a breath taking panoramic view of the area. In the far distance, one could see mountain peaks across several valleys and ridges of smaller mountains in between. I won't soon forget those views. Checking the map, those distant mountains were the eastern edge of the same range where we left Todos Santos, and actually was where Nebaj lay nestled. Sorry for the lack of a picture, but we didn't even try as the majesty of the scene would not be captured by our camera!

Momo is a town that Linda visited on a day trip in 2001 with Melissa and Connie, noted for the their weaving beautiful and practical heavy wool blankets. We spent two low key days there as not all of us were feeling 100%. There were a few places we would have liked to visit had circumstances been better, notably a hot springs/swimming area. One of the things we did do was visit Los Riscos, the oddly eroded area shown in the top picture. The next two pictures are of the municipal building, and a restaurant.

We also (twice in one day) visited a shop that Linda has talked about ever since her first visit, Tonica Lopez, a personable, elderly artesian who makes painted paper mache masks and all sorts of wooden figurines, scenes, etc. We found Tonica and his shop exactly as Linda described. You would look at something with a price tag which might say 5, and his first response is, "no, no, 4." He has a sense of humor too, he said if Ti's and Willa's parents wanted a mask, the price would be 15, but for the kids, 8. He loves kids. Finally, when you have made your purchases, he then pulls one or two more items off his shelves and puts them in the bag just for good measure!

After two nights and almost two days in Momo, we headed off, travelling together as far as our paths coincided. Linda and the kids headed to Nebaj, while I continued to Antigua to meet Julie, arriving that same day.

Our last, for awhile, Todos Santos hike

We have had 8 days back inTodos. The first five were rainy, mucky and quite chillling. Not conducive to outside activities, plus a few of us were feeling not the best anyway. The past three days have been the typical sunny mornings, cloudy afternoons except yesterday which was sunny all afternoon too. Tias was particularly hard hit with cold like symptoms with a strong sore throat and a fever thrown in for good measure. Needless to say, we have been having quiet times in Todos.

However, I am happy to report that everyone has bounced back, the sun shone this morning, and we plan to move on to another new-to-us town tomorrow. We could not leave though, without taking one last walk, way high above town on the mountain side that has the painted white rocks that read 'Todos Santos.'

We were escorted by a very nice dog that hangs out near the language school. When we walked past the school, I invited the dog to walk with us using the same phrase we use for own dogs: "want to walk?" The dog (Bobby) didn't move a muscle. Since he does like to hike with anyone, I was surprised. A short while later down the road, I realized I had not asked in Spanish, that was why he didn't jump up to follow us! At the same moment, I saw him with us. I guess he is as slow translating English to Spanish as I am Spanish to English.

Especially in the picture with Tias, the mountainside looks steep. That is because it is. And we are way above the village. A great walk.

One last note, this week, having been lazing around quite a bit, talk has drifted to what everyone will do when we return home, who we will see, what we will eat, etc, etc. Even plans into the summer. Our trip feels like it is ending even though we have almost three weeks to go. The reasons we think the trip feels 'ending' are two fold, one is that we started our trip by coming to Todos, and perhaps this return feels like closure until our next visit. Another reason is that my sister Julie is coming in three days to meet us to share the balance of our travels with us. This last bit of the trip with Julie's company will actually be another 'vacation' within a vacation since we are so looking forward to her arrival!

Todos Santos dog packs

Here is a picture of Willa making friends with one of the dog packs we see frequently each day.

There is a Vets without Borders group of about 8 vets and vet assistants here this week from Canada. I think they said the city invited them to come and offer their free services to any village pet owners and any strays that could be caught. They nueter, give rabies shots and a parasite treatment. We learned that the dog packs I have written about so much before were much greater in numbers about a year ago. However, some disgruntled person poisoned a large number of the strays. We are told that within a few more days, they will have pictures and their experience here in Todos Santas posted on their web site.

