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.