the Motorcycle Diaries notes on a Latin American journey by Ernesto gavar read by Bruno Gerardo andinos so we understand each other this is not a story of incredible heroism or merely The Narrative of a cynic at least I do not mean it to be it is a glimpse of two lives that ran parallel for a time with similar hopes and convergent dreams in months of a man's life he can think a lot of things from the loftiest meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup in total Accord with the state of his stomach and if at the same time he's somewhat of an adventurer he might live through episodes of interest to other people and his halfhazard record might read something like these notes and so the coin was thrown in the air turning many times Landing sometimes heads and other times tails man the measure of all things speaks here through my mouth and narrates in my own language that which my eyes have seen it is likely that out of 10 possible heads I have seen only one true tale or vice versa in fact it's probable and there are no excuses for these lips can only describe what these eyes actually see is it that her whole Vision was never quite complete that it was too transient or not always well informed were we too uncompromising in our judgments okay but this is how the typewriter interpreted those fleeting impulses raising my fingers to the Keys and those impulses have now died moreover no one can be held responsible for them the person who wrote these notes passed away the moment his feet touched ad hentin soil the person who reorganizes and polishes than me is no longer at least I'm not the person I once was all this wandering around arer with a capital A has changed me more than I thought in any photographic manual you'll come across the strikingly clear image of a landscape apparently taken by night in the light of a full moon the secret behind this magical vision of Darkness at noon is usually revealed in the accompanying text readers of this book will not be well versed about the sensitivity of my retina I can hardly sense it myself so they will not be able to check what is set against a photographic plate to discover at precisely what time each of my pictures was taken what this means is that if I present you with an image and say for instance that it was taken at night you can either believe me or not it matters little to me since if you don't happen to know the scene I photographed in my notes it will be hard for you to find an alternative to the truth I'm about to tell but I'll leave you now with myself the man I used to be proo for warnings it was a morning in October taking advantage of the holiday on the 17th I had gone to Cordova we were at Alberto Granado's place under the vine drinking sweet mate and commenting on recent events and this beach of a life tinkering with laosa too Alberto was lamenting the fact that he had to quit his job at the leopa colony in San Francisco Del Shar and about how poor his pay was now at the Hospital espanol I had also quit my job but unlike Alberto I was very happy to leave I was feeling uneasy more than anything because having the spirit of a dreamer I was particularly jaded with medical schools hospitals and exams along the roads of our Daydreams we reached remote countries navigated tropical seas and traveled all through Asia and suddenly sleeping in as if part of our fantasy the question arose why don't we go to North America North America but how and laa man the trip was decided just like that and it never aired from the basic principle laid down in that moment improvisation Alberto's Brothers joined us in a round of Monte as we sealed our pack never to give up until we had realized our dream so began the monness business of chasing visas certificants and documents that is to say of overcoming the many hurdles modern Nations erect in the paths of wbe travelers to save face just in case we decided to say we were going to Chile my most important Mission before leaving was to take exams in as many subjects as possible Alberto to prepare the bike for the long journey and to study and plan our route the enormity of our Endeavor escaped Us in those moments all we could see was the dust on the road ahead and ourselves on the bike devouring kilometers in our flight northward the discovery of the ocean the full moon is silhou against the sea smothering the ways with silvered Reflections sitting on a dune we watch The Continuous Heaven flow each with our distinct thoughts for me the sea has always been a confidant a friend absorbing all that is told and never revealing those Secrets always giving the best advice whose meaningful noises can be interpreted any way you choose for Alberto it is a new strangely perturbing sight and the intensity with which his eyes follow every wave building swelling then dying on the beach reflects his amazement nearing 30 Alberto has seen the Atlantic for the first time and is overwhelmed by this discovery that signifies an infinite number of paths to all ends of the Earth the fresh wind fills the senses with the power and mood of the sea everything is transformed by its touch even comeback gazes his odd little nose aof at the silver ribbons unrolling before him several times a minute comeback is both a symbol and a Survivor a symbol of the Union demanding my return a survivor of his own bad luck two FS from the bike and one of which he and his bag flew off the back his persistent diarrhea and even getting trampled by a horse we're in Via hesel north of mar planta enjoying in his house my uncle's hospitality and reliving our first 12200 km apparently the easiest though they've already giving us a healthy respect for distances we have no idea whether or not we'll get there but we do know the going will be hard at least that's the impression we have at this stage Alberto laughs at his minutely detailed plans for the trip According to which we should be nearing the end when in reality we have only just begun we left a saddle stocked up on vegetables and Tin Meats donated by my uncle he asked us to send him a telegram from B LOE if we get there so that with the number of the telegram he could buy a corresponding lottery ticket which seemed a little optimistic to us on Q others taunted that the bike would be a good excuse to go jogging Etc and though we have a firm resolve to prove them wrong a natural apprehension keeps us from declaring our mutual confidence along the coast Road comeback maintains his aviator's impulses emerging unscathed from yet another head-on collision the motorbike is very hard to control with extra weight on a rack behind the center of gravity tending to lift the front wheel and the slightest laps in concentration sends us flying we stop at a butcher store and buy some meat to grill and some milk for the dog who won't even try it I begin to worry more about the little animals Health than the money I'd fored out to pay for the milk the meat turns out to be horse it's unbearably sweet and we can't eat it fed up I toss a piece of away and amazingly the dog wol sit down in no time I throw him another piece and the same thing happens his regime of milk is lifted in the middle of the Uproar caused by combat's admirers I enter here in Mirimar a parenthesis Amoroso Lovick PA the intention of this diary is not really to recount those days in memar where kbach found a new home with one resident in particular to whom kak's name was directed our journey was suspended in that haven of indecision subordinate to the words that give consent and create bonds Alberto s danger and was already imagining himself alone on the roads of America though he never raised his voice the struggle was between she and I for a moment as I left Victorious or so I thought Otero Silva lines rang in my ears I heard splashing on the boat her bare feet and sensed in our faces the hungry dusk my heart Swain between her and the street the road I don't know where I found the strength to free myself from her eyes to slip from her arms she stayed crying through the raining glass clouded with grief and tears she stayed unable to cry wait I will come walking with you yet afterwards I doubted whether driwood has the right to say I win When the tide throws it onto the beach it seeks but that was later and is of no interest to the present the two days i' planned stretched like elastic into eight and with the Bittersweet Taste of the goodbye mingling with my inverter at bad breath I finally felt myself lifted definitively away on the Winds of Adventure toward worlds I envisaged would be Stranger than they were into situations I imagine would be much more normal than they turned out to be I remember the day my friend thece came to my defense taking me from the limbo I was cursed with the beach was deserted and a cold onshore wind was blowing my head rested in the lap TI me to this land lulled by everything around the entire universe drifted past rhythmically obeying the impulses of my inner voice suddenly a stronger gust of wind brought a different sea voice and and I lifted my head in Surprise yet it seemed to be nothing a false alarm I lay back returning once again in my dreams to the caressing lamp and then for the last time I heard the ocean's warning its vast and jarring Rhythm hammered at The Fortress within me and threatened its imposing Serenity we became cold and left the beach fleeing the disturbing presence which refused to leave me alone the sea danced on the small stretch of beach indifferent to its own Eternal law and spawn in its own note of caution it's warning but a man in love though Alberto used a more outrageous less refined word is a no condition to listen to such a cul from nature in the enormous belly of a Buick the bis side of my universe was still under construction the first commandment of every good Explorer is an expedition has two points The Point of Departure and the point of arrival if your intention is to make the second the theoretical Point coincide with the actual point of arrival don't think about the means because the journey is a virtual space that finishes when it finishes and there are as many means as there are different ways of finishing that is to say the means are endless I remembered Alberto's suggestion the bracelet or you're not who you think you are China's hands disappeared into the hollow made by mine chichina that bracelet can I take it to guide me and remind me of you the poor girl I knew the girl didn't matter despite what they say her fingers as they held the bracelet were merely weighing up the love that made me ask for it that is at least what I honestly think Alberto says with a certain mischievousness it seems to me that you don't need particularly sensitive fingers to weigh up the full 29 carat of my love K breaking the last tie we left stopping next to neocha where an old University friend of Alberto had his practice we covered the distance easily in a morning arriving just in time for a steak lunch receiving a genial welcome from the friend and a not so genial welcome from his wife who spotted the danger in our resolutely Bohemian ways you have only one year left before you qualify as a doctor and yet you're going away you have no idea when you'll be back but why we couldn't give a precise answer to her desperate questions and this hori her she was courteous with us but her hostility was clear despite the fact that she knew at least I think she knew ultimate victory was hers her husband was beyond our Redemption we had visited in Mar Plata a doctor from the vs who had joined the ponis party with all its consequent privileges this doctor and NE CH remained faithful to his own the radicals yet we however were as remote from one as from the other support for the radicals was never a tenable political position for me and was also losing its significance for Alberto who had been quite close at one time with some of the leaders he respected when we climbed back onto the bike again and after thanking the couple for our 3 days of the good life we continued on to vakia Blanca feeling a little more alone but good deal more free friends were also expecting us there my friends this time and they too offered us a friendly and warm Hospitality several days passed us by in the southern Port as we fixed the bike and wandered aimlessly around the city these were the last days in which we did not have to think about money afterwards a rigid dyed of meat Penta and bread would have to be followed strictly to stretch our meager finances the taste of bread was now tinged with war I won't be so easy to come by soon old man and we swallowed it with all the more enthusiasm we wanted like camels to build our reserves for the journey that lay ahead the Night Before Our departure I came down with a cough and quite a high temperature and consequently we were a day late leaving bajia Blanca finally at 3:00 in the afternoon we left under a blazing sun that by the time we reached the Sands around methos had become even hotter the bike with its badly distributed weight kept bounding out of control the wheels constantly spinning over Alberto fought a painful battle with his s and insists he won the only certainty is that we found ourselves resting comfortably in the sand six times before we finally made it out onto the flat we did nevertheless get out and this is my comp's main argument for claiming victory over meos from here I took over the controls accelerating to make up for precious lost time a fine sand covered part of a bend and boom the worst crash of the whole trip Alberto emerged unscathed but my foot was trapped and scorched by the cylinder leaving a disagreeable souvenir which lasted a long time because the wound wouldn't heal a heavy downpour forced us to seek shelter at a ranch but to reach it we had to get 300 M up a muddy track and we went flying another two times their welcome was magnificent but the sum total of our first experience on unsealed roads was alarming nine crashes in a single day on Camp beds the only beds we know from now on and ly beside laosa are snail-like dwelling we still looked into the future with impatient joy we seem to breathe more freely a lighter air an a of Adventure distant countries heroic deeds and beautiful women spun around and around in our turbulent imaginations my tired eyes refused to sleep and in them a pair of green spots swirled representing the world I had left for dead behind me and mocking the so-called Liberation I sought they harnessed their image to my extraordinary flight across the lands and seas of the worldes G for the flu bed the bike exhaled with boredom along the long accident free Road and we exhaled with fatigue driving on a gravel colored Road had transformed a pleasant Jaun into a heavy job by Nightfall after an entire day of alternating turns at the controls we were left with a greater desire to sleep than to continue with the effort to reach CH chel a largest town where we had a chance at free lodging so we stopped in Ben Hamin Soria settling down comfortably in a room at the railroad station we slept dead to the world we woke early the next morning but when I went to collect water for arate a weird sensation darted through my body followed by a long shiver 10 minutes later I was shaking uncontrollably like someone possessed my quinin habits made no difference my head was like a drum hammering out strange rhythms bizarre colors shifted shapeless across the walls and some desperate heaving produced a green vomit I spent the whole day like this unable to eat until by the evening I felt well enough to climb on the bike and sleeping on alto's shoulder we reached CH chel there we visited Dr Bara director of the little hospital and a member of parliament he received us amiably giving us a room to sleep in he prescribed a course of penicilin and within 4 hours my temperature had lowered but whenever we talked about leaving the doctor shook his head and said for the flu bed this was his diagn nois for one of a better one so we spent several days there being cared for royally alverto photographed me in my Hospital gear I made an impressive spectacle gaunt flushed enormous eyes and a ridiculous beard whose shape didn't change much in all the months I wore it it's a Pity the photograph wasn't a good one it was an acknowledgement of our changed circumstances and of the horizons we were seeking free at last from civilization when morning the doctor didn't shake his head in the usual way that was enough within the hour we were gone heading West toward our next destination the Lakes the bike struggled showing signs it was feeling the strain especially in the body work which we constantly had to fix with Alberto's favorite spare part wire he picked up this quote from somewhere I don't know where attributing it to Oscar gal when a piece of wire can replace a screw give me the wire it's safer our hands and our pants were unequivocal proof that we were with Galvez at least on the question of wire it was already night yet we were trying to reach human habitation we had no headlight and spending the night in the open didn't seem much like a pleasant idea we were moving slowly using a torch when a strange noise rang out from the bike that we couldn't identify the torch didn't put out enough light to find the cause and we had no choice but to Camp where we were we settled down as best we could erecting our tent and crawling into it hoping to suffocate our hunger and thirst for there was no water nearby and we had no meat with some exhausted sleep in no time however the light evening Breeze became a violent wind uprooting our tent and exposing us to the elements and the worsening cold we had to tie the bike to a telephone pole and throwing the T over the bike for protection we laid down behind it the near hurricane prevented us from from using our camp beds in no way was it an enjoyable night but sleep finally went out over the cold the wind and everything else and we woke at 9:00 in the morning with the sun high above our heads by the light of day we discovered that the infamous noise had been the front part of the bike frame breaking we now had to fix it as best we could and find a town where we could weld the broken bar our friend wiyre solved the problem provisionally we packed up and set off not knowing exactly how how far we were from the nearest habitation our surprise was great when coming out of only the second Bend we saw a house they received us very well appeasing our hunger with exquisite roast lamb from there we walked 20 km to a place called Pedra Del agila where we were able to weld the part but by then it was so late we decided to spend the night in the mechanic's house except for a couple of minor spills that didn't do the bag too much damage we continued calmly on toward San Martin de losandes we were almost there and I was driving when we took our first real fall in the south on a beautiful gravel Bend by a little bubbling stream this time laod roa's bodyw work was damaged enough to force us to stop and worst of all we found we had what we most dreaded a punctured back tire in order to mend it we had to take off all the packs undo the wire securing the rack then struggle with the wheel cover which fight our pathetic crowbar changing the flat lazily I admit lost Us 2 hours late in the afternoon we stopped at a ranch whose owners very welcoming Germans had by Rare coincidence put up an uncle of mine in the past an inveterate old traveler whose example I was now emulating they let us fish in the river flowing through the ranch Alberto cast his line and before he knew what was happening he had jumping on the end of his hook an iridescent form glinting in the sunlight it was a rainbow trout a beautiful tasty fish even more so when baked and seasoned by our hunger I prepared the fish while Alberto enthusiastic from his first Victory cast his line again and again despite hours of trying he didn't get a single bite by then it was dark and we had to spend the night in the farm Laborer's kitchen at 5: in the morning the huge stove occupying the middle of this kind of kitchen was lit and the whole place filled with smoke the farm laborers passed around their bitter mate and cast aspersions on our own mate for girls as they described sweet mate in those parts in general they didn't try to communicate with us as is typical of the subjugated arcanian race who maintain a deep suspicion of the white men who in the past has brought them so much Misfortune and now continues to exploit them they answered our questions about the land and their work by shrugging their shoulders and saying don't know or maybe quickly ending the conversation we were given the chance to stuff ourselves with cherries so much so that by the time we were to move on to the plums I had had enough and I had to lie down to digest it all Alberto ate some so as not to seem rude up the trees we ate avidly as if we were racing each other to finish one of the owner's sons looked on with certain mistrust at these doctors disgustingly dressed and obviously famished but he kept his mouth shut and let us eat to our idealistic Hearts content it got to the point where we had to walk slowly so as to avoid stepping on our own stomachs we mended the Kickstart and other minor problems and set off again for San Martin de losandes where we arrived just before dark San Martin de losandes the road snakes between the low Foo Hills that sound the beginning of the great cetta of the Andes then descend steeply until it reaches an unattractive miserable Town surrounded in sharp contrast by magnificent densely wooded mountains San Martin lies on the yellow green slopes that melt Into the Blue depths of Laguna lakar a narrow tongue of water 35 M wide and 500 kilm long the day it was discovered as a tourist haven the town's climate and transport difficulties were solved and its subsistence secured our first attack on the local Clinic complet failed but we were told to try the same tactic at the National Park's office the superintendent of the park allowed us to stay in one of the tool sheds the night Watchman arrived a huge fat man weighing 140 kilos with a face as hard as nails but he treated us very amiably granting us permission to cook in his HUD that first night passed perfectly we slept in the shed content and warm on straw certainly necessary in those parts where the nights are particularly cold we bought some beef and set off to walk along the shores of the lake in the shade of the immense trees where the Wilderness had arrested the advance of civilization we made plans to build a laboratory in this place when we finished our trip we imagined great windows that would take in the whole Lake Winter blanketing the ground in white the dingy we would use to travel from one side to the other catching fish from a little boat Everlasting excursions into the almost virgin Forest although often on our travels we long to stay in the formidable places we visited only the Amazon jungle called out to that secondary part of ourselves as strongly as did this place I now know by an almost fatalistic Conformity with the facts that my destiny is to travel or perhaps it's better to say that traveling is our destiny because Alberto is the same as me still there are moments when I think with profound longing of those wonderful areas in our South perhaps one day tired of circling the world I'll return to artina and settle in The andian Lakes if not indefinitely then at least for a pause while I shift from one understanding of the world to another at dusk we started back and it was dark before we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find that Don Pedro orante the night Watchman had prepared a wonderful barbecue to treat us we bought wine to return the gure and ate like lions just for a change we were discussing how tasty the meat was and how soon we wouldn't be eating as extravagantly as we had done in Tina when Don Pedro told us he'd been asked to organize a barbecue for the drivers of a motor race taking place on the local track that coming Sunday he wanted two helpers and offered us the job mind that I can't pay you but you can stock up on meat for later it seemed like a good idea and we accepted the jobs of first and second assistant to the granddaddy of the Southern artinian barbecue both assistants waited for Sunday with a kind of religious enthusiasm at 6:00 in the morning on the day we started our first job loading wood onto a truck and taking it to the barbecue site and we didn't stop work until 11:00 a.m. when the distinctive signal was given and everyone threw themselves voraciously onto the tasty ribs a very strange person was giving orders whom I had dressed with the utmost respect as seora anytime I said a word until one of my fellow workers said Hey kid CH don't push Don pendon to fart you'll get angry who's Don pendon I asked with a kind of gesture some uncultured kid would give the answer that Don pendon was the Senora left me cold but not for long as always at barbecues there was far too much meat for everyone so we were given cart blanch to pursue our vocation as camels we executed furthermore a carefully calculated plan I pretended to get drunker and drunker and with every apparent attack of nausea I staggered off to the stream a bottle of red wine hidden inside my leather jacket after five attacks of these type we had the same number of liters of wine stored beneath the fronds of a willow keeping cool in the water when everything was over and the moment came to pack up the truck and return to town I kept up my part working reluctantly and big ing constantly with Don pendon to finish my performance I laid down flat on my back in the grass utterly unable to take another step Alberto acting like a true friend apologized for my behavior to the boss and stayed behind to look after me as the truck left when the noise of the engine faded into the distance we jumped up and raced off like Colts to the wine that would guarantee as several days of kingly consumption alverto made it first and threw himself under the will his face was straight out of a comic film not a single bottle remained either my drunken State hadn't foled anyone or someone had seen me sneak off with the wine the fact was we were as broke as ever retracing in our minds the smiles that had greeted my drunken Antics trying to find some trace of the irony with which we could identify the thief to no avail lugging the chunk of bread and cheese we' received and a few kilos of meat for the night we had to walk back to town we were well fed and well watered but with our Tails between our legs not so much for the wine but for the fools they made of us words cannot describe it the following day was rainy and cold and we thought the race wouldn't go ahead we were waiting for a break in the rain so we could go and cook some meat by the lake when we heard over the loudspeakers that the race was still on in our role as barbecue assistant we passed free of charge through the entrance Gates and comfortably installed watch a fairly good car race of the national drivers just as we were thinking of moving on discussing the best road to take drinking mate in the doorway of our shed a Jeep arrived carrying some of alto's friends from the distant and almost mythical via concep we shared great and friendly hugs and went immediately to celebrate by filling our guts with frothy liquid as is the dignified practice on such occasions they invited us to visit them in the town where they were working who n de los antis and so we went lessening the bike's load by leaving our gear in the National Park shed explor circular exploration H Andes less fortunate than its Lakeside brother vegetates in a forgotten corner of civilization unable to break free of the monotony of its stagnant life despite attempts to invigorate the town by building the barracks where our friends were working I say our friends because at no time at all they were mine too we dedicated the first night to reminiscing about that distant past and Via conception our mood enhanced by seemingly unlimited bottles of red wine my lack of training meant I had to abandon the match and in honor of the real bed I slept like a log we spent the next day fixing a few of the bikes problems in the workshop of the company where our friends worked that night they gave us a magnificent farewell from Argentina a beef and lamb barbecue with bread and gravy and a superb salad after several days of partying we left departing with many hugs on the road to Karu another Lake in the region the road is terrible and our poor bike snorted about in the sand as I tried to