I was going to comment also that we have had quite a bit of opportunity to observe dog pack behaviour. The behaviour mostly centers arounds females in heat. Those are easy to observe in that there is usually up to six males following one female as in the picture above. Sometimes these males fight over their position in the pecking order. I've not actually seen a fight up closely, but have heard several start and see the final result, which usually is the loser pulling back from the pack about 10 feet on three legs (these fights don't seem to exclude the loser from the pack.) Seems as if the tactic in the fights must be to go for the legs, crippling a leg for several days, if not for life. So, when you picture these packs of males following their favorite female, be sure to include the one or two dogs eagerly loping along on three legs, holding the fourth up.

self test

This little blurb is a self test for those who wish to challenge themselves. This picture shows a device that is not in its customary location for use, (for some reason it has been banned to a corn field all cultivated, ready to be planted) but every household has one, whether a rich or poor family, brand new house or an ancient adobe single room house. Can you guess what it is used for? You probably can, something that sort of looks like a specialized laundry tub. Well, this unit is always located outdoors, not in a room. Does that change your mind about a laundry tub? Well, laundry tub is half the answer, this unit is also the kitchen sink, yes, located outside.

Each wing has a corrugated surface upon which to scrub clothes. The center is a deep water resevoir which is filled during the day. Water is dipped from the center and used at either side wing. Even the grande, very newish house in which we are staying has a room with a (propane) stove and no running water or counters. For those functions, you walk about 25 feet out the door this device called a pila (pronounced pee-la.)

Todos Santos revisited

Back again to one of our favorite spots in Guatemala. As you can see from the pictures, our arrival was during an unseasonably foggy, cold, drizzly four day period. (I know, those at home el norte would jump at this 'cold' compared to the cold you are experiencing!) Since Todos has already been described in quite a bit of detail, I'll just mention some of the fun and interesting events and experiences that have come our way since our arrival here a week ago.

First off, I have to mention a sighting we saw on the last day of the 4 days of clouds, drizzle and cold we had here in Todos. The time was late in the afternoon, when the sun was low enough on the horizon so that only the mountain top tips would be lit. Low and behold, there was a window through the clouds, exactly as baroque pictures and especially ceiling paintings were depicted, excepting instead of bursting forth with angels and cherubs looking through this opening edged in clouds and the most beautiful deep blue sky back drop, we were looking at the perfectly framed rocky cliffs of one of the mountains boxing Todos Santos. Unforgettable. Also easy to see how the inspiration for that style of baroque painting came about...

Our friend here in town found us the house pictured to the right. It was built by a Guatemalan with money earned in the states, the funding source for almost every large house built here. The owner is currently back in the U.S. and his sister with her family was to live there. After trying out this grande casa for awhile, she decided she preferrred her own, smaller casa (less cleaning, more the feeling of home, etc.) and the big house sits empty most of the time. Since we had good references and intending to do some volunteer work, she let us rent it for a week. It is not furnished except for one bed, a dining room table and five chairs, and a kitchen stove. However, that is all we needed, and feel quite fortunate to receive this gift. The house is pretty darn new, built entirely of póured concrete and concrete block walls. Quite an echo chamber. We quickly learned to speak in quiet voices! And unheated, wood or fossil fuels are too dear to use for room heat. So we sit around with many layers of clothes on, or in the sleeping bags!

Writing about accomodations reminds me of a young Canadian I met yesterday who is travelling alone. She is staying for free at places she finds through some organization on the web called 'couchsurfing.com' where people all over the world have signed up to host travellers in their house free of charge. Thus far, the system has worked wonderfully for her, she is well into her one year long trip.

What have the kids done with rainy days since we haven't been doing our hikes? This last picture shows a game arcade set up in a temporary structure on the plaza in front of the church. Since school is still out of session, there is a ready market. The kids have enjoyed being there a couple of times.

And what of our volunteer work? Turns out to have been pretty thin here. Our first day, we 'helped' at a baby health clinic monthly weigh in to make sure kids up through age 3 are gaining weight as they should. Linda and I helped weigh some babies. Linda gave a short speech in Spanish as requested by the director, who had to translate that speech into Mam, the local Mayan tongue as most of the 100 people at the meeting do not understand Spanish. After the weigh in, a demonsration and give away of a nutrition supplement for babies and pregnant women was done. Interesting experience, wish we could have contributed more.

