Gwyn Lawrence thinks he has a ride worth crowing about.

It’s a tricked-out, multicolored “chicken bus” fresh from a Guatemala garage.

“You can park this bus next to a Ferrari,” Lawrence said, “and people will still look at the chicken bus.”

You’d never know, judging by the crazy paint job, the tables and bed, the eagle hood ornament with glowing eyes or the female silhouette figurines on the sides, that this bus hauled children to school in the Perry-Lecompton school district just a couple of years ago.

It’s a transformation that was the brainchild of Lawrence, a native of Great Britain who moved to Antigua, Guatemala, to study Spanish.

He said he had been looking for Guatemalan products that might be of interest to Europeans or Americans. The best thing he could come up with was the chicken bus — the main form of transportation for everyday Guatemalans, who load their produce, including chickens, on the roof of the buses for transport to market.

Most of the chicken buses are former American school buses with souped-up engines so they can climb Guatemalan mountains. Most are painted wildly.

“They are the rarest of things — art and function,” Lawrence said in an e-mail interview. “This is a poor country whose private bus companies spend valuable resources on making a bus look aesthetically pleasing. People would get on the bus if it was yellow. It’s very strange that they do this.”

It was just strange enough he thought the idea might catch on in the United States.

So Lawrence, 54, hopped on the Internet and searched for a company selling buses. He was intrigued by a company called Kansas Bus Connection because it was headquartered in Lawrence, a city that shared his name.

Jim Craig, left, and Michael Jones talk beside the chicken bus they drove from Guatemala to Lawrence. The bus was originally a school bus from Perry before it made the journey to Guatemala to be retrofitted into a chicken bus. The pair drove the bus here to be sold on eBay.

He paid $2,750 for a 1992 diesel bus with 142,000 miles on it. Gerry McPhail, who owns Kansas Bus Connection, said he purchased it from the Perry-Lecompton school district, which purchased new buses. Usually, McPhail sells buses to churches, tour guides and rafting businesses.

Lawrence had friends drive it to Guatemala, where he had a company called Transportes Esmeralda perform work valued at $5,000. It included a paint job, new front end, tables, new seats and curtains.

The company also added a partition separating the driver from the rest of the bus and made a separate room in the back of the bus with a bed.

Two of Lawrence’s friends, Michael Jones, of Antiqua, and Jim Craig, of Pittsburgh, Pa., drove the bus 4,000 miles back to Lawrence last week so McPhail could put it on the market. Jones has chronicled the journey at www.chickenbus.net.

The bus that arrived at McPhail’s lot, now christened The Lawrencian, was a far cry from the bus that pulled out in April.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” McPhail said. “I’m just amazed at what they do down there.”

McPhail said he’d attempt to sell the bus on eBay. Sticker price: $35,000.

In all, Jones said, Lawrence has invested about $20,000 in the project. He is driving another of McPhail’s buses back to Guatemala, where he’s expecting Lawrence will start the bus transformation over again — especially if The Lawrencian sells quickly.

“It’s a learning-curve process,” Jones said. “It would be cheaper every time.”

Lawrence thinks the buses might be attractive to outdoor enthusiasts to haul rafts or mountain bikes, or to motorcyclists wanting to road-trip to Sturgis.

“Most Americans went to school on the school bus,” he said. “There is something nostalgic and amusing about being adult, and going down the road sucking on a beer in the ex-school bus. This bus makes people smile, which is no bad thing in our modern world.”