After eating a bad tamale and coming down with a case of Montezuma's Revenge, Spud found himself seeking refuge in a public washroom just outside of Tijuana, Mexico. Having suddenly found some time on his hands, the tater proceeded to read some of the pearls of wisdom etched into the walls of his stall.

A long passage grabbed the potato's attention. Although it was in Spanish, Spud's devout following of Juan Epstein on the TV show 'Welcome Back Kotter, provided enough knowledge for him to translate the scrawling. The note told of a treasure of silver bars that were hidden inside a great Mayan Temple, buried for over a century in the deepest, darkest jungle of the Yucatan peninsula. Next to the writing was what appeared to be a map, hidden beneath a plastering of what were once refried beans. Spud transferred the map to some paper that someone had conveniently left a roll of in the stall.

Unbeknown to Spud, an enormous crocodile  lay only feet away...The tato studied the map carefully. He knew of this area. It was largely unexplored and fraught with danger. This was no place for an ordinary potato. This was a job for Indiana Spud !

Spud chartered a plane to fly to the tiny Mexican village of Coba, located at the gateway to the foreboding jungle. There he stuffed his pack, grabbed his machete and headed into the muggy darkness of the dense canopy. After a few hours of bushwhacking, Indy came upon a marshy swampland.

Crossing the swamp would be dangerous as it was home to the Crocodylus Porosus; the Estuarine Crocodile, the longest and most dangerous reptile in the world. Having been an avid watcher of 'the Crocodile Hunter' on TV, Spud was confident he knew everything there was to know about combating these ferocious creatures.

The tater waded across the murky water, careful to avoid being detected. After a nerve rattling half hour of trudging through the muddy bog, Spud finally found himself back on solid ground. That is until he realized it wasn't ground at all, but instead was the back of a 3 metre (10 foot) long crocodile with an attitude problem.

Indiana Spud uncovers the lost Temple of MantequillaThe startled croc grunted and lurched; sending the potato flying. The mammoth reptile snapped its immense jaws then chomped down on the tato; the tuber disappearing into the toothy abyss. As Spud passed down the Croc's gullet, he lodged himself into its tracheal tube - blocking the reptile's airway. The croc's eyes bulged as he found he was unable to breathe. Capillaries began to burst in his eyeballs as the oxygen supply was cutoff to its brain. On the verge of passing out, the croc let out a tremendous cough, hacking out the tater and part of its lung in the process. Exhausted, the croc crumpled into a scaly heap. Indy wiped the phlegm off his head, collected his gear and proceeded back into the dark, steamy jungle.

Soon afterward, Spud came across a giant stone stelae, elaborately carved in Mayan glyphs. He pulled out his guidebook and began deciphering the cryptic message. The stelae confirmed the story of the 'Temple of the Silver Bars'. The potato swelled with anticipation, knowing that the treasure did exist and was obviously close at hand. Indy continued to scour the dense foliage of the jungle, looking for any sign of the lost Temple.

The intense heat and humidity of the tropical forest was beginning to roast the treasure-hunting 'tato. In his haste to get here, he had neglected to bring along aluminum foil to insulate him from the sweltering heat. His skin began to crisp up and brown; had someone thrown some thyme and a pinch of rosemary on him, Spud would have been an entree.

Spud hits it rich with a bounty of butter pats!Just as Spud was about to collapse, he spotted a large pile of stones at the base of a huge mound. Further exploration would reveal that this 'mound' was actually a large ancient temple that, over the centuries, had been mostly reclaimed by the untamed jungle flora. A Mayan inscription at the foot of the temple provided the name given to this place of great reverence: the Temple of Mantequilla.

Indy pulled off some of the aggressive vines that had been strangling the stone shrine so that he could squeeze into a hole next to (what looked like) the main entrance way. Once inside, the temperature immediately dropped; a welcome relief to the shriveling side dish. He pulled out a meat thermometer and noted that it was well over 30 degrees centigrade (85 F) cooler than the sweltering jungle.

Indy lit a torch and proceeded to explore the cool catacombs of the ancient Temple. He would not have to search long before he came upon a room filled with thousands upon thousands of silver bars. He had found the lost treasure of the Mayas!

It proved to be a treasure greater than the potato could have ever imagined, for the bars were not blocks of some precious metal, they were foil wrapped pats of aged butter!


Back to Spud's Story

Mexico's Border Towns

The Mysterious Maya of Chichen Itza

Spud discovers the Myths of Uxmal

Show me more travels!