help it out of the dunes the first 5 kilm took us an hour and a half but later the road improved and we arrived without any other hitches at kucho a little blue green Lake surrounded by wildly forced at Hills and then at kug Grande a more expensive lake but sadly impossible to ride around on a bike because there was only a bridal path used by local Smugglers to cross over to Chile we left the bike at the cabin of a park ranger who wasn't home and took off to climb the peak facing the lake it was nearly lunchtime and our supplies consisted only of a piece of cheese and some preserves a duck passed flying high over the lake Alberto calculated the distance of the bird the ABS of the warden the possibility of a fine Etc and fired by a masterful stroke of good luck though not for the duck the bird fell into the lake a discussion immediately ensued as to who would go and get it I lost and plunged in it seemed that fingers of ice were gripping me all over my body almost completely impeding my movement allergic as I am to the cold those 20 M there and back that I swam to retrieve what Alberto has shot down made me suffer like a BN just as well that rast duck flavored as usual with our hunger is one Exquisite dish invigorated by lunch we set off with enthusiasm on the climb from the start however we were joined by flies that circled us ceaselessly biing when they got the chance the clim was grueling because we lacked appropriate equipment and experience but some weary hours later we reached the summit to our disappointment there was no panoramic view to admire neighboring mountains kned everything whichever way we looked a higher Peak was in the way after some minutes of joking about in the patch of snow crowning the peak we took the task of descending spurred on by the fact that Darkness would soon be closing in the first part was easy but then the stream that was guiding our descend began to grow into a torrent with steep smooth sides and slippery rocks that were difficult to walk on we had to push our way through Willows on the edge finally reaching an area of thick and treacherous reads as night fell it brought us a thousand strange noises and The Sensation of walking into empty space with each step Alberto lost his goggles and my Pence were reduced to rags we arrived finally at the tree line and from there we took every step with infinite caution because the dark was so complete and our sixth sense was heightened so much that we saw abysses every second moment after an eternity of trekking through deep mud we recognized the stream flowing out of into the Karo and almost immediately the trees disappeared and we reached the flat the huge figure of a stag dashed like a quick breath across the stream and his body silvered by the Light Of The Rising Moon disappeared into the undergrowth these Tremor of nature cut straight to our hearts we walked slowly so as not to disturb the Peace of the Wild Sanctuary with which we were now communing we waited across the thread of water whose touch against our ankles gave me a sharp reminder of those ice fingers I hate so much and reached the shelter of the Rangers cabin he was kind enough to offer us hot mate and sheep skins to sleep on till the following morning it was 12:35 a.m. we drove slowly on the way back passing LS of only a hybrid Beauty compared to Karu and finally reached San Martin where Don pendon gave us 10 pesos each for working at the barbecue then we set off further south G VI their mama January 1952 and rout to B Dear Mama just as you have not heard from me I have no news from you and I am worried it would defeat the purpose of these few lines to tell you all that has happened to us I'll just say that 2 days after leaving baj of Lanka I fell ill with a temperature of 40° which kept me in bed for a day the following morning I managed to get up only to end up in the ch to weld Regional hospital where I was given a dose of a little known drug penicillin and recovered 4 days later we reached San Martin de losandes using our usual resourcefulness to solve the Thousand problems that plagued us along the way San Martin de losandes has a beautiful Lake and is wonderfully set a m virgin Forest you must see it I'm sure you'd find it worthwhile our faces are beginning to resemble the texture of carborundum any house we come across that has a Gardens we seek food lodging and whatever else is on offer we ended up at the van putnam's Ranch their friends of hores particularly one who's a peronas always drunk and the best of the three I was able to diagnose a tumor in the occipital Zone that was probably of hydatic origin we'll have to wait and see what happens we will leave for B lce in 2 or 3 days and intend to travel at a leisurely Pace send me a letter post if it can arrive by February 10th or 12th well Mama the next page I'm writing is for chichina send lots of love to everyone and make sure you tell me whether or not poppy is in the South a loving hug from your son P El Cino deos the Seven Lakes Road we decided to go to B by the Seven Lakes Road name for the number of lakes the road skirts before reaching the town we traveled the first few kilom at La roa's ever tranquil Pace without any serious mechanical upsets until with nightfell chasing us down we pulled the old broken headlight trick so we could sleep in a road Laborer's Hut a handy rou because the cold that night was uncommonly harsh it was so fiercely cold that a visitor soon appeared asking to borrow some blankets because he and his wife were camping by the edge of a lake and were freezing we went to Shante with a stoical pair who for some time had been leaving beside the with only a tent and the contents of their backpacks they put us to shame we set off again passing greatly varying Lakes all surrounded by Ancient Forest the SC of wilderness caressing in our nostrils but curiously the side of a lake and a forest and a single solitary house with well tended Garden soon begins to grade seeing the landscape at The Superficial level only captures its boring uniformity not allowing you to immerse yourself in the spirit of the place place for that you must stop at least several days we finally reached the Northern end of Lago neli and slept on its banks full and content after the enormous barbecue we had eaten but when we hit the road again we noticed a puncture in the back tire and from then began a tedious battle with the inner tube each time we patched up one side the other side of the tube punctured until we were all out of patches and were forced to spend the night where we were an Austrian caretaker who had raced motorbikes as a young man gave us a place to stay in an empty shed caught between his desire to help fellow bikers in need and fear of his boss in his broken Spanish he told us that a puma was in the region and pumas are vicious they're not afraid to attack people they have huge blonde mans attempting to close the door we found that it was like a stable door only the lower half shut I placed a revolver near my head in case the Puma whose Shadow filled our thoughts decided to pay an unannounced midnight visit the day was just Dawning when I awoke to the sound of claws scratching at the door at my sight Alberto lay silent full of dread I had my hand tense on the cocked revolver two luminous eyes stared at me from the silhouetted trees like a cat the eyes sprang forward and the black mass of the body materialized over the door it was pure Instinct the breaks of intelligence failed my drive for self-preservation pulled the trigger for a long moment the Thunder beat against and around the walls stopping only when a lighted torch in the doorway began desperately shouting at us but by that time in our timid silence we knew or could at least guess the reason for the caretaker's stentorian shouts and his wife's hysterical sobs as she threw herself over the dead body of Bobby her nasty ill-tempered dog Alberto went to angostura to get the tire fixed and I thought I'd have to spend the night in the open being unable to ask for a bed in a house where we were considered murderers luckily our bike was near another road Laborer's Hut and he let me sleep in the kitchen with a friend of his at midnight I woke to the noise of rain and was going to get up to cover the bike with a taralin but before doing so I decided to take a few Puffs for my asthma inhaler irritated by the sheep skin I was using for a pillow as I inhaled my sleeping companion woke up hearing the puff he made a sudden movement then immediately fell silent I sensed his body go rigid under his blankets clutching a knife holding his breath with the experience of the previous night still fresh I decided to remain where I was for fear being knifed in case mirages were contagious in those parts we reached sanlo de Val by the evening of the next day and spend the night in the police station waiting for the Medesto Victoria to sail over toward the border with Chile [Music] M Libra and now I feel my great Roots Unearthed free and in the kitchen of the police station we were Sheltering from a storm unleashing its total Fury outside I read and reread the incredible letter just like that all my dreams of home bound up with those eyes that saw me off in mear Came Crashing Down For What seemed like no reason a great exhaustion enveloped me and half asleep I listened to the Lively conversations of a globe trotting prisoner as he concocted a thousand exotic bruise safe in the ignorance of his audience I could make out his warm seductive words while the faces surrounding him leaned closer as to better hear his stories unfold as if through a distant fog I could see an American doctor we had met there in B LOE nodding I think you'll get to where you're head and you've got guts but I think you'll in Mexico a while it's a wonderful country I suddenly felt myself flying off for the Sailor to far off lands far away from the current drama of my life a feeling of profound unease came over me I felt that I was incapable of feeling anything I began to feel afraid for myself and started a tearful letter but I couldn't write it was hopeless to try in the halflight that surrounded us Phantom swirled around and around but she wouldn't appear I still believed I loved her until this moment when I realized I felt nothing I had to summon her back with my mind I had to fight for her she was mine mine I slept a gentle Sun illuminated the new day our day of departure our farewell to ad hentin soil carrying the bike on the Modesto Victoria was not an easy task but with patience we eventually did it getting it off again was equally as hard then there we were in the tiny spot by the lake pompously named Puerto blast a few kilometers on the road three or four at most and we were back on water a dirty Green Lake this time Laguna FAS a short Voyage before finally reaching Customs then the Chilean immigration post on the other side of the Ciera much lower at this altitude there we crossed yet another Lake fed By the Waters of the Rio tador that originate in the m mestic volcano sharing the same name this lake esmaralda offered in contrast to the arentine Lake's wonderful temperate Waters making the task of bathing very enjoyable and much more enticing high in the cordier at a place called kapang there is a lookout that affronts a beautiful view over Chile it's a kind of Crossroads at least in that moment it was for me I was looking to the Future through the narrow band of Chila and to wetle Beyond to turning the lines of the Otto Silva poem over in my mind obos coros curious objects water leaped from every por of the big old tub carrying our bike Daydreams took me soaring away while I maintained my rhythm at the pump a doctor returning from Beya in the passenger launch that ran back and forth across esmaralda past the honking great Contraption our bike was last to and where we were pained for both our and laposa passage with the spread of our brows a curious expression came across his face as he watched us struggling to keep the vessela float naked and almost swimming in the oily pump water we had met several doctors traveling down there to whom we lectured about leprology embellishing a bit provoking the admiration of our colleagues from the other side of the Andes they were impressed because since leprosy is not a problem in Chile they didn't know the first thing about it or about lepers and confessed honestly that never in their lives had they even seen a leper they told us about the distant leper colony on Easter Island where a small number of lepers were living it was a delightful Island they said and our scientific interests were excited this doctor generously offered us any help we might need given the very interesting Journey we were making but in those Happy Days in the south of Chile when our stomachs were still full and we were not yet totally brazen we merely asked him for an introduction to the president of the friends of Easter Island who lived near them in Velo of course he was delighted the lake route ended in petol way where we said goodbye to everyone but not before poing for some black Brazilian girls who placed us in their souvenir album for the southern Chile and for an environmentalist couple from who knows what European country who noted our addresses ceremoniously so they could send us copies of the photos there was a character in the little town who wanted a station wagon driven to osoro where we were heading and he asked me if I would do it Alberto gave me a high-e speed lesson and gear changes and I went off in all solemnity to assume my post but rather cartoon likee I set off with hops and jerks behind Alberto who was riding the bike every corner was a torment break clutch first second help Mama the road wound through beautiful countryside squirting Laguna ororo the volcano with the same name as Sentinel above us unfortunately I was in no position along the accident studded road to appreciate the landscape the only accident however was suffered by a little pig that ran in front of the car while we were speeding down a hill before it was fully practiced in the art of breaking and clutching we arrived in osorno we sced around in Oo we left oo and continued ever northward through the delightful ch Countryside divided into plots every bit farmed in stark contrast to our own arid South the Chileans exceedingly friendly people were warm and welcoming wherever we went finally we arrived at the Port of Valdivia on a Sunday ambling around the city we dropped them to the local newspaper the corero de Valia and they very kindly wrote an article about us valiva was celebrating its fourth Centenary and we dedicated our journey to the city and tribute to the great Conquistador whose name the city Bears they persuaded us to write a letter to Molino Lucas the mayor of Velo preparing him for a great Easter Island scam the harbor overflowing with Goods that were completely foreign to us the market where they sold different foods the typically chellan wooden houses the special clothes of the gasos were notably different from what we knew back home there was something indigenously American touched by the exoticism invading our Pampas this may be because Anglo-Saxon immigrants in Chile do not mix so preserving the purity of the indigenous race which in our country is practically non-existent but for all our customary and idiomatic differences distinguishing us from our thin brother of the yandes there is one cry that seems International give them water the salutation greeting the side of my cflink trousers not my personal taste but a fashion andher from a generous if short friend Los expertos the experts Chilean Hospitality as I never Tire of saying is one reason traveling in our neighboring country is so enjoyable and we made the most of it I woke up gradually beneath the sheets considering the value of a good bed and calculating the calorie content of the previous night's meal I reviewed recent events in my mind the treasurous puncture of LA bosa's which left us stranded in the rain and in the middle of nowhere the generous help of rul owner of the bed in which we were now sleeping and the interview we gave to the paper El AAL and tamoko rul was a Veterinary student not particularly studious it seemed who had hoisted our poor old bike onto the truck own bringing us to this quiet town in the middle of Chile to be honest there was probably a moment or two when our friend wished he never met us since we caused him an uncomfortable night's sleep but he only had himself to blame bragging about the money he spent on women and inviting us for a night out at a cabaret which would be at his expense of course his invitation was the reason we prolonged our stay in the land of bavo naruda and we became involved in a lively bragging session lasting for some time in the end of course he came clean on that inevitable problem a lack of funds meaning we had to postpone our visit to that very interesting place of entertainment though in compensation he gave us bed and board so at 1: in the morning there we were feeling very self-satisfied and devouring everything on the table quite a lot really plus some more that arrived later then we appropriated our host's bed because since his father was being transferred to Santiago there was not much Furniture left in the house alverto unmovable was resisting the morning Sun's attempt to disturb his deep sleep while I dress slowly a task we didn't find particularly difficult because the difference between our nightwear and day wear was made up generally of shoes the newspaper fonded a generous number of pages very much in contrast to our poor and stunted dailies but I wasn't interested in anything besides one piece of local news I found en large type in section two two Argentine leprosy experts tour Latin America by motorcycle and then in smaller type they are in teuku and want to visit rapanui this was the epitome of our audacity us experts key figures in the field of leprology in the Americas with vast experience having treated 3,000 patients familiar with the most important leprosy centers of the continent and researchers into the sanitary conditions of those same centers had consented to visit this picturesque Melancholy little town we suppose they would fully appreciate appreciate our respect for the town but we didn't really know soon the whole family was gathered around the article and all other items in the paper became objects of Olympian contempt and so like these basking in their admiration we said goodbye to those people we remember nothing about not even their names we had asked permission to leave the bike in the garage of a man who lived on the outskirts of town and we made our way there no longer a pair of more or less likable vagrants with a bike and toll no we were now the experts and we were treated accordingly we spent the whole day fixing and conditioning the bike while every now and then a dark skinned maid would arrive with little snacks at 5:00 after a delicious afternoon tea prepared by our host we said goodbye to tamuk and headed north end of dis one disc two the difficulties intensify our departure from tamoko went as normal until on the road out of town we noticed the back tire was punctured and we had to stop and fix it we worked energetically but no sooner had we put The Spar on we saw it was losing air it too was punctured it seemed we would have to spend the night out in the open as there was no question of repairing it at that time of the night but we weren't just just anybody now we were the experts and we soon found a railroad worker who took us to his house where we were treated like kings early next morning we took the inner tube and tire to the garage to remove some bits of metal that had become embedded and to patch the tire again it was close to Nightfall when we left but not before accepting an invitation to a typical Chilean meal tripe and another similar dish all very spicy washed down with delicious rough wine as usual thean Hospitality wiped us out of course we didn't get much further and less than 80 km on we stopped to sleep in the house of a park ranger who was hoping for a tip because it never arrived he refused us breakfast the following day so we set off in a bat humor intending to light a small fire and make some mate as soon as we done a few kilometers we done a little way and I was looking out for a good place to stop when with no warning at all the bike took a sharp twist sideways sending us flying to the ground Alberto and I unharmed examined the bike finding one of the steering columns broken and most seriously the gearbox smashed it was impossible to go on the only thing to do was wait patiently for an accommodating truck to take us as far as the next town a car going in the opposite direction stopped and its occupants got out to see what had happened and to offer their services they told us they would do everything possible to help with whatever two scientists like ourself needed do you know I recognize you straight away from the photo in the paper one of them said but we had nothing to ask of them except for a truck going the other way we thanked them and settled down for the usual mon when the owner of a nearby sha came over and invited us into his home we downed a couple of leaders in his kitchen there we met with his chatango a musical instrument made with three or four wires some 2 m in length stretched tightly across two empty tins fixed to a board the musician used a kind of metal knuckle duster with which he plucks the wires producing a sound like a toy guitar around 12 a van came along whose driver after much pleading agreed to take us to the next town Lao we found a space in the best garage in the area and someone who would be able to do the soldering a short and friendly boy C Luna who once or twice took us home for lunch we divided our time between working on the bike and scouching something to eat in the homes of the man Cur osity Seekers who came to see us at the garage next door was a German family or one of German origin who treated us handsomely we slept in the local Barracks the bike was more or less fixed and we had decided to leave the following day so we thought we'd throw caution to the wind with some new pelts who invited us for a few drinks Chilean wine is great and I was drinking it unbelievably quickly so much so that by the time we went on to the Village Dance I felt ready to take on the world the evening progressed pleasantly as we kept filling our bellies and our heads with wine one of the particularly friendly mechanics from the garage asked me to dance with his wife because he'd been mixing his drinks and was not feeling very well his wife was hot and clearly in the mood and full of chili and wine I took her by the hand and tried to steer her outside she followed me meekly but then noticed her husband was watching us and told me she would stay behind I was in no state to listen to reason and we began to argue in the middle of the Dance Floor I started pulling her toward one of the doors while everybody was watching and then she tried to kick me and as I was pulling her she lost her balance and fell crashing to the floor running back toward the village pursued by a furious swarm of dancers Alberto loudly mourned the loss of the wine her husband might have bought us laosa laa the second's final tour we Rose early to put the finishing touches on the bike and to flee what was no longer a very hospitable place for us but only after accepting a final invitation to lunch from the family who lived next to the garage due to a premonition Alberto didn't want to drive so I sat up front though we only did a few kilometers before stopping to fix the failing gearbox a little further on as we rounded a tight curve at a good speed the screw came off the back brake a cow's head appeared around the band then many many more of them I threw in the handbrake which shouldered inep broke too for some moments I saw nothing more than the Blurred shape of cattle flying past us on each side while poort Bosa gathered speed down the Steep Hill by an absolute Miracle we managed to graze only the leg of the last cow but in the distance a river was screaming toward us with terrifying efficacy I veered onto the side of the road and in the flash of an eye the bike mounted the 2 m Bank embedding us between two rocks but we were unheard ever aided by the letter of recommendation from the Press we were put up by some Germans who treated us very well during the night I had a bad case of the runs and being ashamed to leave a souvenir in the pot under my bed I climbed out onto the window ledge and gave up all my pain to the night and Blackness beyond the next morning I looked out to see the effect and saw that 2 M below lay a big sheet of tin where they were Sun drying their peaches the attic spectacle was impressive we beat it from there fast although at first glance the accident seemed to be of little importance it quickly became clear that we had underestimated the damage the bike acted strangely every time it had to climb uphill on the Ascend to myo where there is a railroad bridge considered by Chileans to be the highest in the amedas the bike packed it in and we wasted the whole day waiting for some charitable Soul embodied in the the shape of a truck to take us to the top we slept in the town of kuip Pui after gaining the hoped forlift and left early fearing impending catastrophe on the first Steep Hill one of many on that road laosa finally gave up the ghost a truck took us up to Los Angeles where we left her in the fire station and slept in the house of a Chilean Army Lieutenant who seemed very thankful for the way he'd been treated in our country at Hena and couldn't do enough to please us it was our last day as motorized bums the next day seems set to be more difficult as bums without wheels firefighters workers and other matters as far as I know there are no non-volunteer fire brigades in Chile but even so it's a very good service because Captain Brigade is a sought after honor for the most able men in the towns or districts where they operate and don't believe it's only a job in theory in the south of the country at least fires occur with astonishing frequency I'm not sure what the major contributing factor is whether it's because most buildings are constructed with wood or because the cultural level of the people is quite low and they do not have much education or some other factor or all of them put together what's certain is that in the 3 days we stayed at the fire station there were two big fires and one small one though I'm not suggesting that this was average just stating the facts I forgotten to explain that after spending the night at the Lieutenant's house we decided to move to the fire station lured by the charm of the caretaker's three daughters exponents of the grace of Chilean women who ugly or beautiful have a certain spontaneity and freshness that captivates immediately but I'm drifting from my point they gave us a room where we set up our camp beds and fell into them with our habitual sleep of the Dead meaning we didn't hear the sirens the volunteers on duty had no idea we were there and rushed off with their fire engines while we slept until midm morning when we learned what had happened we exacted promises from them to include us in the party for the next fire we had found a truck that in 2 days would take us and the bike to Santiago for a low price and the condition we helped them with the load of furniture they were moving we made a very popular pair where there abundant Supply conversation for the volunteers and the caretaker daughters and the days in Los Angeles flew by in my eyes constantly ordering and penciling in the past the symbolic representation of the town will always be the furious flames of a fire it was the last day of our stay and after numerous toasts expressing the beautiful sentiments of our goodbyes we had curled up in our blankets and had gone to sleep the much awaited servant tore through the night calling and waking the volunteers on duty tearing also through Alberto's bed from which he sprang far too quickly soon we had taken our positions with the necessary gravity in the fire engine Chile espa which left the station at a break neck speed the long whine of its alarm that alarmed nobody too often heard to constitute much of a novelty as each surge of water fell onto its flaming skeleton the wood and adobe house shook the acrid smoke of the burnt wood stood firm against the stoic work of the firefighters who between fits of laughter protected neighboring houses with JS of water