With no exciting travel news to report, we'll begin this entry with a biology lesson. Your eustation tubes connect the area behind your eardrums with somewhere in your throat or nose or something. The point is they keep the pressure equal on both sides of your eardrums so they don't explode in a bloody, waxy mess.

Mine aren't working. You know how it goes... you get a cold and all the snot and stuff in your head blocks up the tubes and you can't hear. For me it's the worst part of a cold. It's absolute hell trying to go to sleep when it feels like somebody at Folger's vacuum sealed your head.

"Six-hour bus trips that climb up and down enormous mountains."
I discovered today, however, a situation that can become downright agonizing when you have this problem. If your ears are blocked due to a cold, you might want to consider postponing any six-hour bus trips that climb up and down enormous mountains. It was hell. I was able to do the Scuba-thing where you hold your nose and blow to equalize the pressure, but sometimes that only made it worse. My ears are actually sore now from all they went through today. It may be for the best that I couldn't hear on the bus, though... as the driver was blasting some really horrid Mexican pop music on a tinny speaker. (And it was a first class bus... what's with that?)

The last few days weren't particularly enjoyable as I recovered from the cold. It could have been much, much worse of course... but I started feeling really crappy and wondered what the hell I was doing out here. But I think I'm over it. Now that I feel better and am poised to head toward Guatemala in the next few days I'm getting excited again. It sucks being back in Palenque, a town that's kinda ugly and depressing... especially in the constant rain that's been falling today.

"I'm a little nervous about the first days in the country."
So it looks like I'm gonna hook up with a guy from Oregon who's also headed into Guatemala. That'll be good. For whatever reason I'm a little nervous at least about the first few days in the country, so it'll be nice to have somebody to hang out with for a bit. We'll probably leave early on either Thursday or Friday.

And by the way... if anyone reading this has gotten Dialpad.com to work recently, please tell me. I'm about to decide it's completely broken.

The medical information contained herein is intended for reference purposes only and should not be considered a replacement for the advice of your own physician. ThereGoesJohn.com, its staff, management, shareholders, agents and board of directors, deny and disclaim liability for misuse of said medical content.