![A camioneta or “chicken bus” drives through the passageway exiting Antigua’s main market on Tuesday, January 17, 2017, in Antigua, Guatemala. Photo:Rachel Eubanks/Comvite](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3ccc9f_eb051c7edeeb4ad8ab08add3cd2f7693~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_100,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/3ccc9f_eb051c7edeeb4ad8ab08add3cd2f7693~mv2.jpg)
Camionetas, or school buses resurrected as public transportation across Central America, are not only a point of practicality, but also one of pride.
In Guatemala, many buses bear names like “Esmeralda,” chosen by the fathers and grandfathers of a company’s present-day owners. At Taller San Miguel in Dueñas, a twenty-minute ride from Antigua that costs just four Quetzales, workers transform Blue Bird school buses from their sterile, uniform pasts into custom, colorful vehicles able to withstand rough Guatemalan roads.