or by other means the Flames hadn't reached a small part of the house and from there came the whimper of a cat who terrorized by the fire just meow and meow and refused to escape through the small space left Alberto saw the danger and measuring it with one quick look laed agile over the 20 cm of flames saving the little endangered life for its owners receiving Aus of congratul ations for his unrivaled heroism his eyes Shone with pleasure from beneath the huge helmet he had borrowed but everything comes to an end and Los sanes gave us its final goodbye little CH and big CH Alberto and I solemnly shook the last friendly hands as the truck began its journey to Santiago carrying on its powerful back the corpse of laosa Sago on a Sunday we arrived in Santiago and as our first measure we went directly to the Austin in garage we had a letter of introduction to the owner but were unhappily surprised to find that it was closed in the end we got the caraker to accept the bike and went off to pay for part of the trip with the sweat of our brows our job as removalists had different stages the first particularly interesting consisted of consuming 2 kilos of grapes each in record time assisted by the absence of the house owners the second their arrival and subsequently some heavy work the third Alberto's discovery that the truck driver's colleague had an overactive ego especially with regard to his body the poor guy won all the beds we made with him by carrying more furniture than both of us and the owner combined the latter played the fo with barbaric ease we'd managed to track down our console who finally turned up at what served as an office stoneface fair enough considering it was a Sunday and he let usleep on the patio after a diet regarding our duties as Citizens Etc he topped off his generosity by offering us 200 pesos which we taking a righteous offense refused if he'd offered it 3 months later it would have been a different story what a save Santiago has more or less the same feeling as Cordoba though its daily pace is much faster and its traffic considerably heavier its buildings the nature of its streets its weather and even the faces of its people reminded us of our own Mediterranean City we couldn't get to know the city well because we were there only a few days and were pressed for time with the many things we had to sort out before embarking once again the Peruvian Consul refused to issue us visas without a letter from his arentine counterpart which the latter refused to give saying the bike probably wouldn't get us there and we'd end up asking the embassy for help the little angel was ignorant of the fact the bike was already finished but he finally relented and they gave us the vises for Peru at a fee of 400 Tron pesos a lot of cash for us in those days the soia water polo team from Cordova was visiting Santiago many of the guys were friends of ours so we paid them a courtesy call while they were playing a match and got ourselves invited to one of those Chilean style meals that go something like have some ham try some cheese drink a little more wine and that you stand up from if you can straining all the thorax muscles in your body the following day we climbed up Santa Lucia a rocky formation in the center of the city with its own particular history and were peacefully performing the task of photographing the city when a convoy of Shia members arrived led by some good-lookers from The Host Club the poor guys were embarrassed enough unsure whether to introduce us to these distinguished ladies of Chilean society as in the end they did or play dumb and pretend not not to know us remember our unorthodox attire but they managed the tight spot as skillfully as possible and were very friendly as friendly as people could be from Worlds as different as theirs and ours at that particular moment in our lives the big day arrived at last and two tears plowed symbolically down Alberto's cheeks with one last goodbye to laosa Left Behind in the garage we began our journey to velai ariso we set off along a magnificent and Mountain Road the most beautiful civilization could offer compared to the real natural wonders undamaged by human hands that is in a truck bearing the heavy weight of us freeloaders Deanda smile we had come to a new phase in our adventure we were used to calling idle attention to ourselves with our Strange dress and the prosaic figure of La poderosa sondo whose asmatic weezing aroused pity in our hosts to a certain extent we had been Knights of the road we belonged to that long-standing wandering aristocracy and had calling cards with our impeccable and impressive titles no longer now we were just two hitchhikers with backpacks and with all the grime of the road stuck to our overalls Shadows of our former aristocratic selves the truck driver had left us at the upper edge of the city at its entrance and with weary steps we dragged our packs down the streets followed by the amused or indifferent glances of onlookers in the distance the harbor radiated with the tempting glimmer of its boats while the sea black and inviting cried out to us its gray smell dilating our nostrils we bought bread which seemed so expensive at the time though it became cheaper as we ventured further north and kept walking downhill Alberto wore his exhaustion obviously and although I tried not to show it I was just as tired so when we found a truck stop we assaulted the attendant with our tragic faces relating in florid detail the hardships we had suffered on the long hard Road from Santiago he let us sleep on some wooden planks in the company of some parasites whose names ended in homin but at least we had a roof over our heads we set about sleeping with determination news of our arrival however reached the ears of a fellow Countryman installed in a cheap restaurant next to the trailer park and he wanted to meet us to meet in Chile signifi a certain hospitality and neither of us was in a position to turn down this Mana from Heaven our compatriot proved to be profoundly imbued with the spirit of the sisterland and consequently was fantastically drunk it was a long time since I'd eaten fish and the wine was so delicious and our host so attentive anyway we ate well and he invited us to his house the following day Londa threw open its doors early and we brewed arm mate chatting with the owner who was very interested in our journey after that we went to explore the city velaro is very picturesque built to the edge of the beach and overlooking a large Bay as it grew it clambered up the hills that sweep down to their deaths in the Sea The Mad House Museum beauty of its strange corrugated iron architecture arranged on a series of Tears linked by winding flights of stairs and foric is heightened by the contrast of diversely colored houses blending with the lead and blue of the bay as if patiently dissecting we pry into dirty stairways and dark recesses talking to these swarms of Beggars we Plumb the city's depths the miasmas that draw us in our distended nostrils inhal the poverty with sadistic intensity we visited the ships down at the Docks to see if any were going to Easter Island but the news was disheartening it would be 6 months before any boat was going there we collect to some vague details about flights that left once a month Easter Island the imagination stops in its ascending flight to turn somersal at the very thought over there having a white boyfriend is in honor work ha the women do everything you just eat sleep and keep them content this marvelous place where the weather is perfect the women are perfect the food perfect the work perfect in its beatific non-existence what does it matter if we stay there a year who cares about studying work family Etc in a shop window a giant crayfish Winks at us and from his bed of lettuce his whole body tells us I'm from Easter Island where the weather is perfect the women are perfect in the doorway of Londa we were waiting patiently for a compatriot to show up who gave no signs of appearing when the owner invited us in out of the Sun and treated us to one of his magnificent lunches of fried fish and watery soup we never heard from the arentine again throughout our state in Velo but we became great friends with the owner of the bar he was a strange sort of guy indolent and enormously generous to all the Riff ra who turned up though he made normal customers pay colossal prices for the ptry cuisine he sold in his place we didn't pay a scent the whole time we were there and he lavished Hospitality on us today it's your turn tomorrow it'll be mine was his favorite saying not very ear original but very effective we tried to contact the doctors from Petway but being back at work with no time to spare they never agreed to meet us formally at least we knew more or less where they were in the afternoon we went our separate ways while Alberto followed up with the doctors I went to see an old woman with asthma a customer at Londa the poor thing was in a pitiful State breathing the acrid smell of concentrated sweat and dirty feet that filled her room mixed with the dust from a couple of armchairs the only luxury items in her house on top of the asthma she had a heart condition it is at times like this when a doctor is conscious of his complete powerlessness that he Longs for change a change to prevent the Injustice of a system in which only a month ago this poor woman was still earning her living as a waitress wheezing and panting but facing life with dignity in circumstances like this individuals and poor families who can't pay their way become surrounded by an atmosphere of barely disguised acrimony they stop being father mother sister or brother and become purely a negative factor in the struggle for life and consequently a source of bitterness for the healthy members of the community who resent their illness as if it were a personal insult to those people who have to support them it is there in the final moments for people whose farthest Horizon has always been tomorrow that that one comprehends the profound tragedy circumscribing the life of the proletariat the world over in those dying eyes there is a submissive appeal for forgiveness and also often A desperate plea for consolation which is lost to the void just as their body will soon be lost in the magnitude of mystery surrounding us how long this present order based on an absurd idea of cast will last is not within my means to answer but it's it's time that those who govern spend less time publicizing their own virtues and more money much more money funding socially useful works there isn't much I can do for this sick woman I simply advise her to improve her diet and prescribe a diuretic and some asthma pills I have a few Dramamine tablets left and I give them to her when I leave I am followed by the funing words of the old woman and the family's indifferent gaze Alberto had tracked on the doctor at 99: the following morning we had to be at the hospital meanwhile en londa's filthy room which serves as Kitchen restaurant laundry dining room and piss house for cats and dogs a miscellaneous collection of people were meeting the owner with his basic life philosophy Dona kolina a deaf and helpful old deer who left our mate Kettle as good as new a drunk and feeble-minded matucha man who looked like a criminal two more or less normal customers and the queen of the Gathering Dona Rosita who was quite crazy the conversation focused on a maab event Rosita had witnessed it appeared she alone had seen a man with a large knife thrashing her poor neighbor was your neighbor screaming Don Rosita of course she was screaming who wouldn't he was getting her alive that's not all afterward he took her down to the Sea and dragged her to the water's edge so the sea would take her away oh to hear that woman scream seor SC The Living Daylights out of me oh you should have seen it why didn't you tell the police oh what for don't you remember when your cousin was beat up well I went to report it and they told me I was crazy that if I didn't stop inventing things they lock me up imagine that no I wouldn't tell that lot anything the conversation turned to the messenger of God a local man who uses the powers God has given him to cure deafness dumbness paralysis Etc passing the collection plate around afterwards the business seems no worse than any other and though the pamphlets are extraordinary so is the people's gullibility but that's how it is and they continue to make fun of the things Don Rosita saw with all the conviction in the world the reception from the doctors wasn't overly friendly but we gained our objective they gave us an introduction to Molina luo mayor of V pariso we took took our leave with all the required formality and went to the town hall our dazed and exhausted expression didn't impact favorably on the manity desk but he received orders to let us in the secretary showed us a copy of a letter written in response to ours explaining that our project was impossible since the only ship to Easter Island had left and that there wouldn't be another ship leaving within the year we were ushered into the Sumptuous office of Dr Molina luo who received us amicably he gave it the impression however of acting out a sh play taking a lot of care to pronounce each word perfectly he became enthusiastic only when talking about Easter Island which he had rested from the English by proving it belonged to Chile he recommended we keep up with events and said he would take us the following year I may not be in this office but I am still president of the friends of Easter Island Society he said a tacit confession of Gonzalez videla impending electoral defeat as we left the man at the desk told us to take our dog with us and to our amazement showed us a puppy that had done its business on the lobby carpet and was nine at a cherle the dog had probably followed us attracted by our hobo appearance and the doorman imagined it was just another accessory of our eccentric attire anyway the poor animal robbed of the bond linking him to us got a good kick up the ass and was thrown out howling still it was always consoling to know that some living things well-being depended on our protection by this time we were determined that traveling by sea we could avoid the desert in Northern Chile and we fronted up to the shipping companies requesting free passage to any of the northern ports the captain at one of them promised to take us if we could arrange permission from the maritime authorities to work for our passage the reply of course was negative and we found ourselves back at scare one and in that Split Second Alberto made a heroic decision which went something like this we would sneak onto the boat and hide away in the hold for our best chance we would have to wait until Nightfall try to persuade the sailor on duty and see what would happen we collected our things evidently far too many for this particular plan with great regret we farewelled all our friends and afterward crossed through the main gates of the port and burning our boats set off on our merrytime adventure bises stowaways we passed through customs without any difficulties and bravely headed toward our Target The Chosen boat the San Antonio was at the center of the port's feverish activity because of its small size it didn't have to come right up alongside for the cranks to reach it and there was a gap of several meters between it and the docks we had no choice but to wait until the boat moved closer before boarding and so philosophically we sat down on our bags to wait for the propitious moment with the midnight change of shifts the boat was brought alongside but the Harbor Master a nasty character whose face disclosed his ill temper stood squarely on the gang plank checking the arriving and departing workers the crane driver who in the meantime we had befriended advised us to wait for a better moment because he said the master was a hostile bastard so we began a long wait which lasted the whole night worming ourselves in the crane an ancient contraption that ran on Steam the sun rose to see us still waiting on the docks with our bags our hopes of boarding by stealth had almost completely dissipated when the captain turned up with a new restored gang Plank and with it the San Antonio was now in permanent contact with dry land well instructed by the crane driver we slipped on board easily making ourselves at home and locked ourselves and our bags in the bathroom of the officer's quarters from then on all we had to do was say in a Nas little voice excuse me can't come in or it's occupied on the half dozen or so times someone tried to open the door 12:00 p.m. came fast and the boat sailed but our joy was fast disappearing because the toilet apparently blocked for some time gave off an insufferable smell and the heat was intense by 1: p.m. alverto had vomited up everything that had been in his stomach and by 5:00 p.m. dying of hunger and with the coast long out of sight we presented ourselves to the captain as stowaways he was surprised to see us again and in these particular circumstances but to conceal his surprise in front of the other officers he winked at us flamboyantly while asking in a thundering voice do you too seriously believe that to go traveling the only thing you have to do is Hide Away in the first boat you find have you not thought through the consequences of doing exactly that the truth is we hadn't thought through a thing he he called the steward and charged him to give us work and something to eat we devoured our rations contentedly but when I learned that I would have to clean the famous toilet the food CAU in my throat as I went below swearing Behind Closed lips and followed by Alberto's amused glance who is assigned to peel potatoes I confess I felt tempted to forget everything ever written about the rules of friendship and request a change of jobs there is no justice he had a good portion to the accumulated filth and I clean it up after conscientiously completing our work the captain summoned us again he recommended that we say nothing about our previous meeting and that he would ensure nothing happened when we arrived at anagasta the ship's destination he let us sleep in the cabin of an officer on leave and that night invited us to play Canasta and have a drink or two after a rejuvenating sleep we got up participating with consent in the phrase new brooms sweep cleanly we set to work with great diligence determined to earn the price of our passage with interest by midday however we felt we were overdoing it and by the afternoon we became firmly convinced we were the purest pair of bums around we thought we should get a good sleep ready for work the next day not to mention washing our dirty clothes but the captain again invited us to play cards and that killed our good intentions it took the steward sufficiently unfriendly approximately 1 hour to get us up to begin working my job was to clean the decks with kerosene a task I worked at all day and still didn't finish Alberto's string pulling found him back in the kitchen eating better food and more of it not being too discriminating about what he was pointing to his stomach at night after the exhausting games of Canasta we would look out over the immense Sea full of white flct and green Reflections the two of us leaning side by side on the railing each of us far away flying in his own aircraft to the stratospheric regions of his own dreams there we understood that our vocation our true vocation was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world always curious looking into everything that came before our eyes sniffing out Each corner but only ever faintly not setting down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the sub stratum of things The Outer Limits would suffice as all the sentimental themes they see inspires passed through our conversation the lights of anagasta began to shine in the distance to the Northeast it was the end of our adventurous doorways or at least the end of this adventure now that our boat was returning to Velo Estes fro this time disaster I can see him now clearly the drunk captain like all of his officers and the owners of The Vessel alongside with his great big mustache their crude gestures the results of bad wine and the wild laughter as they recounted our Odyssey Hey listen they're Tigers they're on your boat now for sure you'll find out when you're out to see the captain must have let it slip to his friends and colleagues this or some similar phrase we didn't of course know any of this an hour before sailing we were comfortably installed totally buried in tons of perfumed melons stuffing ourselves silly we were talking about the sailors who were the best since with the complicity of one of them we had been able to get on board and hide ourselves away in such a very secure spot and then we heard an ey voice and a seemingly enormous mustach emerged from who knows where and plunged us into an appalling confusion a long line of melon skins perfectly peeled was floating away Indian file on the Tranquil Sea the rest was ignominious the sailor told us afterwards I'd have got him off the S boys but he saw the melons and it seems he went into a batting down the hatches don't let anyone Escape routine and well he was fairly embarrassed you shouldn't have eaten so many melons one of our traveling companions from the San Antonio summed up His Brilliant life philosophy with one fine phrase stop arching about you why don't you get off your asses and go back to your country so that's more or less what we did we picked up our bags and set off for chuwata the famous copper mine but not straight away there was a pause of one day while we waited for permission from the mind's authorities to visit and meanwhile we received an appropriate sendoff from the enthusiastic bakalian Sailors lying beneath the meager shade of two lamposts on the Arid Road leading to the mines we spent a good part of the day yelling things at each other now and again from one post to another until on the horizon appeared the asthmatic outline of the little truck which took us halfway to a town called bakano there we made friends with a married couple Chan workers who were Communists By the Light of the single candle Illuminating us drinking mate and eating a piece of bread and cheese the man's shrunken figure carried a mysterious tragic air in his simple and expressive language he recounted his 3 months in prison and told us about his starving wife who stood by him with exemplary loyalty his children left in the care of a kindly neighbor his fruitless pilgrimage in search of work and his companeros mysteriously disappeared and said to be somewhere at the bottom of the sea the couple numb with cold huddling against each other in the desert night were a living representation of the proletariat and any part of the world they had not one single miserable blanket to cover themselves with so we gave them one of ours and Alberto and I wrapped the others around us as best we could it was one of the coldest times in my life but also one which made me feel a little more brotherly toward this strange for me anyway human species at 8 the next morning we found a truck to take us to the town of chuwata we separated from the couple who were heading for the sulfur mines in the mountains where the climate is so bad and the living conditions so hard that you don't need a work from it and nobody asks you what your politics are the only thing that matters is the enthusiasm with which the workers set to ruining his health in search of a few meager crumbs that barely provide his subsistence although the Blurred silhouette of the couple was nearly lost in the distance separating us we could still see the man's singularly determined face and we remembered his straightforward invitation come conrades let's eat together I too am a which showed his underlying disdain for the parasitic nature he saw in our aimless traveling it's a great prity they repress people like this apart from whether collectivism the Communist Vermin is a danger to decent life the communism knowing that his Ells was no more than a natural longing for something better a protest against persistent hunger transformed into love for this strange Doctrine whose Essence he could never grasp but whose translation bred for the poor was something he understood and more importantly that filled him with hope there are the bosses the blonde efficient and arrogant managers told us in primitive Spanish this is in a tourist town I'll find a guy to give you a half hour tour around the M installations and then do us a favor and leave us alone we have a lot of work to do a strike was imminent yet the guide faithful dog of the Yankee bosses told us IM Gringos losing thousands of pesos every day in a strike so as not to give a poor worker a few more sentos when my general ivanz comes to power that'll all be over and a Forman poet these are the famous grades that enable every inch of copper to be mind many people like you ask me technical questions but it is rare that they ask how many lives it has cost I can't answer you doctors but thank you for asking cold efficiency and impotent resentment go hand in hand in the big mind Linked In Spite of the hatred by the common necessity to live on the one hand and to speculate on the other we will see whether one day some minor will take up his pick and pleasure and go and poison his lungs with a conscious Joy they say that's what it's like over there where the red Blaze that now lights up the world comes from so they say I don't know chuki kamata chuki kamata is like a scene from a modern drama you cannot say that it's lacking in Beauty but it is a beauty without Grace imposing and glacial as you come close to any part of the mind the whole landscape seems to concentrate giving a feeling of Suffocation across the plane there is a moment when after 200 kilm the lightly shaded green of the little town of Kal interrupts the monotonous gray and is greeted with joy which as an authentic Oasis in the desert it richly deserves and what desert the weather Observatory at montazuma near chuki described it as the driest in the world the mountains where not a single blade of grass can grow in the nitrate soil are defenseless against attacks of wind and water they display their grain spine prematurely aged in the battle with the elements their wrinkles that do not correspond to their real geological age and how many of those mountains surrounding their famous brother enclose in their heavy wombs similar riches as they wait for the soulless arms of the mechanical shovels to devour their insides spiced as they would be with the inevitable human lives the lives of the poor unsung heroes of this battle who die miserably in one of the Thousand traps set by nature to defend its Treasures when all they want is to earn their daily bread chuki kamata is essentially a great Copper Mountain with 20 M High teres cut into its enormous sides from where the extracted mineral is easily transported by rail the unique formation of the vein means that extraction is entirely open cut allowing large scale exploitation of the ore body which grades 1% copper per ton of ore every morning the mountain is dynamited and huge mechanical shovels load the material onto real wagons that is taken to the grinder to be crushed these crushing occurs over three consecutive passes turning the raw material into a medium fine gravel it is then put in a sulfuric acid solution which extracts the copper in the form of sulfate also forming a copper chloride turning into Ferris chloride when it comes into contact with old iron from there the liquid is taken to the so-called Greenhouse where the copper sulfate solution is put into huge baths and for a week submitted to a current of 30 volts bringing about the electrolysis of the salt the copper sticks to the thin sheets of the same metal which have previously been formed in other baths with stronger Solutions after 5 or 6 days the sheets are ready for smelter the solution has lost 8 to 10 G of sulfate per liter and is enriched with new quantities of the ground material the sheets are then placed in furnaces that after 12 hours smelting at 2000° Centigrade produce 350 lb ingots every night 45 wagons and Convoy take over 20 tons of copper each down to anagasta the result of a day's War work this is a crude summary of the manufacturing process which employs a floating population of 3,000 souls and chuki Kata but this process only extracts oxide ore the Chile exploration company is building another plant to