Day 176 - Ode to the Dickie Seat

Central American Travel | November 23, 2009

Any trip to Central America is not complete without at least one trip in the infamous dickie seat. What is a dickie seat I hear you ask? A dickie seat is the oft-loathed, but always-used, fold-out seat that fills the aisles of all and sundry minivans and shuttles throughout Central America and Mexico.

The dickie seat is likely to catch you by surprise if you are one of the later travelers to alight your minibus transportation. As you duck inside the sliding door, you will stare in bewilderment around the already-packed van, wondering where on earth you are expected to sit. Then, as the van driver or door-attendant/money collector dude points emphatically at an empty space of aisle, it will dawn on you that what you thought was a strange-looking arm rest is, in fact, a dickie seat, folded into it's upright position.

As the seat yields and creaks to your insistent pushing and finally slots into place, you resign yourself to the fact that the next six hours will be spent with the bar at the top of the backrest pressing into your spine as you jolt and careen along badly-maintained mountain roads at breakneck speeds.

One minor advantage to the dickie seat on these unfavourable mountain passes is that it comes with it's own built-in suspension. With only the hinged bracket holding your seat mid-air, you bounce along in time to the potholes, as others jolt towards the ceiling at each unexpected highway speed bump.

Oh dickie seat... how I love thee.

My dickie seat brings me just that little bit closer to the music blaring from the two-watt cellphone speakers of the woman next to me. The tinny salsa tunes compete with the DVD being shown on the seemingly out-of-place flat screen TV, which is bolted precariously to the ceiling with a towel as a buffer to the bumps and grinds of the bus's passage.

Only my dickie seat could put me in the path of projectile rubbish the Mayan gentleman next to me lobs past my nose and out the open bus door on one of the many passenger pick-ups along the way.

Oh dickie seat, only you could provide the pleasure of repeatedly standing, sitting, standing and sitting again to let passengers on and off the bus.

Dickie seat, you clever thing you, allowing 30 people on a minibus that is surely only built for 20. And, when passenger number 31 sidles up the minibus steps, only you would provide the added space to cram three people into the space designed for two. If you thought sitting in the dickie seat was fun, sitting with on butt cheek on the dickie seat, and one on the normal seat takes things to a whole different level.

More soon...