Guatemala 1992 We had traversed the Yucatan and Belize. It was an 8 hour ride on top of a bus to get where we were going. At one point the bus stopped for a break at a little empanada stand. I climbed down from the roof of the bus where I was riding and pulled down the bandana I wore to keep the dust out of my mouth and nose. I had a beard and long hair at the time….. A little girl jumped up pointing at me and exclaimed “Momi!....Esta es Jesus Christ!!”….. I crossed myself and blew her a kiss. Her mother was beeming! Those were the second best empanadas ever…. First are my wife’s! We arrived in Poptun where we were going to camp at a Finca. We climbed off of the bus and readied our gear for the half hour hike to the ranch. As we were getting ready an older local fellow walked up to my girlfriend… (She was a real firebrand mind you)…. He said something lewd and reached for her breast (She didn’t understand any Spanish) As soon as he touched her, she clobbered him across the face. Now, this fellow and his three larger friends were all wearing a side arm on one hip and a machete on the other…. I grabbed her by the elbow and marched her away as fast as I could…Hoping not to get a bullet in the back! We arrived at the Finca and checked in with the owners. She was Dutch and he was a local. The first thing I wanted to do was shower off the road dust. They had a “jungle shower” A wooden circle with a door and no roof. It was covered in loofa vines (How handy!) I had soaped up and I heard a couple of BOOMs! I thought there must be a mine nearby….. Then I heard Bra-tattatatatat…..That was a large caliber machine gun… probably a .50…. It went off 6 or 8 times interspersed with what I now presumed was artillery. I rinsed off quickly and went to the main house to find out what was going on. The owner pointed to a small fort on top of a steep hill about 2 kilometers away…. He said “That’s the Government…. When they see the rebels moving in the jungle below, they start shooting. They seldom hit anyone and no one gets hurt, but the rebels know they have been seen and don’t cause trouble.”…. OK. The next morning at breakfast…. Homemade tortillas with beans and eggs… A young fellow named Carlos … he was about 15, approached and asked if we wanted to see something interesting. We hiked into the jungle for about half an hour. We came to a cliff face but there was a cave entrance there. Inside I could see water rushing. Carlos pulled out some candles and we waded in. We waded, swam, and trudged for an hour underground. We came to a point where Carlos told us to stop. I could hear rushing water. Carlos leaped off into the darkness and I watched and waited. He swam around a chamber down below and stuck candles in the mud to light it. It was a waterfall … about 15 meters high. Carlos motioned for me to jump but he also pointed out 2 boulders about 3 meters apart at the base. I did a canon ball!..... I bobbed up and Carlos was laughing his head off! We climbed out with a rope that was placed at the side of the falls and made our way back out to the jungle. I was chilled from the stream and the heat of the jungle felt good. We got back to the Finca in time for dinner…. Grilled flank steak with plantain, salad, and rice. After dinner we sat out on the porch. I hollowed out a pineapple and filled it with coconut rum. We passed it around and re-filled it a couple of times. I sliced it up and we all nibbled the rum soaked fruit.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 08:25:21 +0000
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