exploit the sulfate ore this plant the biggest of its kind in the world has two 96 M he chimneys and will take over almost all future production while the old plant will be slowly phased out since the oxide ore is about to run out there was already an enormous stock Pell of raw material to feed the new smelter and it will begin to be processed in 1954 when the plant is opened Chile produces 20% of the world's copper and in these uncertain times of potential conflict copper has become vitally important because it is an essential component of various types of weapons of Destruction hence an economic and political battle is being waged in Chile between a coalition of Nationalist and left-wing groupings that Advocate nationalizing the mines and those who in the ca of free enterprise prefer a well-run mine even in foreign hands to possibly less efficient management by the state serious accusations have been made in Congress against the companies currently exploiting the concessions symptomatic of the climate of nationalist aspirations surrounding copper production whatever the outcome of the battle it would do well not to forget the lesson taught by the graveyards of the Mind containing only a small share of the immense number of people devoured by cavens the silica and the hellish climate of the mountain kilid arid land for miles and miles now that we lost our water bottle the problem of crossing the desert by foot became even worse still without any apprehension we set off leaving behind the barrier marking the limits of the town of chuki kamata our Pace was incredibly at letic while within sight of the town's inhabitants but later the vast Solitude of the bare Andes the Sun that fell harshly across our necks and the badly distributed weight of our backpacks brought us back to reality until what point our actions were heroic as one policemen put it we're not sure but we began to suspect I think with good reason the definitive adjective was approximating something more like stupid after 2 hours of walking 10 kilm at the most we planted ourselves down in the shade of a sign saying I have no idea what the only thing capable of offering us the slightest Shelter From the Rays of the Sun and there we stayed all day shifting around to get the posts Shad in our eyes at least we rapidly consumed the liter of water we had brought with us and by late afternoon with gargantuan thirst we set off back towards the Sentry post at the town's limits totally defeated we spent the night there seeking Refuge inside the little room where a bright fire maintained the pleasant temperature despite the cold outside the night Watchman with proverbial Chilean Hospitality shared his food with us a pathetic Feast after a whole day of fasting but better than nothing at dawn the next day the truck of a cigarette company passed and took us closer to our destination but while continuing directly onto the port of toopa we were thinking of heading north to yave so it dropped us where the roads crossed we started walking enthusiastic ly toward a house we knew was 8 km up the road but only halfway there we became tired and resolved to have a little nap we hung one of our blankets between a telegraph post and a distant marker and got under it a Turkish bath for our bodies and a sun bath for our feet 2 or 3 hours later when we'd lost about 3 lers of water each a small Ford passed by containing three Noble citizens all roaring drunk and singing qu us at full blast they were stking workers for the mine called Magdalena celebrating the victory of the people's cause a little prematurely by getting happily plastered the drunks took us as far as a local Railroad Station there we encountered a group of laborers practicing for a football match with a rival team alverto took a pair of running shoes out of his backpack and started to sound off the result was spectacular we were signed up for the match on the following Sunday and return food board and transport to E Kik 2 days until Sunday arrived marked by a splendid victory for our team and a barbecue of goats prepared by alverto astounding the assembled gathering with the art of arentine cooking those two days we dedicated to visiting some of the many nitrate purifying plants in that area of Chile it really isn't very difficult for mining companies to extract the mineral wealth of these part of the world there's nothing more to do besides scraping off the top layer containing the mineral and transport it to huge baths where it submitted to a fairly uncomplicated separating process to extract the nitrates salt peter and mud apparently the Germans had the first concessions but their plants were expropriated and they are now largely British owned workers at the two biggest mines in terms of both production and Workforce were at the time on strike and the mines were south of where we were heading so we decided not to visit them we went instead to quite a big plant La Victoria which has at its entrance a plaque marking the place where Hector suichi sees died the brilliant uayan rally driver who was hit by another driver as he came out of a refueling pit stop a succession of trucks took us all over the region until we finally reached akik warmly wrapped in blankets of alala cargo of the truck that took us the last leg our arrival with the sun rising behind us casting our Reflections against the purest blue of the morning sea seemed like something out of a thousand one nights as if it were a Magic Carpet the truck appeared fluttering on the cliff faces above the port and as first gear slowed our winding and groaning flight downward we saw from our vantage point the whole city rising to meet us in Ika there wasn't a single boat arentine or any other kind so it was useless staying in the port and we decided to scr the lift on the first truck leaving for Ara akaba Chile the end of Chile the long kilometers stretching between ikik and ARA climb and descend the whole way we were carried from arid table lands to valleys with only slight trickles of water running through them barely sufficient for a few small stunted trees to grow at their edges these utterly desolate pompas emit a sultry heat during the day though as with all desert climates it is considerably colder by night they thought that valiva came through this way with his handful of men traveling 50 or 60 kilm a day without discovering a drop of water or even some shrub to Shelter From the hottest hours leaves a strong impression knowledge of this terrain actually crossed by the Conquistadors automatically elevates the theas feet to one of the most notable of Spanish colonization without doubt Superior to those that endure in the history of America because more fortunate explorers found wealthy Kingdoms at the end end of their adventurous Wars turning the sweat of their conquests into gold Vala's actions symbolize man's indefatigable thirst to take control of a place where he can exercise total Authority that phrase attributed to Caesar proclaiming he would rather be first in command in some humble Alpine Village than second in command in Rome is repeated less pompously but no less effectively in the Epic campaign that is the conquest of Chile if in the moment the conistor was facing death at the hands of that Invincible arcanian kokan he had not been overwhelmed like a hunted animal with Fury I do not doubt that judging his life valiva would have felt his death was fully Justified he belonged to that special class of men the species produces every so often in whom a craving for Limitless power is so extreme that any suffering to achieve it seems natural and he had become the omnipotent ruler every Warrior Nation ATA is a sweet little Port which hasn't yet lost the memory of its previous owners the peruvians and it forms a kind of meeting point between the two countries so different in spite of their geographical proximity and common ancestry the Promontory Pride of the Town Rises 100 m in an imposing mass of sheer rock face the palm trees the heat the subtropical fruit sold in the markets lended the unique physynergy a Caribbean town or something like that completely different from its colleagues further south a doctor who showed us as much disrespect as an established financially secure Bourgeois can show to a couple of hobos even hobos with titles permitted us to sleep in the town's Hospital early the next day we fled the unwelcoming place heading straight for the border with Peru but first we B farewell to the Pacific with one last swim soap and everything and it served to awaken a dormant yearning in Alberto to eat seafood we began a patient search for clams and other Seafood on the beach by some Cliffs we ate something salty and slimy but it didn't distract us from our hunger or satisfy a vor's craving in fact it wouldn't even have made a prisoner happy the Slime was repulsive and with nothing on it worse we set off at our usual time after eating at the police station marking out our track along the coast until the Border a van however picked us up and we reached the Border poost installed in Comfort we met a customs officer who had worked on the AR henting border and acknowledging and appreciating our passion for mate he gave us hot water cookies and best of all found us a ride to TNA the police chief welcomed us amiably at the border with several pretentious inanities about argentines and Peru and with a handshake we said goodbye to that hospitable Chilean land Chile Chile a vision from afar when I made these travel notes hot and fresh with enthusiasm I wrote some things that were perhaps a little flashy and somewhat removed from the intended Spirit of scientific inquiry and it's probably not appropriate now more than a year after writing them to give my current opinions about Chile I'd prefer to review what I wrote then beginning with our expertise medicine the Panorama of Healthcare in Chila leaves a lot to be desired although I realized later it was far superior to that of other countries I got to know free public hospitals are extremely rare and even in those posters announcing the following appear why do you complain about your treatment if you are not contributing to the maintenance of this Hospital generally speaking medical attention in the north is free but Hospital accommodation has to be paid for and Prices range from Petty sums to Virtual monuments to legalize theft sick or injured workers at the chuki Kata mine receive medical attention on hospital treatment for five chilian escudos a day but someone not working at the mine would pay between 300 and 500 escudos a day hospitals have no money and they lack medicine and adequate facilities we have seen filthy operating rooms with pitiful lighting and not just in small towns but even in valayar there aren't enough surgical instruments the bathrooms are dirty awareness of hygiene is poor it's a Chan custom afterwards I saw it practically across all of South America not to throw used toilet paper in the toilet but on the floor or in boxes provided the standard of living in Chile is lower than in Argentina on top of the very low wages paid in the South unemployment is high and the authorities of Ford workers very little protection although it's better than is provided in the north of the continent veritable waves of Chileans are driven by all this into immigrating to attina and search of the legendary City of Gold which cunning political propaganda has offered those who live to the west of the Andes in the north workers in the copper nitrate gold and sulfur mines are better paid but life is much more expensive and they lack in general many essential consumer items and the mountain is cruel it brings to mind the meaningful strug with which a manager at chuki kuata answered my questions regarding compensation paid to the families of the 10,000 or more workers entred in the local Cemetery the political scene is confusing this was written before the election in which ianz triumphed there were four presidential candidates of which Carlos ianz Delo seems most likely to win a retired soldier with dictator torial Tendencies and political Ambitions similar to those of Peron he inspires his people with all the enthusiasm of a caveo his base of power is the popular Socialist Party behind which various minor factions are united second in line as far as I can see is Pedro andaro alanso the official government candidate who is politically ambiguous he seems to be friendly with the Americans and courts almost all the other parties the champion of the right is the Tycoon aruro mate Len the son-in-law of the late president Alexandri who counts on the support of all the reactionary sectors of the population last on the list is the popular front candidate Salvador alente who is supported by the Communists even though they have seen their voting power reduced by 40,000 the number of people denied the right to vote because of their affiliation to the Communist Party it's likely that ianz will observe a politics of Latin americanism manipulating hate for the United States to gain popularity nationalizing the copper mines and others although the fact that the United States owns huge Peruvian mineral deposits and is practically ready to begin exploring them doesn't greatly increase my confidence that nationalization of these Chilean mines will be feasible at least in the short term continue nationalizing the railroads and substantially enlarge our gentin Chilean trade Chile as a country offers economic promise to any person disposed to work for it so long as they don't belong to the proletariat I mean anyone who has a certain dose of education and Technical knowledge the land has the capacity to sustain enough livestock especially sheep and cereals to provide for its population there are the necessary mineral resources to transform it into a powerful industrial country iron copper coal tin gold silver manganese and nitrates the biggest effort Chile should make is to shake its uncomfortable Yankee friend from its back a task that for the moment is at least Herculean given the quantity of dollars the United States has invested here and the ease with which it flexes its economic muscle whenever its interests seem threatened end of dis 2 dis three the new world scarcely a few meters separated us from the Civil guard post marking the limits of the town but already our backpacks felt a 100 times heavier than they were the sun stung us but as always we were wrapped in too many clothes for the hour of the day though later we'd get very cold the road climbed quickly and in no time we had passed the the pyramid we had seen from the village built in homage to the peruvians who died in the war with Chile we decided it would be a good place to make our first stop and test our luck with the passing trucks all we could see in the direction of the road was a Barren Hillside with barely any vegitation Placid TNA with its little dirt streets and terracotta roofs waited so far in the distance it almost seemed daunting the first truck to pass caused us great turmoil we stuck out our thumbs apprehensively and to our surprise the driver stopped just ahead of us Alberto took command of the operation explaining in words that by now were very familiar to me the purpose of our journey and asking him for a lift the driver gave an affirmative nod indicating we should climb in the back with a whole band of Indians collecting our bags and crazy with gratitude we were about to climb up when he called out to us VI solata you know that right Alberto Furious asked why he'd said nothing earlier when we asked to be taken free of charge the driver wasn't sure exactly what free of charge meant but to ton it was five sess and every one of them will be like that Alberto said angrily in that simple phrase directing all of his frustration toward me who had suggested the idea in the first place of walking out of town to Hitch left rather than wait there like he wanted to do the moment became decisive we could could go back in which case we'd be admitting defeat or we could continue on foot letting whatever would happen happen we decided on the second course and started walking it soon became apparent that our choice was not altogether wise the sun was about to set and all around there was total absence of Life still we supposed that so close to the Village there would be some Shack or other and sustained by the solusion we carried on it was soon pitch dark and we hadn't encountered a single sign of Happy even worse we had no water with which to cook or breante the cold intensified the desert climate and the altitude we reached had turned the screw our exhaustion was unbelievable we resolved simply to lay out our blankets over the ground and sleep until dawn there was no moon and the night was very dark so we felt our way around spreading our blankets and wrapping ourselves as well as we could after 5 minutes Alberto informed me he was frozen Sol I responded that my poor body was even colder but this wasn't a competition in refrigeration so we decided to tackle the situation and search for some Twigs to make a small fire and to occupy our hands the result was unsurprisingly pathetic between us we managed a handful of sticks making a timid fire incapable of heating anything at all the hunger was grading but the cold was much more so to the point where we could no longer lie there just watching the four Embers of our fire we had to pack up camp and walk on in the dark at first to get warm we set a fast pace and in no time we were desperate for breath under my jacket I felt the sweat running off me but my feet were numb with cold and the sharp wind cut our faces Like a Knife after 2 hours we were exhausted and my watch said only 12:30 a.m. a hopeful estimate gave us at least 5 hours of night to go further debate and another shot at sleeping between our blankets after 5 minutes we were on our way again the night was still young when we saw headlights in the distance it wasn't something to get too excited about the chances of getting a ride were bad but at least the road was lit up and that's how it went the truck passed us by indifferent in the face of our frantic shouts and its lights exposed a deserted Wasteland no trees no houses then confusion descended every minute was slower than the one before until eventually the minutes became hours two or three times a distant dog spark gave us some hope but the Pitch Black Knight disclosed nothing and the dogs fell silent or moved off into other directions at 6:00 in the morning we saw two Huts by the edge of the road illuminated in the clear gray light of dawn the last few meters we traveled in a Flash as if we had no weight at all on our backs it seemed that we had never been welcomed with such friendliness that we had never eaten bread and chees cheese like they sold us or had such revitalizing Monte we were like demigods to these simple people Alberto branded his doctor certificate for them and moreover we had come from that wonderful country Argentina where Peron lived and his wife Evita where the poor have as much as the rich and the Indian isn't exploited or treated as severely as he is in this country we answered thousands of questions about our country and its way of life with the night chill still deeply embedded in our bones our rose-colored imagery transformed Argentina into an alluring vision of the past our spirits lifted by the timid kindness of the cholos we made for a nearby dry River bed in which we spread our blankets and slept caressed by the Rising Sun at 1200 we set off again much happier the previous night's suffering forgotten following old Visa's advice the road was long though and we were soon pausing with notable frequency we stopped for a rest and 5: in the afternoon observing apathetically the approaching outline of a truck as usual it was transporting a cargo of human Liv stock the most profitable business of all there but to our surprise the truck stopped and we saw the Civil Guard from takna waving happily to us and inviting us to climb on the invitation of course did not need to be repeated the Armada Indians in the back looked at us curiously but didn't dare to ask anything Alberto tried to start a convers ation with some of them though their Spanish was bad the truck continued to climb through an absolutely desolate landscape where only a few struggling Thorn bushes gave any appearance of being alive then suddenly the grumbling with which the truck made its way higher gave way to a sigh of relief as we leveled out onto the plateau we entered the town of esakia and the view was incredible our ecstatic eyes fixed themselves momentarily on the landscape extending around us and then we had to find out the names and explanations for all the things we saw the imas could barely understand this but the few indications they gave in confused Spanish only increased the emotional impact of these surroundings we were in a legendary Valley whose Evolution had been suspended several hundred years ago and we happy 20th century Mortals had today been given the Good Fortune to see the irrigation channels built by the Incas for the well-being of their subjects flowed from the mountain into to the valley forming a thousand little waterfalls and running back and forth across the road as it spiraled down ahead of us low clouds hit the tops of the mountains but in some of the clear spaces you could just make out snow falling on the highest peaks little by little turning them white the different crops cultivated by the Indians carefully grown in Terrace beds allowed us to penetrate a new realm of Botanical science Oka kinway canway Roto maze we saw people wearing the same dress as the Indians in the truck in their natural surroundings they wore short sadly colored wool and ponchos tight Cal length pants and sandals made from rope or old car tires absorbing everything we saw we continued down the valley to tarata in imara this means the Apex or place of Confluence and it's been well named since it stands within a great V formed by Mountain chains that are the town's Guardians it is an ancient gentle village where life continues on a course it has traveled for centuries the Colonial Church must be an archaeological gem because even more than its age it marks a union of imported European art with the spirit of the local Indians in the narrow Lanes of theast town its hugely uneven streets paved in local Stone the Indian women with the children on their backs in short in every typical scene the town's very breath evokes the time before Spanish colonization but the people before us are not the same proud arrays that repeatedly rose up against Inca rule forcing them to maintain a permanent Army on their borders these people who watch us walk through the streets of the town are a defeated race their stairs are tame almost fearful and completely indifferent to the outside world some give the impression they go on living only because it's a habit they cannot shake the Civil guard took us to the police station where they gave us board and some of the officers invited us to eat we walked around town and then rested for a while since at 3: in the morning we were heading off to puno on a passenger truck which thanks to the Civil guard was taken us there for free and Dominos de laa mama in the Dominion of Bacha Mama the blankets of the Peruvian police had by 3: in the morning demonstrated their value sing us and restorative warmth the policeman on guard shook is awake there was a truck heading for yve and we found ourselves in the sad situation of having to leave them behind the night was magnificent if terribly cold and we were granted the privilege of some planks to sit on separating us from the foul smelling and flee ridden human flock below us their potent but warm stink like a virtual lasso only as the vehicle began to descend did we realize the magnitude of the concession nothing of the smell came close and it would have been difficult for a single athletic Fleet to Spring onto us for refuge on the other hand the wind lashed liberally against our bodies and within minutes we were literally Frozen the truck continued to climb and with every minute the cold became more intense to stop ourselves falling enough we had to keep our hands free outside the more or less protective blankets it was difficult to ship positions even slightly without coming close to head first flight into the back of the truck close to Da some carburetor problem afflicting every engine at this altitude caused the truck to stop we were nearing the highest point of the road almost 5,000 m and some corners of the sky the sun was rising and a vague light replaced the total darkness accompanying us until then the psychological effects of the sun are strange it had not yet appeared Over the Horizon and we already felt comforted just imagining the heat it would bring on one side of the road huge semispherical fungi were growing the only vegetation in the region and we used it to make a pathetic fire but it served to heat water from a little bit of snow the spectacle offered by the two of us drinking our Strange Brew must have seemed as interesting to the Indians as their traditional dressing to us because not a moment passed without one of them approaching to ask and broken Spanish just why we were pouring water into that rare artifact the truck categorically refused to take us any further so all of us had to walk about 3 km in the snow it was remarkable to see the Indians treading through the snow their bare callous feet not seeming to worry them while we felt our toes freeze in the intense cold despite our boots and Woolly socks at a weary steady Pace they trotted along like llas in single file saved from its awful episode the truck continued with renewed passion and we soon cleared the highest pass where there was a strange pyramid made of irregular sized stones and crowned with a cross as the truck passed almost everyone spat and one or two crossed themselves intrigued we asked what the significance of the strange ritual was but only the most complete of silences met us the sun was warming up and the temperature became more agreeable as we descended always following the course of a river we had seen begin at the summit of the mountain and grow to a fair size snowcapped Peaks looked down on us from all sides and herds of llamas and alpacas looked on without expression as the truck drove past while several uncivilized vicunas fled the disturbance at one of the many stops we went along the road an Indian timidly approached us with his son who spoke good Spanish and began to ask us all about the wonderful land of Peron our imaginations ignited by the spectacular grander we were traveling through it was easy for us to paint extraordinary events and baling to our heart's desire the capos exploits feeling the minds of our listeners with stories of the idilic beautiful life in our country through his son the man asked us for a copy of the arentine Constitution with its Declaration of the rights of the elderly and we enthusiastically promised to send him one when we resumed the trip the old Indian took an appetizing corn cup from beneath his clothes and offered it to us we finished it off quickly democratically dividing the colonels between us in the middle of the afternoon with the heavy gray sky bearing down on us we passed an interesting place where erosion had worn the huge Boulders on the roadside into feudalistic castles they had battlements gargoyles observing us disconcertingly and a host of fabulous monsters that seemed to be standing guard minding the Tranquility for the mythical characters who surely inhabited the place the slight drizzle which for some time had brushed our faces became stronger and turned into a heavy downpour the driver called out to the arentine doctors inviting us into his cabin the height of comfort in those parts we immediately made friends with a school teacher from puno whom the government had sacked for being a member of the APR party American popular revolutionary Alliance the man who clearly had indigenous blood and who moreover was an aista which meant nothing to us had many incredible stories of Indian custom and culture delighting us with a thousand anecdotes and memories of his life as a teacher following the of his Indian blood he had sided with the aaras in the never-ending debates among the experts on the region against the coas whom he qualified as cowardly ladinos he also gave us the key to the strange ritual observed by our traveling companions earlier in the day arriving at the highest point of the mountain the Indian gifts all