Thoughts from the Chicken Bus

by Jenifer Bubenik

Reeling from the loss of her relationship and burnt out from her high-stress politico job, Jenifer Bubenik grabbed her resignation letter off the printer and walked into her boss' office. Unaware of where to go next, and stuck in a funk, she logged online and cashed in her airline miles to book a ticket to Belize, unaware of where the country was really even located; simply knowing that nine days from then her life would be transformed from depression and desperation to sunshine and umbrella drinks. Armed with little more than hiking boots and pepper spray, the twenty-nine year old set out solo to Central America; with the goal to push her job and relationship out of her mind. What began as a three-week restorative breathing trip soon ended up as a three-month adventure through the back jungles, active volcanoes, and desolate beaches far beyond the safety-net of Belize.

Jenifer Bubenik grew up in Texas and North Carolina. She is a graduate of Appalachian State University and lives in San Diego. Thoughts From the Chicken Bus is her first novel.

Prior to writing Thoughts From the Chicken Bus, she worked in government relations. She came to write Thoughts From the Chicken Bus while traveling through Latin America, where she discovered she would like to use her time off from the nine-to-five realm to study Spanish and volunteer with the less fortunate, instead of heading straight back to the negative world of Washington, DC.

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Scot]

I should have known when I attended the author's book signing and she answered a question about how she managed to travel alone in Central and South America by saying, "I carried my pepper spray with me everywhere even when I went to sleep at night," that I was not going to enjoy her thoughts from the chicken bus. Maybe it was a sense of pity or just the sheer joy I feel every time I think about my personal experiences on chicken buses in Guatemala that convinced me to purchase a signed copy. Unfortunately, my suspicions were correct and this book was a very difficult journey to read. Rather than focusing on the positive about new experiences away from home, escaping a miserable life in the US, or all of the wonderful people she met while traveling she chose to bring the misery with her. It was an adventure filled with negative opinions of most of what she saw and who she met, how dirty it was, how unsafe it was, how bad the food was, and how proud of herself she was for experiencing it. I wish I was being overly negative in this review, but I slogged through and finished the book and not just so I could slam it. If you pick this up, save yourself the money and troll the internet for the hundreds of travel journals people post online of their experiences instead, you'll get a firsthand account of many amazing experiences, see some cool pictures, and encounter much more interesting writing. On a personal note, I liked the author personally and hope that she goes on to do amazing things in her life from what I suspect she may have learned.