Day 228. Saturday 14th March. Tikal to Laguna Las Pozas. Guatemala.

“Mission Control, we have gremlins in the electrics”! Nothing electrical would work in the living quarters,  apart from the fridge which was being temporarily run off the cigarette lighter socket!!! Trying to find the reason was causing major confusion, so Jen said, “lets rewire the whole thing”. With no soldering iron we didn’t get far as the gas fire lighter soon ran out of gas to do soldering. It became obvious that we couldn’t get too far without a new gas fire starter, so decided to head off and deal with it tonight, at our next camp.

The drive from Tikal through the forest, was gorgeous. 

Stopping for lunch on the island of Flores under some shady trees, right next to the small outboard motor operated, car ferry. 

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Flores is a lovely settlement. Full of restaurants and touristy hotels etc. It’s an island in the middle of a large lake (Lago Peten Itza), connected by a causeway. Not sure why the need for a car ferry, but maybe it goes to the other side of the lake? 

Just before turning onto the causeway there was a large shopping area with all the worlds latest and greatest retail brands. Like something out of disneyland. Very different to anything seen in Mexico or Belize. Guatemala has it’s contradictions. 

I’m hearing western music. Not the latin type that we heard all through Mexico. While very much catholic, there is much less adherence to religious protocols. Just an observation, and early days.

A little further on we come to a stop with a line of traffic ahead of us. What we cant see is that there is a river crossing and the barge is only big enough for half a dozen cars and a couple of trucks.

Using the travellers app iOverlander, Jen found us a free camp site, by a lake.

Being a Saturday there are a number of people enjoying the water and we found an elevated site about 100m from the lake edge.

Number one priority is to get the electrics back working. For those who followed us across Canada, you will recall our interaction with a “Experte Mechanique” in Quebec who spent the best part of 8 hours “fixing” an earlier electrical problem. I seem to recall spending about an hour after departing his workshop, getting things working again. I didn’t go right back to the start, but managed to patch things up to get going again. Well, Jen’s insistence that we go back to the very start, the batteries, then rewire the whole thing, is the only way to get to the bottom of it. Good advise, as I was starting to question my limited electrical wiring skills. 

What I found was, this bozo had connected wires using shrink sleeves and not a connector or solder to be found! I never found that until removing all wires. I spent several hours during last night thinking about how I could improve on the wiring layout used when building the interior. So, now all connections are soldered and everything is working off the auxiliary battery. I’m happiness filled..:).

Could this wiring fiasco be the cause of the fridge failing? Lets not go there…:). 

Our new fridge is amazing. It seems to cycle more often but for shorter periods i.e. goes on for a short period, then turn off. Maybe it’s to reduce battery drain? Whatever, we now have cold milk, cheese, beer, chocolate and all things that need to be kept cold. 

There is just enough wifi coverage here to get some news. The world seems to be grinding to a halt. Nothing else talked about other than coronavirus!! Canada advising her citizens to go home. NZ suggesting self isolation. Mmmm. America now waking up to the possibility the administration could have had their heads in the sand. I wont comment further..:). American borders now closed to most Europeans. Are we being blasé by continuing our travels? Frankly, I think we would run a much higher chance of contracting the virus by getting on a plane and flying home? 

For the last 5 years at least, as a dreamer idealist, I have been reading the signs and predicting a major financial crash that would hopefully cleanse the world of much of it’s ill’s. Will this be it? Perhaps a replay of the Black Plague of the 1600’s? The Spanish influenza pandemic that killed millions in 1918, or the 1928 stock market crash? Or just a minor hiccup? Modern media has the potential to sensationalise and create paranoia.

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