The celebration of Christmas is huge in Xela.  Several blocks from our apartment is the “democracia” – a commercial area of several square blocks of small shops surrounding a small park.  During the year, makeshift vendor stalls crowd the sidewalks, streets are shared with people, buses (old Bluebird school buses from the U.S.) belching diesel fumes, small passenger vans (“micro buses”) and lots of motorcycles.

Someday I want to spend some time photographing the variety of “chicken buses” that provide the transportation from/to/and around town.  These are all former Bluebird school buses from the U.S. and for some reason, everyone keeps the Bluebird logo on the roof.

The “micro-buses” come in two sizes: small and packed…

and a bigger version. Leslie and I usually ride this version because it’s taller inside for standing.  Every bus or micro-bus has a young assistant riding the step calling out the destination/route, helping people on and off, and collecting the fares.  A lot of the time he’s helping the driver navigate through traffic, intersections, around obstructions (other buses, stopped trucks, etc) with shouted instructions and  whistles while always hawking for more riders!

But over the past couple of weeks, the streets have been completely shut down.  Vendors have built stalls in the street selling everything related to celebrating Christmas – food, firecrackers (LOTS of firecracker vendors!), clothing, children’s toys, etc.  It has created traffic jams and delays that would make LA rush hour proud.  It takes us almost an hour to go across town when it used to take maybe 20 minutes.

Each section of street is generally geared to one type of product – this street is the fruit and vege section where Leslie’s picking up some stuff for dinner.

Living here during Navidad is certainly exotic, adventuresome (sometimes challenging!) and fun!