Here is another fun and educational experience of travelling: upon arriving in Todos Santos, we discovered that there were 8 Norwegian students at our favorite Spanish school. A very friendly group, we had great fun talking with them. They signed up for a program that takes post high school students on their way to university for about two months to various parts of the world to learn the local language, travel, do volunteer work. What a great group of young, open minds that will help shape the world into a better place! Willa's great Uncle Gordon had taken the time years ago to teach her the Norwegian names for the fingers. This sparked Willa's interest for more Norwegian, which she learned from this group of travellers. (Is Willa thinking of visiting Norway in the future, perhaps after her African trip????)

After writing about the market yesterday, I thought to comment about tienda's, Spanish for a small shop. Since everyone's house fronts onto a street, right up to the edge of the sidewalk, anyone can use their front room for a tienda. They seem to buy up a supply non-perishables such as soda, cooking oils, various packaged items (chips, etc.) rice, noodles; well you get it. Most also sell eggs since they turn over quickly. Typically, one can't walk more than 10 houses without going past a tienda. We have one just across from our mansion, making shopping quite convenient. I don't know how anyone sells enough volume to make any money at this, but their existence does make life easier!

Sunday morning I was heading down to plaza to see if I could attend mass when I caught up with a procession being led by a small boy carrying a cross. They also ended up at the church. One fellow broke away from the crowd following and explained to me that a relative had died and was buried that week. This procession was in that relative's honor.

Which brings me to something else I wanted to reiterate about travel here, how friendly pretty much everyone is. Walking these streets means frequent greeting all those around you, young, old and in between. Few people travel here in town isolated in vehicles, so you are constantly in contact with people surrounding you.

One last note. If you remember from some of the earliest postings, I believe I managed to get a picture of people lined up at the upper plaza railing what all was going on in the street and plaza below. Well, we were sorry to see that upon returning, a row of 4 two story tiendas are being built opposite the upper plaza, blocking the view to the lower plaza.

market day in Todos Santos, sustainable living?

Again, my apologies for the sideways pictures, but thought you'd still enjoy seeing them. To the right are a couple of pictures showing the beautiful array of foods. Probably only due to economics, the food is grown within a couple hundred miles, with much of it being grown within a bus ride away. Since the Guatemalan highlands rise immediately out of the low lying tropical lands, both cool weather and tropical crops grow not very many miles apart from each other. Food that travelled the furthest would be tropical, lowland, hot weather produce which exists less than 50 miles away as the crow flies. I don't have a picture of the meat market. All the meat sold there that is locally grown. The meat does not even get frozen before it is sold and consumed. The butcher shop is about 4 blocks from the plaza. That is truly local eating. Eating relatively locally grown foods certainly is part of a sustainable living picture.

Saturday is market day in Todos Santos, and being the biggest (yet still small) town for over an hour bus ride in any direction, Market Day is a big deal here. The market area quickly fills with local inhabitants, people coming in by bus either to buy or sell, etc. From about 530 am until mid morning, just about every incoming bus parks until 11 or 12 am since no one leaves until then. The picture to the right shows the plaza in front of the church with vendors.

There are two rather large buildings near the plaza that are devoted totally to market. Multistoried, tall and airy, just about anything sold (not just food) in Guatemala that is portable can be bought there. The next picture is an inside shot of one of these markets.

Despite the huge square footage devoted to the market, vendors spill over into the streets and every available nook and cranny in just about every direction from the plaza. Despite having been here for two other market days, we discovered all kinds more vendors tucked away in other corners since we live in a different part of town this time. This next sideways picture shows a street scene from one of the market buildings three stories above.

