July 16
I talked with Bob and Greg last night at 2210 EDT. They were at Randell
Hendricks house in Dallas, will be getting a few hours sleep, and plan to
head toward the border near Brownsville TX well before dawn. The bonuses
for the next leg are all in Texas or Mexico. The next checkpoint is Cancun
in the Yucatan. They have to be there late Sunday afternoon. This is not
going to be an easy leg, unless they're willing to drive at night in
Mexico. No frog in his right mind should do that.
Rules changes continue to be a significant problem. It appears to be so
serious that our heroes may have fallen into second place behind the
Alaskan team, Midnight Frogs. Nothing is certain. The Peace Frogs web
site has not been updated since the teams were in Branson three days ago.
Today the organizers were late showing up at the Dallas checkpoint. Then
Bob and Greg were told that the scoring to this point has been "unofficial"
and that the actual scoring will be done in Costa Rica. I am growing just
a little weary of trying to put a pleasant face on these antics. Whimsical
scoring is one thing, but I am more concerned about the amount of time the
teams are being given to make the next few legs.
The route from Dallas to Cancun along the Gulf coast is pool-table flat,
and for that everyone ought to be grateful. The mountains in Mexico really
have to be seen to be appreciated. When Cortez returned to Spain after
subduing the Aztecs, people were excited to know what this new country was
like. Cortez took a piece of parchment, crumpled it in his fist, and
tossed it on the table. "That," he said, "is a map of Mexico." Spoken
almost 500 years ago, a better description of the country has yet to be
given. If you're not on one coast or the other, you're in the mountains,
and you think you're never going to get out of them.
But it's a long, long drive --- more than 2,000 miles from Dallas --- and
they have but four days to do it. Contrast that, for example, with the
tiny 275 miles they drove from Branson to Memphis in a single day.
Averaging better than 500 miles/day in Mexico is not easy, but it is doable
along the coast. What is far more difficult is trying to reach the Yucatan
with sufficient time to begin picking up bonuses in that area. Virtually
every meaningful bonus in the Mexican section is within a 150-mile radius
of Cancun. To have any realistic chance of grabbing those, they're going
to have to be in Merida or Chetumal Saturday night. Even in the winter
it's hot and terribly humid along that entire route. How much better can
it be in mid-July?
It doesn't look like it's going to get a lot easier after that. There are
hints that the checkpoint after Cancun will be in Antigua, Guatemala, a
small, beautiful city about 25 miles west of Guatemala City and one of the
major stops on the Gringo Trail. I imagine that it would open Tuesday in
the late afternoon. There are only two ways --- well, three, if you count
an airplane, which is the way I'd be considering --- to get there from
Cancun: 1) backtrack to Chiapas (via Palenque-Ocosingo-San
Cristobol-Comitan) and enter Guatemala near Huehuetenango or 2) head due
south into Belize, cross into Guatemala, proceed east toward Tikal, south
to pick up Highway 9, then east again for the final stretch toward
Guatemala City. The section from Belize to Highway 9 is some of the worst
hard-pan dirt I've ever travelled on, a real car breaker even by Guatemalan
standards. Highway 9 is mountainous in sections. Unless they are forced
to go that way because of staggering bonuses in Belize or Tikal, I couldn't
recommend it. I'd rather face the Zapatistas in Chiapas any day than take
that route again.
Tuesday in Antigua for the fifth checkpoint makes sense. That would seem
to leave four more days to make it to the final checkpoint in San Jose,
Costa Rica, which I'm assuming would open a week from Saturday. If so,
they can plan on spending one day each in El Salvador, Honduras, and
Nicaragua. Border crossings in those countries can be frustrating and
time-consuming.
It won't be a walk in the park, that's for sure, but these guys aren't
ordinary frogs either.
Bob Higdon
Washington D.C.