of his sadness to Bacha Mama Mother Earth in the symbolic form of a stone which gradually amassed to shape the pyramids we had seen when the Spaniards arrived to conquer the region they tried immediately to destroy such beliefs and abolish such rituals but without success so the Spanish monks decided to accept the inevitable placing a single cross at top each pile of stones all this took place four centuries ago as told by gilaso dega and J by the number of Indians who made the sign of the cross the religious didn't make a lot of progress the rise of modern transport hment the faith will now spit out chewed coke leaves instead of placing stones and this carries their troubles to rest with Pacha Mama The Inspired voice of the teacher Rose to a resounding pitch whenever he spoke about his Indians the once rebellious imar race who had held the Inca armies in check and it fell to a vacant depth when he spoke of the Indians present condition brutalized by modern civilization and by their compos his bitter enemies The mesos Who Heap revenge on the amadas for their own position halfway between two worlds he spoke of the need to build schools that would Orient individuals within their own world enable them to play a useful role within it of they need to change fundamentally the present system of Education which on the rare occasion it does offer Indians education according only to white men's criteria simply fills them with shame and resentment rendering them unable to help their fellow Indians and at the severe disadvantage of having to fight with within a hostile white society which refuses to accept them the destiny of those unhappy individuals is to stagnate in some minor bureaucratic position and to die hoping that one of their children thanks to the miracle powers of a drop of colonizing blood in their veins might somehow achieve the goal they look forward to until their last days in the convulsive clenching of his fists one could perceive the confession of a man tormented by his own Misfortune and also the the very desire he attributed to his hypothetical example wasn't he in fact a typical product of an education which damages the person receiving its favor a concession to the magic power of that single drop even if it came from some poor mestico woman sold to a local khaki or was the result of an Indian Mage rape by her drunken Spanish Master but our journey was almost over and the teacher fell silent the road curved and we crossed a bridge over the same river we had first seen early that morning as a tiny stream yve was on the other side ELO there Lake of the Sun the sacred Lake revealed only a small part of its Grandeur the narrow tongue of land surrounding the bay Puna was built on hid it from view greed Cano bobbed here and there in the Tranquil Waters and a few fishing boats filed out through the Lake's entrance the wind was very cold and the smothering leaden Skies seemed to replicate our state of mind although we had come directly to puno without stopping in yave and had secured temporary lodging and a good meal at the local Barracks our luck seemed to have run out very politely the commanding officer had shown us the door explaining that as this was a border checkpoint foreign civilians were strictly forbidden from staying overnight we didn't want to go without exploring the lake so we went to the pier to see if anyone would take us out in a boat where we could admire the Lake in all its magnitude we used an interpreter to advance the operation because none of the fishermen All Pure imar knew any Spanish at all for a modest sum of five sess we managed to get them to take both of us and the intrusive guide who was sticking to us we considered swimming in the lake but after testing the temperatures with the tips of our little fingers we thought better of it Alberto made a big show of taking off his clothes and Boots only to put them back on again of course like tiny pinpoints dispersed across the vast gray surface of the lake a group of islands emerged in the distance our interpreter described the lives of the fishermen there some of whom have barely ever seen a white man and who live according to the old ways eating the same food fishing with 500-year-old techniques and keeping their costumes rituals and traditions alive when we returned to the port we walked over to one of the boats running between puno and a Bolivian port to try and get some mate which we were low on but they drink almost no Monte in the north of Bolivia in fact they'd hardly ever heard of it and we couldn't even get half a kilo We examined the boat which had been designed in England and built here its lavishness clashed with the general Poverty of the whole region our problem of lodging found its solution at the Civil guard post where a very friendly Lieutenant led us stay in the infirmary the two of us in one bed but at least we were cozy and warm after a pretty interesting visit to the cathedral the following day we found a truck heading for kusco the doctor in puno had given us a letter of introduction for Dr erosa an ex lepr prologist now living in kusco Asia ELO Mundo toward the naval of the world the first leg of the journey wasn't too long as the truck driver left us in Jula from where we had to find another truck to take us ever northward we went of course on the recommendation of puno civil guard to the police station where we found a very drunk Sergeant he took a liking to us and invited us for a drink ordering beers that were down in one all except for mine which remained full on the table what's the matter my a hinting friend don't you drink no no it's not that in my country we don't normally drink like this don't feel bad it's just that we only drink if we're eating at the same time but ch he said in his nasal voice accentuating our country's anamon AIC nickname why didn't you say so with a clap of his hands he ordered some great cheese sandwiches and I was fairly satisfied with that he then swept himself away into yourfor descriptions of his various heroic Deeds bosing about the fear and respect held for him by the people of the region because of his fabulous Marksmanship to prove it he pulled out his gun and said to Alberto look ch stand 20 M away with a cigarette in your mouth and if I can't light it with the first bullet I'll give you 50 sers Alberto doesn't like money that much and he wasn't about to move from his chair at least not for 50 sess come on CH I'll make it 100 Alberto didn't move a muscle when he got to 200 soless laid out on the table Alberto's eyes began to flicker but his Instinct for self-preservation was stronger and he still didn't move so the sergeant took off his cap and watching through the mirror tossed it behind him and fired the cap was still in perfect condition of course but the wall wasn't the owner of the bar flew into a fury storming after the police station to complain within minutes an officer showed up to find out what the Scandal was all about hauling the sergeant into a corner to give him a talking to when they rejoined our group the sergeant launched into a tiate against my traveling buddy also making faces at him so he' get the point listen up arentine got any more firecrackers like the one you just let off Alberto caught on quickly and set his face the picture of Innocence that he had run out the officer gave him a warning about letting up fireworks in public places then told the owner that the incident was over he could see no signs on the wall that the gun had been fired the woman went to ask the sergeant to shift a few centimeters from where he was located standing rigidly against the wall but quick mental calculation of the pros and cons was enough to keep her mouth shut on that score and instead give Alberto an extra tongue lashing these argentines think they know everything she said plus a few more insults that were lost in the distance as we fled one of us thinking wistfully of the beer the other of the Lost sandwiches we found another truck to ride in traveling with a couple of young guys from Lima the whole time they tried to show us how much better they were than the silent Indians who and endured their taunts and showed no signs of being bothered at first we looked the other way paying them no attention but after some hours the tedious journey across an interminable plane forced us to exchange a few words with the only other white people on board the only ones we could chat with since the weary Indians barely dignified our questions offering only monos cabic replies in truth these boys from Lima were normal enough they just needed to make the difference between them and the Indians clear as we chewed vigorously on the coca leaves our Newfound friends had diligently obtained for us a flood of Tangos engulfed our unsuspecting companions we arrived at last light in a village called aiv Viti where we stayed in a hotel paid for by the head of the Civil guard excuse me he responded to a feeble protest against his startling gesture two Argentine doctors sleeping rough because they have no money it can't be but in spite of the worn B we could barely keep our eyes closed throughout the night the ca we' ingested revenged our bravado and floods of nausea colic and a severe headache we left very early the next morning in the same truck for Sani where we arrived in the middle of the afternoon overwhelmed by too much cold rain and hunger as always we spent the night at the Civil guard post and as always they looked after us well a miserable Little River called vilot runs through the Sani and we would be following the course of its water an ocean of mud for a while in the sequ market we were pondering the whole range of colors overflowing from the Stalls tangling with the vendor monotonous cries and the monotone Buzz of the crowd when we noticed a gathering of people on a corner and went to investigate surrounded by a dense silent multitude A procession Advanced at the head of which were a dozen monks wearing colored habits followed by a train of serious looking notables wearing black black dress and carrying a coffin they marked the end of the formal funeral party and a teaming mass of people followed without order a direction the procession halted and one of the black suited individuals appeared on a balcony papers in hand it is our duty as we say farewell to this great and worthy man somebody or other Etc after his interminable babbling the procession moved to a block further and another Darkly dressed character materialized on a balcony somebody or other is dead but the memory of his good deeds and his unblemished Integrity Etc and so poor old somebody or other crossed to his final resting place like this pursued by the hate of his fellow villagers who on every street corner unburdened themselves of him in flooding words then another days traveling in much the same manner as previous ones and finally kusko alumo the naval the word that most perfectly describes the city of Cusco is evocative intangible dust of another era settles on its streets Rising like the Disturbed sediment of a muddy Lake when you touch its bottom but there are two or three cusos or it's better to say two or three ways the city can be summoned when Mama Okio dropped her golden wedge into the soil and it sank effortlessly the first Incas knew this was the place selected by Vota to be the permanent home for his chosen ones who had left behind their nomadic lives to come as conquistadors to their promised land with his nostrils flaring zealously for New Horizons they watched as their formidable empire grew always looking beyond the feeble barrier of the surrounding Mountains and the converted Nomads set to expanding tawantinsuyo fortifying as they did so the center of their conquered territory the Naval of the world kusco and here grew as necessary defense for the Empire the imposing Saka man dominating the city from its Heights and protecting the Palaces and temples from the Wrath of the enemies of the Empire the vision of this Cusco emerges mournfully from The Fortress destroyed by the stupidity of illiterate Spanish conquistadors from the violated ruins of the temples from the sacked palaces from the faces of a brutalized race this is Cusco inviting you to become a warrior and to defend Club in hand the freedom and the life of the Inca high above the city another Cusco can be seen displacing the destroyed Fortress a Cusco with colored tile roofs its gentle uniformity interrupted by the Kola of a Baro church and as the city Falls away it shows us only its narrow streets and its native inhabitants dressed in typical costume all the local colors this Cusco invites you to be a hesitant tourist to pass over things superficially and to relax into the beauty beneath a Leen winter sky and there is yet another Cusco a vibrant City whose monuments bear witness to the formidable courage of the Warriors who conquered the region in the name of Spain the Cusco to be found in museums and libraries in the church facades and in the clear sharp features of the white Chiefs who even today feel pride in the conquest this is the Cusco asking you to pull on your armor and mounted on the ample back of a powerful horse cleave a path through the defenseless flesh of a naked Indian flock whose human wall collapses and disappears beneath the four Hooves of the Galloping Beast each one of these cusos can be admired separately and to each one we dedicated a part of our stay laer de Ina the land of the Incas kusko is completely surrounded by mountains that signified less a defense than a danger for its Inca inhabitants who in order to defend themselves built the immense mass of a fortress sakaan this version of the story at least satisfies The Superficial Inquirer a version which for obvious reasons I cannot discount it's possible however that the Fortress constituted the initial nucleus of the great City in the period immediately after abandoned in nomadic life when the Incas were barely more than an ambitious tribe and when defense against a numerically Superior adversary stemmed from closely protecting the settled population the walls of sakaan offered an ideal sight this double function of city and Fortress explains some of the reasoning behind its construction which doesn't make sense if its purpose was simply to repel an invading enemy and much less so considering kusko lay defenseless on every other periphery it is worth noting that the Fortress is built in such a way that it controls the two steep valleys leading to the city the serrated walls mean that when enemies attack they could be held hostage on three flanks and if they penetrated these defenses they came up against a similar wall and then a third The Defenders have room to maneuver enabling them to concentrate on their Counterattack all this and the subsequent Glory of the city creates the impression that the kachua warriors were undefeated in the defense of their Fortress against pounding enemies even though the fortifications are the expression of a highly inventive people intuitive in mathematics they seem to belong in my view at least to the pre- Ina stage of their civilization a period before they learned to appreciate the Comforts of a material life being a sober race the kachua didn't achieve a level of cultural splendor but they did make interesting advances in the field of architecture and the Arts the continued success of the kachua Warriors drove enemy tribes each time further from Cusco and so leaving the secure confines of the Fortress that in any case could no longer contain their multiplying race they spread down the neighboring Valley along the stream whose Waters they used highly conscious of their present Glory they turned their eyes to the Past in search of an explanation for their superiority in honor of the memor of a god whose omnipotence had allowed them to rise to dominance they created temples and the priest cast in this way expressing their greatness in stone an imposing kusco grew into the city eventually conquered by the Spaniards even today when the basal Rage of the Conquering rabble can be seen in each of the acts taken to eternalize the conquest and the Inca cast has long since vanished as a dominant power their stone blocks stand enigmatically in per ious to the ravages of time when the white troops sacked the already defeated City attacking the Inca temples with unbridled Fury they unified their Greed for the gold that covered the walls in perfect representations of inti the sun god with the sadistic pleasure of exchanging for the bereaved Idol of a joyful people the joyful and lifegiving symbol of a grieving people the temples to ini were raised to their foundations or their walls were made to serve the ascent of the churches of the new religion the cathedral was erected over the remains of a grand palace and above the walls of the Temple of the sun rose the Church of Santo Domingo lesson and punishment from the proud conqueror and yet every so often the heart of America shuttering with indignation sends a nervous spasm to the gentle back of the Andes and tumultuous shock waves assault the surface of the land three times the Capa of proud Santa Domingo has collapsed from on high to the rhythm of broken bones and its worn walls have opened and Fallen too but the foundations they rest on are unmoved the great blocks of the Temple of the sun exhibit their Greystone indifferently however colossal the disaster befalling its oppressor not one of its huge rocks shifts from its place but Khan's revenge is meager in the face of the magnitude of the insult the greystones have grown tired of pleading with their protector gods for the destruction of the abhorent Conquering race and now they simply show an inanimate exhaustion useful only for provoking the admiring grunts of some or other tourist what use was the patient labor of the Indians Builders of the inaoka palace subtle sculptur of stone angles when faced with the impetuous actions of the white conquistadors and their knowledge of brick work vaulting and rounded arches the anguished Indian waiting for the terrible Vengeance of his Gods saw instead a cloud of churches rise ining even the possibility of a proud past the 6m walls of the inara palace considered by the conistor to be useful only as weight bearers for their colonial Palace reflect in their perfect stone structures The Cry of the defeated Warrior but the race that created orante left something more than the conglomeration of kusco as a monument to its Grand past along the vilcanota or urum Bamba rivers over more than 100 kilm the signs of the Inc of past are scattered the most important of them are always in the heights of the mountains where their forces were impenetrable and secure from surprise attack after trekking for two long hours along a rough path we reached the peak of pisak arriving there as well though long before us were the swords of the Spanish soldiers destroying pak's Defenders defenses and even its temples among the dispersed mass of disorganized Stone you can perceive that it was once a defensive construction the place where in Wana stayed and where he caught and tied up the midday sun and the dwellings of the priests so little is left tracing the course of the vot and passing by some relatively unimportant sites we reached oyao a vast Fortress where Manco Segundo rose up in arms against the Spaniards resisting at Nando piso's troops and founding the minor dynasty of the for Incas this dynasty coexist existed with the Spanish Empire until its last effeminate representative was assassinated in cusos main Square on the orders of vicroy too a Rocky Hill no less than 100 m High plunges suddenly to the real vcot The Fortress rests on top and its single vulnerable side connected to its Mountain neighbors by narrow paths is guarded by Stone defenses that easily impede the aess of any attacking forces similar in strength to The Defenders the lower part of the construction has a purely defensive purpose its less steep area split into some 20 easily defendable levels making an attacker vulnerable to Counterattack on each side the upper part of the Fortress contained the soldiers quarters and is crowned by a temple which probably housed their loot in the form of precious metal objects but of all that not even a Memory Remains and even the massive stone blocks that made up the temple have been removed from their resting place near Sasa Haman on the road returning to kusco there's an example of typical Inca construction which in our guides opinion was a bathing place for the Incas this seemed a little strange to me giving the distance between the site and kusco unless it was a ritual bathing place for the Monarch only the ancient Inca Emperors if this version is correct must have had even tougher skins than their descendants because the water though wonderful to drink drink is extremely cold the site crowned with three deep trapezoidal recesses whose form and purpose are unclear is called Tambo mache and is at the entrance to the Valley of the Incas but the site whose archaeological and touristic significance overwhelms all others in the region is Machu picu which in the Indigenous language means Old Mountain the name is completely divorced from the settlement which sheltered within its hold the last members of a free people for Bingham the US archaeologist who discovered the ruins the place was more than a refuge against Invaders but was the original settlement of the dominant ketua race and a sacred site for them later in the period of the Spanish Conquest it also became a hideout for the defeated Army at first glance there are several indications that the above mentioned archaeologist was right in orento for example the most important defensive construction faced a away from machup Pico even though the slope behind is not steep enough to ensure effective defense against attack from there possibly suggesting that their backs were covered in that direction a further indication is their preoccupation with keeping the area hidden from Outsiders even after all resistance had been crushed the last Inca himself was captured far from Machu Picchu where Bingham found skeletons that were almost all female which he identified as being those of virgins of the Temple of the Sun a religious order whose members the Spaniards never managed to flush out as is customary in constructions like this the Temple of the sun with its famous intiwatana crowns the city it is carved from The Rock which also serves as its pedestal and close by a series of carefully polished Stones suggest that this is a very important place looking at across the river are three trapezoidal Windows typical of kachua architecture which being a miden ified as the windows through which the IU Brothers in Inca mythology came to the outside world to show the chosen people the path to their promised land to my understanding the idea is a little strained the interpretation has of course been contested by a great many prestigious researchers there is also voluminous debate about the function of the Temple of the sun whose Discoverer Bingham maintained it was a circular enclosure similar to the Temple dedicated to the the same Sun God in kusko whatever the case the form and cut of these Stones suggest it was of principal importance and it is thought that beneath the huge stones that form the Temple's base lies the Tomb of the Inca or Incas here you can easily appreciate the difference between the different social classes of the village each of them occupying a distinct Place according to their grouping and remaining more or less independent from the rest of the community it's a pity they knew no other Roofing matters besides straw now there are no examples of roofing left even on the most luxurious sites but for architects who had no knowledge of vaulting or arch supports it must have been very difficult to resolve this problem in the buildings reserved for the Warriors we were shown cavities in the stone walls like small Chambers and on either side of them holes just big enough for a man's arm to pass through had been hollowed out this was apparently a place of physical punishment the victim was forced to place both arms through the respective holes and was then pushed backwards until his bones broke I was unconvinced about the effectiveness of the procedure and introduced my limbs in the manner indicated Alberto pushed me slowly the slight pressure provoked excruciating pain and The Sensation that I would be torn apart completely if he continued to press my chest but you can really appreciate the imposing magnitude of the city Fortress from the view at Hina pach young Mountain Rising some 200 M higher the place must have been used as a kind of Lookout Point rather than as housing or as fortifications because the ruins are only of minor importance Machu Picchu is impregnable on two of its sides defended by an abyss dropping a sheer 300 M to the river and a narrow Gorge linking up with young Mountain its most vulnerable side is defensible from a succession of terroristes making any attack against it extremely difficult while to Mau picchu's face looking approximately South vast fortifications and the natural narrowing of the hilltop make a difficult path through which to attack if you remember also that the torrential Vota rushes around the base of the mountain you can see that the first inhabitants of Machu Picchu were wise in their choice in reality it hardly matters what the Primitive origins of the city are it's best in any case to leave discussion of the subject to archaeologists the most important and irrefutable thing however is that here we found the pure expression of the most powerful indigenous race in the Americas still clean of contact with a conquering civilization and replete with immensely evocative Treasures between its walls that have died from the tedium of having no life between them the spectacular landscape circling the Fortress supplies an essential backdrop inspiring dreamers to wander its ruins for the sake of it North American tourists bound down by their practical world view are able to place those members of the disintegrating tribes they may have seen in their travels among these once living walls unaware of the moral distance separating them since only the semi- indigenous Spirit of the South American can grasp the subtle differences El seor de demores lord of the earthquakes from the cathedral the people heels of the Maria Angola rung out for the first time since the earthquake Legend has it that this famous Bell among the largest in the world contains 27 kg of gold it was supposedly donated by a lady called Maria Angulo but the name of the bill itself was changed due to a slight problem with rhyming slang the cost of restoring the cathedral bell towers destroyed by the earthquake of 1950 had been met by General Franco's government and as a gesture of gratitude the band was ordered to play the Spanish national anthem as the first Court sounded The Bishop's red headdress locked itself into position as he moved his arms about like a puppet stop stop there's been a mistake he whispered while the indignant voice of a Spaniard could be heard two years work and they play this I couldn't say whether with good intentions or otherwise the band had struck up the Spanish Republican Anthem in the afternoon he leaves a stately home in the cathedral our lord of the earthquakes who is no more than a dark brown image of Christ he has paraded throughout the city and his pilgrimage stops at all the main churches as he passes a crowd of layabouts competes with each other to throw handfuls of the little flowers that grow abundantly on the slopes of the nearby mountains named by the natives nuu the violent red of the flowers the intense bronze of the lord of the earthquakes and the silver altar they carry him on lend the procession the impression that it's a pagan Festival a feeling that is intensified by the many colored clothes of the Indians who wear for the occasion their best traditional costumes and expression of a culture or way of life which still holds on to living values in contrast a cluster of Indians and European clothes March at the head of the procession carrying banners their tired affected faces resemble an image of those kachua who refus to heed Manos seo's call pledging themselves to sorrow and in the degradation of their defeat smothering the pride of an independent race standing over the small frames of the Indians gathered to see the procession pass the blond heads of the North American can occasionally be glimpsed who with his camera and sport shirt seems