While I have focused mosty on food, the offerings the textiles which the Mayan women are so noted for making incricate weavings by backstrap looms. This is the same type of weaving previously reported during our first visit to Todos. The men are responsible for weaving bolts of cloth on big, wooden, hand operated floor looms. They progress at amazing speed with their flying shuttle machines that need no electricity.

food in Nebaj

We wanted to show some of our favorite places to eat in Nebaj. Popi's has all kinds of well made affordable meals and treats that one does not otherwise find in Guatemala. Beyond the each and every outstanding you-can't-go-wrong-with-any-dinner on the menu, the most extra-ordinary notables was the hot apple pie topped with home made (soy based) ice cream. (Ha, and you thought we were roughing it!) Wait, I'm not done, how about the time we asked Donald to let us know when he had a hot out of the oven fresh loaf of bread? He was also kind enough to include his homemade jam (papaya, strawberries and apple juice.) Do I need to write that the entire loaf was consumed in one sitting?

We also wanted to mention two of our favorite street vendors. Maria's green cart is portable, appeared every evening in the same place. She cooked meat, onions, potatoes (which alternated with a pasta every evening) various condiments, tea, frioles, cabbage salad, seemingly unlimited tortillas all for $1.50. Hers was the best of three vendors offering about the same item each evening (yes, we personally tried them all.) She, as do the other vendors, carts along a small table and stools which you can see with the red table cloth just next to the cart for her patron's use.

Rosa, immediately adjacent to Maria, offered a tortilla covered with a cabbage salad, smothered with a red sauce. Since the latter two items were not cooked, Linda and I approached this caustiously. Experiencing no ill effects, we added it as daily item. Oh yes, and after the first day, Linda started adding hot sauce to hers....(she may have done that to stop me asking for bites...)

We tended to eat out once, usually Popi's, cook at home for one meal and cap off the evening with street vendor food.

bus basics

Spending so much time on buses yesterday while thinking about updating the blog, led me to realize there is fertile ground for writing about understanding bus travel here. As long as I can convey these thoughts in words! At th right is the bus named "Maria Linda." Of course I had to get a picture of this bus, since I am married to Linda Marie! Note the windshields almost all have some sort of reflective material at the top with a saying, in this case Maria Linda, and the bottom of the windshield has decorations laminated to the glass or just that dark laminate, leaving a narrow band through which the driver can peer. Also pictured is the inside of bus looking towards the inside of the windshield.

I have written about how narrow many streets are in the old sections of town (and even many newer parts.) Yesterday´s part of our journey to Todos Santas from Nebaj included riding through Huehuetenango, a fairly large town with many narrow streets. Public transport buses, as mentioned below, tend to be retired school buses or combis (skip to the section below for a more full description of each.) What I wanted to write mainly about here is how these buses are manned. Obviously there is a driver. Among duties such as avoiding road holes, loose boulders, dogs, people, other vehicles, is honking the air horn whenever passing is required. Also, laying on the air horn when buses are going up or down blind mountain switch backs that are so tight that the bus stretches across the other lane is required so that head ons are avoided. The vehicle coming down the mountain is required to stop as some places are so steep, and some trucks or buses so overloaded, they may not be able to start again from a dead stop.

Buses here have one or sometimes two other people. If there is just one other person, that person´s duties include collecting fares and seeing to luggage getting to the roof of the bus and one other function. If there is a third person, the fare collector is relieved of the luggage job. The luggage man takes care of matters on the roof, sometimes even riding up there, less often climbing down the rear ladder while the bus is navigating the highway, opening the rear door (remember those emergency exit doors in the rear?) and climbing aboard after the luggage was all tied down.

The other function required of the assistant is jumping out of the (sometimes) moving bus to check that at least one inch of clearance exists between the bus and some obstacle such as a parked or approaching truck, a building close to the road, especially when turning the corner of a narrow street. When turning the corner, sometimes people have to be motioned off the corner sidewalk since the bus sometimes needs that space as well. Duties even include jumping out into busy roads, stopping the traffic so the bus can emerge from a narrow side street and jump back onto the now accelerating bus. Rear view mirrors stick out the furthest, there must be a thriving replacment market here.

Another bus basic for the pedestrian, at least taller pedestrians, is to watch your head; as where the streets are narrow and the pedestrian is walking on the usually very narrow sidewalk with a building on one side, and a bus or truck next to the curb, the approaching mirror sometimes needs to be ducked!