The Ants Go Marching On

Driving into San Cristobal was interesting. Narrow streets that can be both one ways and two depending on how far along the street you are, and the fact that we didn’t have a map of the city ended up with me driving through a market. But we made it to the hostel Las Palomas.

The hostel was mostly dead, but there were still quite a few interesting travellers that we spent a couple nights drinking with. The second night of drinking involved watching “G.I. Joe” with Ben and a few of the other backpackers. It wasn’t a movie any of us took seriously, and spent most of the time making fun of it, which is pretty much all you can do with a movie like that. But the Martin from Poland couldn’t even dredge comedy out of the bad. I have never seen anyone with so much disdain or disgust for a movie. He looked like he was in physical pain watching it. And if you were to ask him about the movie his only response would be a simple, “No”. Can't say that I blame him. He eventually shut it off and took the DVD out of the player.

After the movie a few of us went out drinking. The first bar was a nice sit down place with live music. Eventually we ended up at a Mexican night club that was dead when we first got in. Dead enough that they were giving us free shots. Eventually the bar got busier and we ended up dancing with the locals. My rhythm needs work; I don’t think I was doing it right, but I tried, and it was fun.

The morning we left San Cristobal, we met another couple who are driving an old beat up VW rabbit down to Argentina and back. We swapped stories and they told us about the mecanical problems they have been having. We bid farewell, but as we were talking to hostel owner we saw the rabbit die perfectly in front of the door. We burst out laughing and then helped them push start it.

We then headed towards Palenque and past another couple shake downs, one involving homemade spike-strips. The military has also taken more of an interest in us, and the searches have became more thorough, which is annoying. However my only real gripe with the military is that they left my day pack open when they searched it. In normal cases this wouldn't have been a big deal, but our circumstances were not normal.

Based on the title you might have thought that I was referring metaphorically to Ben and I travelling southward (in a cheesy manner), but I was actually referring to the ants that live in our Van. We started seeing a few crawling around about a week ago, since then the colony has been thriving. We're not 100% sure what they are eating. One theory is that they go out at night to forage and are safely back in the van each morning, since they know we avoid driving in the darkness. Luckily they're just small black foraging ants that don't bite, so we haven't been too concerned about the situation. Besides they're really the only ones that have been cleaning our van, so we let it be. However, when the military did not close my backpack the ants moved their nursery into it during the drive to Palenque. It was annoying trying to sweep all of the ants and their eggs out of my backpack, but I think I dealt a swift blow to the colony. The ants have not been as prominent in the van lately, but the Queen is still at large. Maybe the vents?

We stayed at Palenque for a couple days, went a bit hippy and saw the ruins.

From Palenque we drove to Chetumal and drove around looking for a cheap place; we found one. It looked like a place where criminals would go after they were realeased from prison and trying to reincorporate themselves into society, but it was nice enough for one night. In the morning I went down to the lobby in order to use the WIFI. As I was on the internet it started pouring and Ben came down the stairs half naked and soaking wet. He was doing yoga on the roof (where are room was) when the wind blew the door shut. The owner gave us a spare key, but unfortunately it didn't work. After trying to break into the room with the leatherman without succes, I tried with a spoon and was able to break in within a minute -- maybe not the most secure accomodations.

This set us back a little, but we still made it to the border fairly early. We stopped at the Mexican immagration office so Ben could cancel the insurance for the vehicle. At the same time the power window panel on the drivers side stopped working and we couldn't close it. The fuse was fine, so we went to the next logical step -- Ben started pulling off the door panel. We tried to push it up manually, as well as a multitude of other things that people, who are not mechanically inclined, would try. I even spit on the connection points of the wires where they intersect with the panel controls. Nothing. But shortly after when we gave up and were driving to Belize they worked (maybe the spit completed the circuit?).

Now we're just before the Guatemalan border -- about 2 hours from Tikal.