to be and in fact actually is a correspondent From Another World lost amid the isolation of the Inca Empire elar Del vedor Homeland for the Victor what was once the lavish capital of the Inca Empire conserved much of its Brilliance for many years out of simple inertia there were many new men flaunting its riches but they were the same riches for a time they were not merely maintained but augmented were the products of the Gold and Silver Mines that converged on the region they sold difference being that kusko no longer bore the title Naval of the world but was just another point point on its periphery its Treasures immigrated to the nude Metropolis across the sea to feed the opulence of another Imperial Court the Indians no longer worked with determination at the barren soil yet the Conquistadors had not come to fight daily with the land for their sustenance but to gain easy fortunes through heroic Deeds or simple greed slowly Cusco languished pushed to the margins lost in the Cera while on the Pacific coast a new rival emerged Lima growing with the fruits of the taxes levied by clever intermediaries on the wealth flowing out of Peru although there was no cataclysm by which to Mark the transition the brilliant enca Capital passed into its current state a relic of Times Gone by only recently has one or other modern building Arisen to class with the existing collection but otherwise all the monuments of colonial Splendor still remain the cathedral is grounded firmly in the center of the city its solidity typical to its era makes it look more like a fortress than a church the glits of its brilliant Interiors reflect a glorious past the giant paintings reposing on the lateral walls do not measure up to riches scattered through the sanctuary but somehow they do not seem out of place and a St Christopher emerging from the water seemed at least to me a fine piece the earthquake wreaked havoc there as well the frames of the paintings are broken and the paintings themselves are scratched and creased the effect created by the golden frames and the golden doors to the site altars all falling off their hinges is very strange as if they're revealing the lesions of age gold doesn't have the gentle Dignity of silver which becomes more Charming as it ages and so the cathedral seems to be decorated like an old woman with too much make up there is real Artistry in the choir stalls made from wood by Indian or mystical Craftsmen in their carved scenes of the lives of the Saints they have infused the cedar with which the spirit of the Catholic church and the Enigmatic Soul of the true andian peoples one of cusk's jewels worthy of the visit by each and every tourist is the pulpit of the basilical of s Blas it has nothing more to show for itself except a fine carving before which you pause and raptured and like the choir stalls of the cathedral it expresses the fusion of two hostile but somehow almost complimentary races the whole city is an immense Gallery the churches of course but even every house every balcony looking out over every street is like a medium with which to evoke times past each of those is not with the same Merit of course but as I write in this moment so far from there when my notes before me seem faded and already official I'm unable to say which impress me the most amid the magma of churches we visited I remember the pitiful image of the bell towers of the Church of berin toppled by the earthquake lying like a dismembered animal on the hillside after careful analysis there are very few works of art capable of standing up under closing Spectrum Cusco is not a city to visit for this or that painting rather it's the whole of the city together which creates the impression of the peaceful if sometimes disquieting center of a civilization that has long since passed end of dis three dis four kusco AAS Cusco straight if everything that goes to make up Cusco were erased from the face of the Earth and in its place a little history Village appeared there would still always be something to say about it as of mixing cocktails we threw all our Impressions together our life in those two weeks never lost the hobo character marking our whole journey the letter of introduction we had for Dr Osa turned out to be fairly useful although an actual fact he was not the type of man who needed such a formal presentation to lend hand it was enough for him to know Alberto had worked with Dr Fernandez one of the most eminent leprologists in the Americas and Alberto brandish the card with his customary skill extensive discussion with Dr Osa gave us an approximate picture of Peruvian life and the opportunity to make a trip around the entire Valley of the Incas in his car he was very kind to us and was also the one who found us train tickets to Machu Picchu the average speed of the regional trains is about 10 to 20 km an hour such consumptive conditions achieved by being constantly affronted with considerable climbs and descents in order that the trains might win against the difficult Ascent as they leave the city the tracks had to be constructed in such a way that the trains move forward for a while then slip backwards to another track from where it begins a new climb and this back and forth is repeated several times until it reaches the top and begins its descend along the course of a river which eventually flows into the viak canot on the train trip we met a pair of Chilean swindlers selling herbs and telling fortunes they were very friendly toward us sharing their food after we had invited them to drink arm mate on reaching the ruins we stumbled across a group of footballers and were invited to play I had the opportunity to show off a few impressive catches before humbly admitting that I played Premier League football in Buenos Ares with Alberto who demonstrated his skill in Midfield on a pitch the locals call a Pampa our relatively spectacular flare gained us the attention of the owner of the ball who was also the manager of the hotel he he invited us to stay a couple of days there until the next gang of North Americans were shipped in on their special rail coaches seor Sho as well as being a wonderful individual was also a very learned person and after exhausting his favorite topic of sport we were able to speak at length about Inca culture about which he knew a great deal we felt pretty sad when the moment came to leave we drank the last Exquisite coffee prepared by senoro and boarded the little train for its 12 hour trip back to Cusco in these types of trains there are third class carriages reserved for the local Indians they're like the cattle Transportation wagons they use in Adena except that the smell of cowed is ever more pleasant than the human version the somewhat animal likee concept the indigenous people have of modesty and hygiene means that irrespective of gender or age they do their business by the roadside the women cleaning themselves with their skirts the men not bothering at all and then carry on as before the underskirts of Indian women who have kids are literally warehouses of excrement a consequence of the way they wipe their Rascals every time one of them passes wind of course the tourists traveling in their comfortable rail coaches could only glean the vaguest idea of the conditions in which the Indians live from the fast glimps as they catch as they speed past our train which has stopped to let them pass the fact that it was the the US archaeologist Bingham who discovered the ruins and expounded his findings and easily accessible articles for the general public means that Machu Picchu is by now very famous in that country to the North and the majority of North Americans visiting Peru come here in general they fly direct to Lima T Cusco visit the ruins and return straight home not believing that anything else is worth seeing the archaeological Museum in Cusco is pretty poor when the authorities opened their eyes to the mountain of treasure being smuggled out of the various sites it was already too late treasure Hunters tourists foreign archaeologists anyone at all with any interest in the subject has systematically looted the region and they were able to collect for the museum only what remained virtually the scraps even so for people like us without much of an archaeological education and with only muddled and recently acquired knowledge of Inca civilization there was enough to see and we saw it over several days the myso curator was very knowledgeable with a breathtaking enthusiasm for the race whose blood flowed in his veins he spoke to us of The Splendid past and the present misery of the urgent need to educate the Indians as a first step toward total Rehabilitation he insisted that immediately raising the economic level of Indian families was the only way to mitigate the saric effects of of cocoa and drink and talked of fostering a Fuller and more exact understanding of the kachua people so that individuals of that race could look at their past and feel Pride rather than looking at their present feeling only shame at belonging to the Indian or mestico class at that time the cooka problem was being debated in the United Nations and we told them about our experience with the drug and its effects he replied the same had happened to him and exploded with a string of abuse against those who made profits from poisoning large numbers of people the Kya and kachua races form the majority in Peru and are the only ones who consume Koka the semi- indigenous features of the curator his eyes shining with enthusiasm and his faith in the future constituted one more Treasure of the museum but a Living Museum proof of a race still fighting for its identity womo our source of doorbells dried up and following El's advice we turned to face the north abank was a forced stop because from there the trucks left for Juan carama the last town before the leper colony at huambo our preferred method of soliciting B and board didn't change at all from before civil Garden Hospital neither did that for transportation hitching a lift except that for the latter we had to wait 2 days because no trucks departed during the days of Easter we wandered aimlessly around the little village finding nothing particularly interesting not enough to forget our hunger with the hospital food being so scarce lying in a field next to a stream we looked at the sky changing with evening dreaming up old memories of past loves or picturing in every cloud the tempting image of ordinary food returning to the police station for some sleep we took a shortcut and lost our way completely we made our way through fields and over fences eventually coming to rest on the porch of a house we had already climbed the stone wall when we saw a dog and his owner illuminated by the full moon looking like ghosts but we didn't realize that our figures outlined against the night sky would have been much more terrifying in response to my polite good evening we heard only unintelligible noise I think I caught the word virocha meaning Inca Creator or God and then man and Doug fled into the house ignoring our apologies and friendly calls we left calmly by the front gate leading onto a path which seemed more like the right way and one of those moments of bored him we went to the church to watch up close a little local ceremony the poor priest was attempting a three-hour sermon but by then an hour and a half into it he had exhausted his stock of maxims he looked over the congregation his eyes pleading while with his hands he pointed desperately to different parts of the church look look the Lord has come to us the the Lord is Among Us and his Spirit guides us after a moment's truce the priest set off on another tangent and just when it seemed he would hold his silence a moment of high drama he sent himself off again into similar nonsense the fifth or sixth time that the patient Christ was introduced we got an attack of hysterics and left hurriedly what exactly brought on an asthma attack I can't say though I can guess one of the faithful does but by by the time we arrived in Juan Karama I could hardly stand on my feet I had no adrenaline and my asthma worsened wrapped in a police blanket I watched the rain and smoked one black cigarette after another which helped to relieve the fatigue somewhat somewhere near dawn I managed to fall asleep leaning against the pillar in the hallway by the morning I felt a little better and Alberto found some adrenaline which along with some aspirin left me feeling like new we notified the lieutenant Governor a sort of Village mayor of our presence and asked him for a couple of horses to take us to the leper colony the very friendly man attended to us happily promising that in 5 minutes we'd have horses waiting for us at the police station as we waited for the animals we stopped to watch a mly group of guys exercising through the domineering commands of the soldier who'd been so kind to us just the day before on seeing us arrive he saluted us with great difference then continued delivering his orders for every type of drill to the clowns in his charge only one out of every five young men of eligible age completes military service in Peru but the rest are submitted to drills each Sunday and these were the soldiers victims we were witnessing in fact they were all victims the conscripts of the wrath of their instructor and he of his pupils sluggishness not understanding most of his Spanish not grasping the fundamental importance of turning this way than that or of marching then stopping at the the whim of their bus they did everything half-heartedly and were enough to make anyone get angry the horses arrived and the soldier allotted us a guide who spoke nothing but kachua the route began with a mountainous track which no other horse would have been able to cross preceded by the guide on foot who took the H's bridles in difficult sections we covered about 2/3 of the distance when an old woman and boy appeared they grabbed our rign and launched into a lengthy tyroid of which we recognized a word sounding like horse we thought at first they were selling cane baskets because the old woman was carrying a good many me no want by me no want I kept saying to her and would have continued in that vein if Alberto hadn't reminded me that our interlocutors were kachua not relatives of tarzen and the Apes we finally found a person coming from the opposite direction who spoke Spanish who explained to us that these Indians were the owners of the horses that they were riding past the front of the lieutenant Governor's house when he had taken their horses and presented them to us one of the conscripts the owner of my horse had come seven leagues to comply with his military duty and the old and poor woman lived in the opposite direction to that we were heading in we did what any decent person would do dismounted and continued along the road on foot the guide ahead of us hauling all our things on his back we completed the last stretch to the leper colony like this where we gave our guide one soul in recompense he thanked us profusely despite it being such a pathetic amount the head of the clinic seor monjo received us and though he couldn't put us up he said he'd send us to the home of one of the Region's land owners which is exactly what he did the Rapture gave us a room with beds and food all that we needed the following morning we went to pay a visit to the patients in the little Hospital the people who are in charge do a great job even if it goes unnoticed the general state of the place is disastrous 2third of a small area the size of less than half a block is designated as a sick Zone and in it the entire lives of the 31 condemned take place they pass the time watching indifferently for death to arrive at least that's what I think sanitary conditions are appalling and though this might cause no adverse effects on the Indians from the mountains people coming from other parts even if only slightly more educated find it enormously distressing the thought of having to spend their whole lives between four Adobe walls surrounded by people speaking another language with only four orderlies who make just short visits each day caused nervous breakdowns we went into a room with a straw roof its ceiling slatted with cane and an earth floor where a white girl was reading Ken baso by Kos no sooner had we begun to talk when the girl broke down crying inconsolably describing her life as a Calvary a living hell the poor girl from the Amazonian regions had gone to Cusco where they gave her the bad news and said that they would send her to a much better place to be cured the hospital in Cusco by no means perfect did have a certain level of comfort I believe her expression the word Calvary was the only just expression for the girl situation the only acceptable thing in this Hospital was the drug treatment the rest could have been borne only by the suffering fatalistic Spirit of the Peruvian Mountain Indians the imbecility of the neighboring locals only heightened the isolation of both patients and medical staff one of them told us that the head surgeon at the clinic needed to perform a more or less serious operation impossible at any rate to execute on a kitchen table and lacking the appropriate surgical equipment so he asked for a place even if it was a more in a nearby hospital at andias the answer was negative and the patient died without treatment Senor monteo told us that when this leprosy Treatment Center was founded on the initiative of the renowned leprologists he himself had been responsible from the center's inception for organizing new Services when he arrived in the town of Juan Karama not one of the hosts or hotels would leted him a room for the night the one or two friends he had in town refused to give him shelter and in light of the fact that rain was looming he had been forced to seek refuge in a pigy where he passed the night the patient I spoke of earlier had to walk to the leopard colony because there was no one who would lend her and her companion horses this was years after the colony had been founded after welcoming us and great style they took us to see a new hospital going up a few kilometers from the old one as they asked for our opinions the orderly's eyes sha proudly as if the building was their own creation built adobe brick by adobe brick through their own sweat it seemed a little heartless to emphasize our criticisms but the New liop Colony has the same disadvantages as the old it lacks a laboratory it lacks surgical facilities and to exacerbate matters it's situated in an area Infested by mosquitoes representing pure torture for anyone who has to spend a whole day there yes it's capable of housing 250 patients a resident doctor and it has made some advances in hygiene but there is still a lot to do after 2 days stay in the region in which my asthma worsened we decided to leave and try to get some proper treatment further on with horses provided by the Rancher who had given us lodging we set off on the return Journey accompanied by the same laconic qua speaking guide who carried our bags at the landowner's insistence in the mentality of the district's rich people It's Perfectly Natural that the servant although traveling on foot should carry Al the weight in discomfort we waited until the first band erased us from sight and took our bags from our guide whose enigmatic face revealed nothing of whether or not he appreciated the gesture we again stayed with the Civil guard back in juank carama until finding a truck to take us further in our determined northward Direction which we secured the next day after an exhausting day of travel we finally arrived in the town of andas and I went straight to the hospital to recover Al ever northward after resting for two days in the hospital and partly recovered we abandoned that Refuge to once again accept the charity of our great friends the Civil guard who received us with good humor as usual we were so short on money we were almost scared to eat but we didn't want to work until reaching Lima where there was the reasonable hope we'd find better paid work and save enough to continue on the road since there was still no talk of turning back the first night's wait passed well enough because the lieutenant in charge of the post and accommodating type invited us to eat and we ate enough to store up for whatever lay ahead only hunger however by now a daily companion marked the following two days and boredom it was impossible to go very far from the checkpoint since the truck drivers inevitably had to go there to get their papers checked before beginning or continuing their Journeys at the end of the third day our fifth and andaas we found what we'd been waiting for in the form of a truck heading to aako just in time it turned out because alverto had reacted violently on seeing civil Guard soldiers insulting an Indian woman who had come to bring food to her imprisoned husband his reaction must have seemed completely alien to people people who considered the Indians no more than objects who deserve to live but only just after that we fell out of favor with night falling we left the village in whose obligatory Hiatus we had been prisoners for several days the truck now had to climb to the peak of the mountains guarding the Northerly end of andas and it got colder by the minute to top it off we were completely drenched by one of the violent Regional rainstorms and this time we had no defense against it installed as we were in the tra of a truck taking 10 Young Bulls to Lima and charged with their care together with an Indian boy who was also the driver's helper we all spent the night in a town called chineros as for ourselves so cold we had forgotten we were also parayas without money we ate a very modest meal and asked for one bed for both of us our request was accompanied needless to say by many tears and Lamentations that must have moved the owner somewhat five sess forever everything we spent the whole next day passing from deep ravines to the pomas as they called the table lands on top of the mountain chains throughout pru the country's irregular topography knows almost no planes at all save for the forested regions of the Amazon our drob increased in difficulty with the passing of the hours since the animals having lost the layer of SES they had been standing on and tired of waiting in the same position absorbing the jolts of the truck started falling over with we had to get them back on their feet because the danger that an animal trampled by the others might die at one particular moment Alberto thought that the Horn of one animal was scraping the eye of another and told the young Indian who was close to the action with a shrug of his shoulders into which he poured the whole Spirit of his race he said why when I'll it'll ever see a and quietly continued tying not the task he'd been dedicated to before being interrupted we finally arrived at at aak cucho famous in Latin American history for the decisive battle bolivard won on the PLS circumscribing the town the terrible Street lighting plaguing the whole of the Peruvian Sierra reached its worst there the electric lights emit only the slightest orange glow which shines throughout the night a gentleman whose hobby it was to collect foreign friends invited us to sleep at his house and the next day found for us a track heading north so we could only visit one or two of the 33 churches the little town holds within its Urban boundaries we said farewell to our good friends and set off again for Lima but El Centro peruano through the center of Peru our journey continued in much the same way eating now and then whenever some generous Soul took pity on our Indigent still we never ate very much and the deficit became even Graver when we were told that evening there had been a landslide further ahead and we couldn't pass we would have to spend the night in a little village called anco early the next day we set off again mounted on our truck but only a little way up the road we reached the landslide and had to spend the day there starving and curious observing the workers set explosed to the huge Boulders that had fallen on the road for every laborer there was no less than five bossy supervisors shouting out through opinions and hindering the work of the dynamiters who are not exactly model workers themselves we tried to fool our hunger by going down to swim in the torrential river running through the Gully below but the water was too icy to stay in for long and neither of us particularly resistant to the cold as I've said before in the end after one of our stock stories of Woe one of the men gave us some cord cops and another a cow's heart and some aful a woman loaned us her pot and we began to organize our meal but halfway through the task the dynamiters freed the road and the troop of trucks began to move the woman took back her pot and we had to eat the corn uncooked and put away the raw meat to cap off our misery night was closing in and a terrible rainstorm transformed the road into a dangerous river of mud there was only room for one truck at a time so those on the far side of the landslide came through first followed by those on our side we were among the first in a long line but the differential on the very first truck broke when pushed too violently by the tractor assisting in the hard cross in and we were all blocked again finally a Jeep with a pulley on the front came down from the other side of the Hill hauling the truck to the side of the road allowing the rest of us to continue on our way the vehicle drove through the night and as usual we went from more or less sheltered valleys onto those frigid Peruvian pomas where we were stabbed by the ice and driving rain our teeth chattered alverto and mine from the chill caused by sitting in the same position and we took turns to stretch our legs to stop them cramping our hunger was like a strange animal living not just in one particular part but all over our bodies making us nervous and bad-tempered we arrived at wano with the First Light breaking and walked the 15 blocks from where the truck dropped us to the Civil guard post our regular stopover we bought some bread and made mate and were beginning to take out our famous raw hard and aful but had not even stoked up the Embers of a recently made fire when a truck heading to ohap Pampa offered us a ride our interest in going to the place stemmed from the fact that the mother of one of our arentine compos lived there at least we thought she did we were holding on to our hope that she might help kill our hunger for a few days and perhaps even a dness with a soul or two so we left one goo almost without seeing it motivated by the eager cries of our exhausted stomachs the first part of the road was wonderful passing through a little group of towns but by 6:00 in the evening we had begun a perilous descend down an extremely narrow road good enough for only one vehicle at a time it was generally the case that only traffic coming from One Direction was permitted to pass on any given day but for some unknown reason they had made this day an exception and the trucks negotiated their Crossings shouting profusely and tightly maneuvering their rear wheels inching out over the precipitous Edge not exactly a calming spectacle alverto and I crouched in each corner of the truck ready to jump for Solid Ground at the sight of any accident but our Indian traveling companions didn't move at muscle our fears were based in fact however since a good many crosses punctuating this part of the mountainous Coast Mark the mishaps of less fortunate colleagues among the drivers using the route and every truck that ran off the road took its tremendous human cargo with it down the 200 M Abyss to the Sea the River below laying waste to any hope of a survival every single accident according to Regional accounts had left every single person dead not a sole injured Survivor this time luckily nothing unpleasant happened and at about 10: at night we reached a village by the name of L merard it rested in a lowline tropical area and had the typical look of any jungle Village another charitable Soul seated us a bed for the night and a huge meal the meals were included at the last moment when the man came to see if we were okay and we had no time to hide the peel of some oranges we had picked from some tree to try and calm our hunger in the town's civil guard poost we learned unhappily that trucks didn't have to stop to register making it very hard to Hitch any rides while there we witnessed the reporting of a Murder By the victim's son and