Day 10: Toilet Humour

Today we went to Tikal, Guatemala! This is a picture of the colours of Melchor, the dusty, poor, busy border town we crossed into. I love the bright colours of the tropics and how paint fades in the sun.

We negotiated a decent price with a taxi driver and his brother to take us to Tikal, a massive Mayan city about 2 hours down the road where we had booked our next hotel.

We had driven about five minutes when we heard a loud clunk from the back of the car. The driver pulled over and got out carrying a long rag. "It will be fine" he said. E and I looked at each other sceptically. Well at least we were still in town, we could always get another taxi.

A couple of minutes later the driver came back, sans cloth. "All fixed now!" he said and we pulled slowly away. We were not feeling confident. "At least the road is paved" said E.

The road was paved for the next 10 minutes or so and then degenerated into gravel with deep potholes and ruts. E had not read the guide book carefully enough. It had said that another road was paved - this was not it.

It was a very slow ride. That gave us time to look at the horses eating the grass on the side of the road, the ramshackle roadside shacks plastered will ads from competing cell phone companies and sigh at the sight of fresh slash and burn fields where forest had been growing just months before.

In a little while we both felt the inevitable call of nature. Unfortunately, neither one of us knew how to ask for a bathroom in Spanish. E had a bright idea and held up her wad of toilet paper (I always carry some) and said brightly, "toilet? toilet?" The driver pulled over and went to the nearest roadside stand and then crossed the road to another. I thought he was kindly asking where the nearest toilet was.

A few minutes later he came back carrying two rolls of toilet paper. How considerate, I thought. I was very touched. They he started to drive again. And kept driving. I finally realized that he wasn't going to stop. We were both getting desperate. Bushes would do.

Stop, stop, I said loudly. He stopped. I pointed at the bushes and he got out, politely opened the door so we could go pee. And we had lots of toilet paper.

We found out later that "toilet" is the Spanish word for toilet paper. That poor taxi driver thought that two crazy touristas had asked him to buy them toilet paper. I'm still laughing.

We fell in love with Tikal. And that is another story.

Belize Trip Back Blips
Day 1: Lost Luggage and Laminai
Day 2: The Ruins of the British (and Mayan) Empires
Day 3: Journey to Chan Chich
Day 4: Jungle Oasis
Day 5: It's a jungle out here
Day 6: We win the Survivor reward challenge
Day 7: Floating down the river to infinity
Day 8: A Military Escort
Day 9: People Watching
Day 10: Toilet Humour
Day 11: Tikal Immersion
Day 12: Roxie and the Machete
Day 13: Communing with Tikal
Day 14: Slash and Burn
Day 15: Swimming with Sharks
Day 16: Passage of the Mangroves
Day 17: Exploring San Pedro
Day 18: Lost and Found