Transportation

If there was a plan when they built the roads in Guatemala City, they lost it before they started.  But if their main objective was to make sure no one ever took the same way twice and did it as slowly as possible by adding as many turns, speed bumps and random one way streets, in as many directions as was physically possible, they succeeded. 

Riding public transportation anywhere is an adventure, and in a country like Guatemala it is just that much more interesting.  I think one of the more interesting things is that unlike the Estados Unitos (US), the busses can be packed to the maximum capacity.   Here "maximum capacity" means the maximum number of people that can physically fit on the vehicle (notice the preposition 'on' not necessarily 'in').  

This is one of the extra-urban buses going from Guatemala City to Atitlan, all these buses are old school buses and are brightly colored, according to their destination, and decorated with chrome and various other symbols and pictures.  These buses head out all over the country, drop a few Q's (Quetzales, Guatemalan unit of currency( about Q8's to the dollar)) hop on and you are ready to go...  from the city to Antigua, about 35km ish, is Q8's.  The urban buses are only one or two Q's, and they are all red, and not quites a fancy and more like a usual city bus. 

If I lived here for any longer than I am now I would buy a motorcycle,  they can go in between traffic and around it, and are therefore quicker and, of course, more fun.