an ostentatious Milat who said he was an intimate friend of the dead man the ACT had mysteriously occurred some days earlier and the prime suspect was an Indian whose photo the two men had brought with them the sergeant showed it to a say look doctors the classic image of a murderer we nodded enthusiastically but on leaving the station I asked alverto which one exactly is the murderer and his thinking was much the same as mine that the dark guy had a much more murderous aspect than the Indian in the long hours waiting for our ride we made friends with someone who said he could arrange everything and that it would cost us nothing true to his word he spoke with a truck driver who agreed to take us it turned out later however that he had merely organized that each of us would pay five soless less than the 20 per head the driver usually charged we pleaded that we were completely broke which was only a few cents away from being the truth he promised to meet the death and this he did taking us home for the night as well after we arrived the road was fairly narrow though not nearly as bad as the previous one and pretty winding through forest or tropical fruit plantations bananas papayas and others he climbed up and down the whole way to oap Pampa some 1,000 m above sea level which was our destination and the end of the highway until this point we had been traveling in the same truck as the black guy who had reported the murder at one of the stops along the road he bought us a meal and throughout it lectured us on coffee papaya and the black slaves of whom his grandfather had been one he said this quite openly but you could detect a note of shame in his voice in any case Alberto and I agreed to absolve him of any guilt in the murder of his friend espera FAA shattered hopes with great disgust we learned the following morning that our arentine friend had given us bad information and his mother hadn't lived in oapa for quite a long time a brother-in-law lived there instead so he had to deal with our dead weight the reception was magnificent and we had a big improvised meal but we soon realized that as guests we were only welcomed out of traditional Peruvian courtesy we decided to ignore everything besides expressed marching orders seen as we were completely out of money and had built up several days worth of hunger we could eat only consistently in the home of our disinclined friends we had what was for us a wonderful day swimming in the river letting all of our worries disappear eating a lot of good food and drinking Exquisite coffee but all good things sadly come to an end and by Nightfall of the second day the engineer our host was an engineer came up with a formula for his own salvation which was not only effective but particularly cheap some roads inspector had offered to take us all the way to Lima it seemed like a great idea to us as we were acutely feeling the restricted Horizons and wanted to get to the Capital to try and improve our luck in other words we fell for it hookline and sinker that night we boarded the back of a pickup truck which after we had endured a violent downpour soaking us to our bones dropped us at 2: in the morning in San Ramon much less than even halfway to Lima the driver said we should wait while he changed vehicles and to calm any suspicions he left his companion with us after 10 minutes that guy went off to buy cigarettes and at 5: in the morning morning this pair of arentine Wise Guys breakfasted on the bitter realization that we had been taken for one long ride all I hope is that the driver gets what he deserves and that if it wasn't another one of his lies the driver Kam Toro meets his death on the horns of one of his Bulls in the pit of my stomach I knew something was wrong but he seemed like such a nice person that we believed everything even the whole vehicle swap shortly before Dawn we came across a couple of drunks and did our brilliant anniversary routine the technique is as follows one say something loudly immediately identifiable as arentine something with a CH in it and other bits of slang and drowl the candidate takes debate immediately asking where we're from we strike up a conversation two begin to speak of the hardships but don't make too much of them all the while maintaining a gaze fixed in the distance three I intervene and asked for the date someone provides it and Alberto sigh saying Imagine The Coincidence it was a year ago today the candidate asks a year ago since what we respond that it was when we began our journey Alberto much Bolder than I am lets out a gigantic sigh saying Such a Pity we're in these dire circumstances we aren't able to celebrate he says this quietly as if confiding in me the candidate immediately offers to pay we pretend to refuse for a while admitting it would be impossible for us to ever pay him back Etc and then finally we accept the offer five after the first drink I steadfastly refuse to accept another and alverto makes a face at me our host becomes a little angry and insists but I refuse without giving reasons the man asks and asks until I can confess full of embarrassment that our custom in Argentina is to eat when we drink just how much we eat depends on how we judge the candidate's face all in all this is a highly refined technique in San Ramon we tried it again and as always were able to concretize the enormous amounts we had to drink with some solid food in the morning we rested on the shores of the river a very pretty landscape even though its beauty escaped our aesthetic attention somewhat transforming itself into terrifying mirages of all types of edible Delicacies nearby peeking through a fence the plump forms of oranges materialized our Feast was fierce and sad in one minute our stomachs felt full and acidy and in the next the stabbing of severe hunger resumed famished we decided to cast off the little shame that stubbornly remained and to sort ourselves out at the local hospital this time it was Alberto who was overcome with a strange timidity and I had to fight the right words to inone the following diplomatic speech doctor we found one in the hospital I am a medical student my companion is a biochemist the both of us are from Argentina and we are hungry we would like to eat in such a surprise frontal attack the poor doctor could do nothing but agreed to buy us a meal from the restaurant where he ate himself we were so Brazen Alberto was so ashamed he didn't even thank him and we set about fishing for another truck which we eventually caught we were now heading to Lima comfortably installed in the driver's cabin who now and then even paid for coffee we were climbing the extremely narrow Mountain Road which had inspired such fear on the way in the driver was happily relating the history of each and every cross lining the way when suddenly he hit a huge hole in the middle of the road visible to any fool our dread that the man didn't know how to drive crep steadily higher but Elementary logic told us this wasn't possible that on this road anyone but the most experience of drivers would have driven off the edge long ago tactfully and with patience Alberto extracted the real story the man had been in an accident which according to him had left his eyesight very poor explaining why he hit so many potholes we tried to make him understand the dangers for him and for the people traveling with him but the driver was unyielding this was his job and he was paid very well by a boss who didn't ask him how he arrived only if he arrived besides his driving license had been very expensive in light of the decent bribe he had to pay to get it the owner of the truck climbed on board a little further down the road he seemed happy to take us to Lima but only if I riding on top would hide away when we came to police checkpoints because taking passengers on freight trucks like this one was was prohibited the owner turned out to be a good person giving us food all the way to the capital we passed through La oroya before that however a mining town we dearly wanted to see but we weren't able to stop La oroya is at an altitude of some 4,000 M and from its unrefined appearance you can picture the hardship in a Minor's life its tall chimneys throw a black smoke impregnating everyone with suot and the minor faces as they traveled the streets were also imbued with the ancient Melancholy of smoke unifying everything with its grayish monotones a perfect coupling with a gray Mountain days we crossed the highest point on the road while it was still light at 4,853 m above sea level though it was still daytime the cold was intense tucked up in my traveling blanket staring out at the view extending on every side I muttered all sorts of verses led by the Roar of the truck that night we slept just outside the city and the following day we made it early to Lima de the city of the vicroy we were at the end of one of the most important stages of our journey without a scent or much chance in the short term of making any money but we were happy Lima is a pretty city which has already suppressed its Colonial Past after seeing Cusco it seems more so beneath new houses it's name as a precious Jewel of a city is unjustified but its residential suburbs are connected by wide Avenues to the extremely agreable Resorts close to the Sea the people of Lima travel from the city to the port of Cayo along various white arterials in just a few minutes the port has no special attraction construction of all Port seems to be completely standardized save the fort the scene of many battles along its enormous walls we stood in Wonder at Lord Cochran's extraordinary feet when leading his Latin American Sailors he attacked and seized this Bastion in one of the most celebrated episodes in the history of Latin America's Liberation the part of Lima really worth describing is the city center around its wonderful Cathedral so different from the heavy monstrosity in Cusco where the Conquistadors crudely glorify themselves there in Lima the art is more stylized with an almost effeminate touch the cathedral towers are tall and graceful maybe the most slender of all the cathedrals in the Spanish colonies the lavishness of the woodwork and Cusco has been left behind and taken up here in Gold the naves are light and Airy contrasting with those dark hostile caverns of the Inca City the paintings are also bright almost joyous and of schools more recent than the hermatic mesos who painted their Saints with a dark and captive Fury all of the churches convey in their facades and altars the full scope of trares gold embellished art this vast wealth enabled the aristocracy to resist the liberating armies of America until the last moment Lima is the perfect example of a Peru which has not developed beyond the feudal condition of a colony it still waits for the blood of a truly emancipating Revolution but there is a corner of the Regal City which is most dear to us and we went there frequently to relive our memories of Machu Picchu this was the Museum of archaeology and anthropology Don Julio Teo was its creator a pureblood Indian scholar it contains extremely valuable collections synthesizing entire cultures Lima is quite unlike gordoba but it has the same look of a colonial or rever provincial City we visited the consulate where letters awaited us and after reading them went to see what we could do with an introduction we had for a bureaucrat at the foreign office who of course didn't want to know us we roamed from one police station to the next until at one of them we got a plate of rice and in the afternoon we visited Dr Ugo besca the expert L prologist who welcomed us with extraordinary kindness for someone at the head of such a well-respected medical unit he secured us lodging at the leprosy hospital and that night invited us to eat at his house he turned out to be a fascinating conversationalist it was very late when we got to bed it was also very late when we got up and had breakfast there was apparently no order to feed us so we decided to go down to CAO and visit the port the going was very slow because it was May 1st and there was no public transportation we had to do the whole 14 km on foot there was nothing in particular to see even in Cayo much less any arentine boats more Bal face than ever we presented ourselves at a police station and begged a bit of food then beat a speedy Retreat back to Lima we again aided Dr piscus Who told us of his experiences with different types of leprosy in the morning we went to the Museum of archaeology and anthropology incredible but a lack of time meant we couldn't see everything the afternoon we dedicated to becoming familiar with the leprosy hospital with a guided tour by Dr Molina who has well as being a good L prologist is apparently an excellent thoracic surgeon as was our custom by then we went to eat at Dr pesus we lost the whole of Saturday morning in the city center trying to change 50 Swedish Crowns we succeeded finally after a bit of hustling we spent the afternoon exploring the laboratory which didn't have much worth envying and in fact left a lot to be desired the bibliographic records however were formidable in their Clarity and method of organization and also in their comprehensive detail at night of course we were off to Dr pescas for dinner and as always he provided a skill in animated conversation Sunday an important day for us our first bull fight and despite the fact that it went by the name of a noada a fight with lesser standard bulls and Tori adors we were hugely excited so much so that I almost couldn't concentrate on one of teo's books I was reading in the library that morning we arrived as the bull fight was starting and just as we entered a noviciate was killing the bull but not in the normal way by a Cuda grass as a result the bull was suffering laid out on the ground where the torador tried to finish it off and the public shouted for the third bull there was considerable excitement when spectacularly it hooked the torador and threw him into the air but that was it the fiesta closed with the almost unnoticed death of the sixth bull Arch I see none courage a certain level skill not much excitement relative in summary it all depends what there is to do on a Sunday on Monday morning again we went to the museum in the evening to Dr pesa's house where we met a professor of Psychiatry Dr Valena another good talker who told us wore anecdotes and others much like the following the other day I went to our local Cinema to see a film with cantin flas everyone laughed but I understood nothing but this was not unusual as the rest of the people couldn't understand anything either so why were they laughing in reality they laugh at themselves each one of them was laughing at a part of themselves we're a young country without tradition or culture we've barely been discovered and so they laugh at all of the blights that are infantile civilization has not been able to fix but now then has North America fully matured despite its skyscrapers its cars its Good Fortune has it left its youth behind no the differences are in form only they are not fundamental Al America is a sister in this watching conl I understood pan-americanism Tuesday saw no change in terms of Museum visits but at 3: in the afternoon we met with Dr Pesca who gave Alberto a white suit and myself a jacket of the same color everyone concurs we almost look human the rest of the day was of no real importance several days have passed and we have one foot in the Stirrup but remain uncertain as to when we will be leaving we were supposed to leave 2 days ago but the truck that is to take us hasn't left yet the many parts that make up our journey are going well in terms of furthering our knowledge we visit museums and libraries but the only one that really matters is the archaeology and anthropology Museum found Ed by Dr Teo from a scientific perspective leprosy that is we have met Dr pesque the others are merely his disciples and have a long way to go before producing anything worthwhile because there are no biochemists in Peru the lab is run by specialist doctors and Alberto has spoken with some of them putting them in touch with people in Buenos Iris he got on well with two of them but the third person well alverto introduced himself as Dr Granado specialist in leprosy Etc and they took him to be a medical doctor so this silly guy he question responded with no there are no biochemist here just as there's a law prohibiting doctors from establishing pharmacies we don't let pharmacies interfere in things they don't understand Alberto was ready to get violent so I gently nudged him and this dissuaded him from doing so in spite of its Simplicity one of the things which left a very strong impression on us in Lima was the way the hospital hospital patients farewelled us they had all chipped in 10 half soless which they gave to us along with an ause of letter afterwards some of them came to say goodbye to us personally and in more than one case tears were shed as they thanked us for the little bit of Life we'd given them we shook their hands accepted their gifts and sat with them listening to football on the radio if there's anything that will make us seriously dedicate ourselves to leprosy it will be the affection showed us by all these we've met along the way Lima as a city does not live up to its long tradition as a vice Regal seat but its residential suburbs are very pretty and spacious and so are its new streets an interesting fact was the number of police surrounding the Colombian Embassy there were no less than 50 uniformed and plain closed policemen doing permanent guard Duty around the entire block the first Day's Journey out of Lima was unremarkable we saw the road up to LA oroya and and the rest we traveled during the night arriving at s De Pasco at dawn we traveled in the company of the Basera brothers who we called galache or k for short they turned out to be very good people especially the older one we continued driving all day descending into more pleasant places and the headache and general feeling of ill health I'd had since tleo at 4,853 M the highest point above sea level started to prove as we passed juano and approached Tingo Maria the front left axle broke but luckily the wheel became stuck in the mud guard so we didn't turn over that night we had to stay put I needed to give myself an injection but as luck would have it the syringe broke the next day was uneventful and asthmatic but that night Fortune turned our way when Alberto mentioned in a melancholic voice that today May 20th was the 6month anniversary of our departure that was the pretext for the Pisco to Flow by the third bottle Alberto stumbled to his feet abandoned a little monkey had been holding in his arms and disappeared from the scene the younger comat continued for another half bottle and a crash on the spot we left in a hurry the next morning before the woman who own the place woke up because we hadn't paid the bill and the Kaa brothers were short on cash because of repairs to the axle we drove the whole day until ending up stuck at one of those Road barriers the Army puts up to stop people traveling when it's raining heavily the next day off again and we were detained once more at a barrier only in the evening did they let us move on yet we were stopped again at a small town called nesya our final stop for the day the route was still closed the next day so we went to the Army Post to get some food we left in the afternoon taking with us a wounded soldier who would get us through the Army wood blocks effectively if few kilometers down the road when the rest of the trucks were being stopped ours was allowed through to pukai where we arrived after Nightfall the younger Kaa paid for our meal and to say goodbye we drank four bottles of wine that made him sentimental and he promised us his eternal love he then paid for a hotel room for us to sleep in the main task at hand was getting to EOS so we concentrated on that the first person we hit on was the mayor someone called Cohen we had heard a lot about him that he was Jewish as far as money was concerned but a good sword there was no doubt he was tightfisted the problem was whether he was a good sword he pmed us off to the shipping agents who in turn sent us to speak with the captain who was kindly enough promising the huge concession of charging us third class fairs and letting us travel in first we weren't happy with this and went to see the head of the Garrison who said he couldn't do anything for us then the second in command after interrogating us and in doing so demonstrating his stupidity promised to help we went for a swim that afternoon in the Rio ukali which looks a lot like upper Paran we came across the deputy who said he' secured a great deal for us as a special favor to him the captain had agreed to charge us third class fairs and let us travel in first big deal there was a very rare pair of fish where we swam called by the locals buo leg has it that they eat men rape women and commit a thousand other acts of violence apparently it's a river dolphin which among other strange characteristics has genitals similar to those of a woman so the Indians use it as a substitute but they must kill the animal once they finish quitus because the genital area contracts and the penis cannot come out that night we took on the ever arduous task of facing our colleagues at the hospital to ask for lodging as expected they treed us coldly and would have turned us away had our equinity not won them over and we were given two beds where we could rest our weary bones end of dis four dis five a down the ukali carrying our packs looking like explorers we boarded the little boat l just before it left as agreed the captain led us into first class where we quickly mingled with all the privileged passengers after a few whistled the Bol pulled away from Shore and so began the second stage in our journey to S Pablo when we could no longer see the houses of Puka and all that remained was a steady Panorama of unbroken jungle people began to leave the rails and gathered around the gambling tables we approached with caution but Alberto was struck with momentary pation and won 90 solos at a card game called 21 very much like our 7 and A2 this Victory brought upon us the loathing of the other gamblers because he had played with an initial stake of just one short of the national currency on that first day we didn't have many opportunities for friendly exchanges with the other passengers and we kept somewhat to ourselves not getting involved in the general conversation the food was scarce and poor the boat didn't sail at night because the river was too low there were hardly any mosquitoes and even though we were told this was normal we didn't really believe it because by now we were used to the exaggerations and understatements people make when trying to deal with difficult situations early the next morning we were off the day passed uneventfully except for making friends with a girl who seemed rather easy maybe she thought we had a few pesos despite the diligent tears we wept Whenever there was any mention of money toward evening when the boat DED by the riverbank the mosquitoes came out in hordes to prove the tangible truth of their existence attacking us and swarms throughout the night Alberto covered his face with a piece of net and wrapped in his sleeping bag was able to get some sleep but I began to feel the symptoms of an asthma attack so between that and the mosquitoes I didn't close my eyes until the morning that night has escaped from my memory but I do still remember feeling the skin on my butt that had taken on gigantic proportions from so many bites I was sleepy the whole next day and stayed in some corner or other trying to snatch a few winks and borrowed hammocks my asthma showed no signs of abating and I had to take the DraStic measure of getting Asma Medicine by the Bal method of pain for it it relieved the attack slightly we looked out dreamily Beyond The River Edge to the Jungle its inviting Greenery so mysterious my asthma and the mosquitoes restrained me somewhat but virgin forests are so compelling for Spirits like ours that physical impediments and all the nent forces of nature only serve to stimulate my desire the day passed with great monotony the only form of entertainment was the game we couldn't enjoy fully because of our economic situation two more days went by uneventfully this trip would normally take 4 days but the river was so low we had to stop every night this delayed the journey and turned us into promising targets for the mosquito although the food is better in first class and the threat for mosquito less vicious I'm not sure what we want in the bargain we are drawn more to the simple Sailors than to the small middle class which whether rich or not is too attached to the memory of what it once was to allow themselves the luxury of associating with two penniless Travelers they have the same crash ignorance as any other man but the small victories they have achieved in life have gone to their heads and their dull opinions are delivered with even more arrogance for the fact that they themselves have tendered them my asthma worsened though I was following my diet strictly a careless caress from that easy girl who showed sympathy for my pathetic physical state penetrated the dormant memories of my pre-advent life that night as I was kept awake by the mosquitoes I thought of chichina now a distant intoxicating dream though the dreams ending unusual for this kind of naive reminiscing leaves more honey than bitterness in my memory I sent her a soft and unhurried kiss that of an old friend who knows and understands her then my mind took a road to malagueno that Great Hall of so many sleepless nights where at that very moment she would probably be whispering her strange composed phrases to some new Suitor my eye traced the immense Vault of Heaven The Starry Sky twinkling happily above me as if answering in the affirmative to the question Rising deep within me is all of this worth it two more days nothing changed the Confluence of the ukali and the Maron that gives birth to the Earth's Mightiest River has nothing Transcendent about it it is simply two masses of Muddy Water that unite to form one a bit wider maybe a bit deeper but nothing else I have no more adrenaline and my asthma is getting worse I can eat only a handful of rice and drink Monte on the last day close to arriving we ran into a severe storm which meant we had to stop the boat the mosquitoes swed around us in clouds worse than ever as if avenging us for the fact we would soon be out of their reach it felt like a night Without End filled with frantic slaps and edgy Yelps endless card games like narcotics and with random phrases tossed out to maintain any conversation and to pass the time more quickly in the morning the fever of disembarking Le leaves one hammock lying empty and I lie down as if Enchanted I feel as though a coiled spring is unwinding inside me taking me to new heights or into an abyss I don't know which Alberto wakes me with a rough Shake Bellow we've arrived the river had broaden to reveal in front of us a lowline town with some taller buildings surrounded by jungle and rened by the Earth beneath them it was a Sunday and our arrival in EOS we doed early at the pier and went directly to speak with the head of the international cooperation service we did have an introduction to doctor Chavis bastor but he was not in igos they were kind to us anyway putting us up in the ward for yellow fever and giving us hospital food my asthma was still bad and I couldn't get on top of my miserable wheezing even with up to four injections of adrenal in the day the next day I felt no better and I spent it pasted out in bed or rather adrenaline in myself the following day I resolved to follow a strict morning diet and a more or less strict one at night cutting out rice I improved a little though not much at night we watched stroli with ingred Bergman and rosalini as the Director you cannot give it any other rating besides bad Wednesday marked a distinctly important date for us with the announcement that we would be leaving the next day the news made us significantly happier since I was unable to move moved because of my asthma and we spent days collapsed in bed very early the next day we began to prepare psychologically to leave the day passed however and we were still anchored it was announced departure would be the following afternoon confident that the owners inura could have us leaving later but never before time we slept soundly and after taking a walk went to the library where the assistant extremely agitated rushed in to tell us that Elna was sailing at 11:30 a.m. it was already already 11:05 we gathered our things together quickly and because I was still suffering from asthma took a taxi with charges half a perian Libra for eito eight blocks we reached the boat and discovered it wasn't leaving until 3: though it was required we boarded by one we weren't brave enough to disobey and go to eat at the hospital and at any rate it was more convenient not to because now we could forget the syringe they had loaned us we ate terrible and expensive food with an Indian belonging to the yagua tribe strangely attired in a red straw skirt and a few necklaces of the same straw his name was Ben Hamin but he spoke almost no Spanish just above his left shoulder blade he had a scarf from a bullet shot at almost Point Blank Range because of a venganza according to him the night was briming with mosquitoes fighting over our almost virgin flesh there was an important addition to our psychological perspective in that trip when we learned it was possible to get from manous to Venezuela by river the next day passed calmly and we slept as much as possible to recover sleep loss to the hordy mosquitoes that night at about 1:00 a.m. I was woken just seconds after I'd fallen asleep and told we had arrived in San Pablo they advised The Colony medical director Dr brani Who was very welcoming and facilitated a room for the night gido papy dear papy kitos June 4th 1952 The Great River banks are full of settlements to find Savage tribes you must follow the tributaries deep into the interior and this time at least we don't intend to make that Journey infectious diseases have disappeared but just in case we've been vaccinated against typhoid and yellow fever and have good supplies of atabrine and quinine there are many diseases caused by metabolic disorders the food available in the jungle is nutritionally inadequate but you only become seriously ill by going without vitamins for over a week and even if we went by river that's the longest period of time we would be without proper food we're still not sure about this and have been looking into the possibility of flying to Bogata or at least to leguisamo from where the roads are good it's not that we think it might be dangerous to travel by river but to save money which later on might be important for me away from the scientific centers where we'd risk being exposed our journey becomes something of an event for the staff of the leprosy hospitals and they shower us with the respect due to two visiting researchers I've become really interested in leprology but I don't know how long it will last the patients in the Lima Hospital farewelled us so wonderfully we were encouraged to carry on they gave us a gas camping stove and managed to collect 100 soless which for them in their econ e omic situation counts as a fortune some of them had tears in their eyes when they said goodbye their appreciation sprang from the fact that we never wore overalls or gloves that we shook their hands as we would Shake anybody's that we sat with them talking about all sorts of things that we played football with them it may all seem like pointless bravado but the psychological lift that gives these poor people treating them as normal human beings instead of animals as they are used to is incalculable and the risk was extremely unlikely until today the only staff to have become infected are a medical orderly in Indochina who lived with his patients and an overly zealous monk I would not like to vouch for La Colonia the S Pao the S Pablo leop Colony the following day Sunday we were up and ready to visit the colony but to get there you have to go by River and as it wasn't a working day we couldn't go so we visited the administrator of the colony a Butch looking nun called mother s Alberto then played a game of football in which the two of us performed very badly my asthma began to recede Monday we sent a good proportion of our clothes to be watched then went to the colony to visit the patient compound there were 600 sick people living independently in typical jungle Huts doing whatever they choose looking after themselves in an organization which has developed a rhythm and style of its own there is a local official a judge a policeman Etc the respect Dr bani command is considerable and he clearly coordinates the whole Colony both protecting and sorting out disputes that arise between the different groups on Tuesday we visited the colony again joining Dr bani as he made his rounds examining the patients nervous systems he is preparing a detailed study of nervous forms of leprosy based on 400 cases it really is very interesting work because many of the cases of leprosy in this region attack the nervous system actually I didn't see a single patient who wasn't presenting such symptoms brani told us that Dr saal Lima was interested in early signs of nervous disorder among the children living in the colony we went to the part of the colony reserve for the healthy where 70 or so people live it is lacking basic amenities that are importantly being installed like electricity during the day a refrigerator and even a laboratory they are in need of a good microscope a microtome a technician at the moment this post is occupied by mother Margarita nice but not very knowledgeable and they need a surgeon to operate on nerves eyes Etc an interesting thing is that aside from the widespread nervous problems there are very few blind people perhaps leading to the conclusion that here the word is indecipherable has something to do with it seeing that most receive no treatment at all we repeated our rounds on Wednesday passing the day with fishing and swimming in between I play chess with Dr bani at night or we chat Dr alaro the dentist is a wonderful person relaxed and very friendly Thursday is a day of rest for the colony so we changed our routine not visiting the compound we tried to fish without success in the morning in the afternoon we played football and my performance in gold was less atrocious on Friday I returned to the compound but Alberto stayed to do bacilloscopy of that sweet nun mother Margarita I cut two species of sui fish called M and gave one of them to Dr Montoya to enjoy Elia the G St gavar day on Saturday June 14th 1952 I just a lad turned 24 on the cusp of that transcendental quarter Century silver wedding of Life which all things considered has not treated me so badly early in the morning I went to the river to try my luck again with a fist but that sport is like gambling one starts at winning and ends up losing in the afternoon we played football and I occupied my usual place in goal with better results than on earlier occasions in the evening after passing Dr bani house for a delightful huge meal they threw a party for us in the dining room of the colony with a lot of the Peruvian national drink Basco Alberto is quite experienced regarding its effects on the central nervous system with everyone slightly drunken in High Spirits the colony's director toasted us warmly and I peace good replied with something elaborate like the following well it's my duty to respond to the toast offered by Dr brani with something more more than a conventional gesture in our presently precarious State as Travelers we only have recourse to words and I would now like to use them to express my thanks and those of my traveling compo to all of the staff The Colony who almost without knowing us has given us this beautiful demonstration of their affection celebrating my birthday as if it were an intimate celebration for one of your own but there is something more Within a few days we will be leaving Peruvian territory so these words have the secondary intention of being a farewell I would like to stress our own gratitude to all the people of this country who have unfailingly shown us their warmest Hospitality since we have entered Peru vietna I would also like to say something else unrelated to the theme of the toast Although our insignificance means we can't be spokes people for such a noble cause we believe and after this journey more firmly than ever that the division of Latin America into unstable and elusory Nations is completely fictional we constitute a single myso race which from Mexico to The mellan Straits Bears notable ethnographical similarities and so in an attempt to rid myself of the weight of small-minded provincialism I propose a toast to Peru and to a United Latin America my oratory offered was received with great Applause the party consisting in these parts of drinking as much alcohol as possible continued until 3:00 in the morning when we finally called it a day Sunday in the morning we visited a tribe of yugas the Indians of the red straw after a 30-minute walk along a path disproving all rumors about a dense impenetrable jungle we reached a group of Huts where a family lived their way of living was fascinating outside beneath wooden planks and with tiny hermetic Palm front Huts to shelter in at night from the mosquitoes that attack in close formation the woman had abandoned traditional costume for ordinary clothes so you cannot admire their jugs the kids have distended bellies and are rather scrawny but the older people show no signs of vitamin deficiency in contrast with its rate among more developed people living in the jungle their basic diet consists of yaka bananas and palm fruit mixed with the animals they hunt with rifles their teeth are totally rotten they speak their own dialect but some of them understand Spanish in the afternoon we played football and though I played better they got a sneaky goal past me that night Alberto woke me with an acute stomach pain which later was located in the right ilc cavity I was too exhausted to preoccupy myself with someone else's strange eggs so I advised he resigned himself to the pain turned over and slept till the next day Monday the day medicine is distributed throughout the compound Alberto well cared for by his dear Mother Margarita was receiving penicilin religiously every 4 hours Dr bani told me he was waiting for a raft to arrive with some animals and that we could take some planks and make a small raft of our own the idea inspired us and we started making plans to go to manow Etc I had an infected foot so I missed the afternoon game and instead chatted with Dr bani about everything imaginable and fell into bed very late Tuesday morning with Alberto fully recovered we went to the compound where Dr Montoya had operated on the ula in a lepis nervous system with apparently brilliant results although the technique left much to be desired we went to fish in the afternoon in a nearby Lagoon and cut nothing of course but on the way way back I determined to swim across the Amazon it took me nearly 2 hours to the great despair of Dr Montoya who had no desire to wait so long that night there was a jovial little party ending in a serious Fright with seor Lama vran an immature introverted Soul who was probably a pervert as well the porn man was drunk and iate because he had not been invited to the party so he started shouting insults and raving until someone punched him in the eye and gave him a beating his well the episode upset us a little because the poor man apart from being homosexual and a First Rate boor had been very nice to us giving us 10 Solas each bringing our total to me 479 Alberto 163 and A2 Wednesday dawned to the rain so we didn't go to the compound and the day was generally wasted I read some Garcia laa and we went to see the raft tying up at the jetty on Thursday morning the day the medical staff have off we went with Dr Montoya to the opposite Bank to buy food we traveled down to a branch of the Amazon but papayas yaka maze fish sugar cane and Incredibly cheap prices and fish a little Montoya caught a regular fish and I got a m coming back a strong wind STW up the river and the Captain Roger Alvarez nearly wet his pants as the waves flooded his canoe I asked for the rder but he refused to give it to me and we went to the bank to wait for for the river to calm down not until 3: in the afternoon did we get home we cooked the fish but it didn't fully satisfy our hunger Roger gave each of us a shirt and me a pair of pants so my spiritual well-being improved the rra was almost ready only needing ORS that night an assembly of the colony's patients gave us a farewell serenade with lots of local songs sung by a blind man the orchestra was made up of a flute player a guitarist and an accordion player with almost no finger and a healthy contingent helping out with a saxophone a guitar and some percussion after that came the time for speeches in which four patients spoke as well as they could a little awkwardly one of them froze unable to go on until out of desperation he shouted three cheers for the doctors afterwards Alberto thanked them warly for their welcome saying that Peru's natural beauty could not compare with the emotional beauty of this moment that he had been deeply touched that he could say no more except and here he extended his arms with paron likee gesture and intonation I want to give my thanks to all of you the patience cast off and to the sound of a folk tune the human cargo drifted away from Shore the tenuous light of their lanterns giving the people a ghostly quality we went to Dr basani's house for a few drinks and after chatting for a while to bed Friday was our day of departure so in the the morning we paid a farewell visit to the patients and after taking a few photos came back carrying Two Fine pineapples a gift from Dr Montoya we bathed and ate and close to 3:00 in the afternoon began to say our goodbyes at half 3 our raft christened the Mambo Tango set off Downstream carrying a crew of both of us and also for a while doctors prani Alfaro and chavas who built the raft they took us out into the middle of the river and left to fend for ourselves laita debut for the little kti two or three mosquitoes alone could not beat my desire to sleep and within a few minutes it had defeated them my Triumph was empty however in light of Alberto's voice shaking me from my delicious state of limbo the faint LS of a little town which from its appearance had to be letia could be seen on the Left Bank of the river what followed was the hugely arduous task of moving the raft toward the lights and in this we met with disaster the contraption refused to go anywhere near the bank in transigent it was determined to set its own course down the middle of the river we rode at full strength and just when it seemed we were definitely on our way we turn a half circle and head back into Midstream we watched with growing desperation as the lights drifted into the distance exhausted we decided that at least we could win the fight against the mosquitoes and sleep peacefully until dawn deciding what to do then our prospects were not very promising if we continued down river we'd have to go as far as manous a long way according to more or less reliable information some 10day sailing due to an accident the day before we didn't have any more fishing hooks nor a great amount of essential provisions and we weren't sure we could make it to the bank when we wanted to without mentioning the fact that we'd entered Brazil without our papers in order and couldn't speak the language but these concerns didn't worry us for too long because very quickly we fell into a deep sleep the Rising Sun awoke me and I crawled out from under the mosquito net to determine our position with the world's worst intentions our little contiki had deposited itself on the right Bank of the river and was calmly waiting at a kind of little Jetty belonging to a nearby house I decided to put off inspecting things until later because the mosquitoes were still within eating range and were enjoying their feast Alberto was sleeping deeply so I thought I'd join him and do the same a morbid fatigue and an uneasy exhaustion overwhelmed me I felt incapable of making any decision but clung to the thought that no matter how bad things became there was no reason to suppose we couldn't handle it K Dear Mama bot colia July 6th 1952 Dear Mama here I am my travels have taken me a few kilometers closer to Venezuela and maybe a few pesos poorer first let me wish you the important happy birthday I hope it was spent with love laughter and the family next I'll be organized and give you a concise account of my Adventures since we left ikos we set off more or less according to plan traveling for two nights with our loyal retinue of mosquitoes and arriving in the San Pablo Colony at D where we obtained accommodation the medical director a marvelous guy liked us immediately and we got on well with the whole Colony generally except the nuns who questioned why we never went to mass these nuns ran the place and those who didn't attend Mass had their rations reduced we went without but the kids there helped us and found us food every day apart from this minor Cold War life was incredibly Pleasant on the 14th they gave me a party with lots of Pisco a kind of gin which makes you wonderfully drunk the director of The Colony toasted us and inspired by the boo I replied with a quintessentially Pan-American speech winning great Applause from the notable and notably drunk audience we stayed a bit longer than planned but finally left for Colombia on the last night a group of patients came over from the colony in a large canoe they sang as farewell serenades on the jetty and made some very touching speeches Alberto who believes he is peron's natural air delivered such an impressive demagogic speech that our well-wishers were convulsed with laughter it was one of the most interesting experiences of our trip an accordion player who had no fingers on his right hand used little sticks tied to his wrist the singer was blind and almost all the others were horribly deformed because of the nervous form of the disease very common in this area with light from the lamps and the lanterns reflected in the river it was like a scene from a horror movie the place is lovely surrounded completely by jungle with indigenous tribes barely a mile away whom we visited of course and a lot of Fish and Game to eat and incalculable potential wealth all of the set us dreaming of crossing the M Gro by River from Paraguay to the Amazon practicing medicine along the way and so on a dream kind of like having your own home perhaps one day we were feeling more like authentic explorers and set sail Downstream on a luxury raft they built especially for us their first day went smoothly but that night instead of keeping watch as we should have done we both settled down to sleep comfortably protected by a mosquito net we'd been given and woke up the next morning to find we'd run ground on the River Bank we ate like sharks that day passed cheerfully and we decided to alternate turns keeping watch by the hour to avoid any more problems since at dusk the current had carried us toward the bank and some half submerged branches nearly caused the raft to capsize I earned a demerit point during one of my watches when one of the hens we were taken to eat fell into the river and the current swept it away the man who had swam the full width of the river in s Pablo didn't have the courage to dive in after it partly because we'd seen alligator servicing every now and then and partly because I'd never really overcome my fear of water at night if you'd been there you would have pulled it out safely and saved the other so would Ana Maria since you don't have the ridiculous nighttime complexes like me one of our hooks caught the most enormous fish and we had a hard time hauling it on board we kept watch till morning when we moed at the bank and then crawled under the mosquito net as there were particularly vicious mosquitoes about after a good sleep Alberto who prefers fish to chicken discovered our two baited hooks had vanished during the night which put him in an even Fowler mood and as there was a house nearby we decided to find out how far it was to letia when the owner told us in formal Portuguese that letia was 7 hours upstream and that we were now in Brazil Alberto and I had a furious argument over who had fallen asleep on the watch but this got us nowhere we gave the owner the fish and a pineapple weighing about 4 kilos given to us by the lepers and stayed overnight in his house before he took us up River again the return trip was quite fast but hard work because we had to roll for at least 7 hours in a canoe and we weren't used to it we found board and lodging Etc at the police station in latisa but we couldn't get more than 50% off our airfares and had to Fork out 130 Columbian pesos plus another 15 for excess baggage making a total of, 1500 arentine pesos in all but what saved the day was that we were asked to coach a football team while waiting for the plane which came only once a fortnite at first we only intended to coach them to the point where they wouldn't make fools of themselves but they were so bad we decided to play too the amazing result was that what was considered the weakest team entered the one- day Championship utterly reorganized made it to the final and lost only on penalties Alberto looked vaguely like bonera with his spot on passes so he was nicknamed ped Narita in fact I saved the penalty which will go down in the history of Leia the whole celebration would have been great if they hadn't played the Colombian national anthem at the end and I hadn't bent down to wipe some blood off my knee during it sparking a violent reaction from the colonel who shouted at me I was just on the edge of shouting back when I remembered our journey Etc and beat my tongue after a great flight in a cocktail shaker of an airplane we arrived at boota Alberto chatted to the other passengers on the way recounting an awful flight we had across the Atlantic once when attending an international leprosy conference in Paris and how three of the four engines had failed and we'd been within minutes of crashing into the Atlantic concluding with honestly these douglases he was so convincing I was even scared myself we feel like we've been around the world twice our first day in Bogata went pretty well we found food on the University campus but no accommodation because it was full of students on grants for courses organized by the United Nations no arenes of course just after 1: in the morning we finally found space at the hospital by which I mean a chair to spend the night in we're not terribly poor but explorers with our history and stature would rather die than pay for the bgea comfort of a hostel after that the leprosy service took us in even though they had regarded us with suspicion the first day because of the letter of introduction we brought from Peru very complimentary but signed by Dr peske Who plays in the same position as loau Alberto shoved various certificates under their noses and they hardly had time to catch their breath before I cored them about my allergy work leaving them reeling the result we were both offered jobs I had no intention of accepting but Alberto for obvious reasons was considering it I had been using Roberto's knife to sketch something on the ground in the street and consequently we had an altercation with the police who harassed so badly that instead of Alberto stain both of us decided to leave for Venezuela as soon as possible so by the time you get this letter I'll be just about ready to leave if you want to chance it write to kuta santader Del Norte Colombia or very quickly here to Bata tomorrow I'm off to see millionar play Real Madrid in the cheapest stands since our compatriots are harder to tap than ministers there is more repression of individual Freedom here than in any country we've been to the police patrol the streets carrying rifles and demander papers every few minutes which some of them read upside down the atmosphere is tense and it seems a revolution may be Brewing the countryside is in open revolt and the Army is powerless to suppress it the conservatives battle amongst themselves and cannot agree and the memory of April 9th 1948 still weighs heavily on every one's mind in summary it's suffocating here if the Colombians want to put up with it good luck to them but we're getting out of here as soon as we can apparently Alberto has a good chance of finding work in karakas I really hope someone will scribble a few lines to let me know how you are you won't have to glean information through Beatrice or some other intermediary this time I'm not replying to her because we're limiting ourselves to one letter per city which is why the card for alfredito Gaba is enclosed a huge hug from your son who misses you from head to toe I hope the old man manages to get himself to Venezuela the cost of living is more than here but the pay is much better and that should suit a skin fln like him by the way if after living up here for a while he's still in love with Uncle Sam but don't let be diverted papy can read between the lines chiao asak karakash on the road to karakash after the inevitable and unnecessary questions the man handling and fiddling around with our passports and the inquisitorial stairs so suspicious as to be worthy of a police officer the officials stamped our passports with a big departure date of July 14th and we set out on foot across the bridge uniting and dividing the two countries a vuelan soldier with the same spiteful insolence as his Colombian counterparts a common trade among all the military stock it seems checked our luggage and then seized the opportunity to submit us to his own personal interrogation just to show us we were talking to someone with authority they detained us for a good while while in Santonio the T but only for administrative formalities and then we continued our journey in a van which promised to take us to the city of San christobal halfway along the road is the Customs post where we endured a thorough search of of our entire luggage and our persons the famous knife which had caused so much trouble in bugat returned as the lay motif of a long discussion with the police chief we conducted this discussion with an ease mastered through dealings with people of such high culture the revolver was saved because it was inside the pocket of my leather jacket in a bundle whose Sten scared off the Customs officers the knife recovered with such effort was a new cosal concern because Customs posts were placed all the way to karakas and we weren't certain of being able to find brains capable of processing the elementary reasons we gave them the road linking the two Frontier townships is paid perfectly especially on the Venezuelan side and reminds me of the mountainous regions around Cordoba in general it seems that this country is more prosperous than Colombia on arriving in San croba a fight broke out between the owners of the Transport company and ourselves who wanted to travel in the most economic way possible for the first time in our trip their thesis regarding the advantages of 2 days traveling by Van rather than taking 3 days in a bus one out eager to resolve our immediate future and find proper treatment for my asthma we decided to part with an extra 20 bolivares sacrificing them in honor of karakas we occupied ourselves until evening wandering around the neighborhood and reading a little about the country in question quite a good Library that's there at 11:00 p.m. we set off northward leaving behind us all traces of asphalt in a seat where three people were already squeezed in they crammed in four of us so there was no chance of sleeping even worse a flat tire lost us an hour and my asthma was still bothering me wearily climbing toward the summit the vegetation became scarcer although in The Valleys you could see the same types of crops growing as in Colombia the roads were in a terrible State causing many punctures on our second day on the road we had several the police have control points thoroughly checking all Vans and we would have found ourselves in Dire Straits without the help of the letter of recommendation one woman passenger had the driver claimed all the luggage was hers mission accomplished the price of a meal had risen and one Boulevard per head became more like three and a half we decided to save as much money as we could so we fasted at the stop in Puna agila but the driver took pity on our indigence and gave us a good meal at his expense bu AA is the highest point of the Venezuelan Andes reaching 4,18 m above sea level I took my two last remaining tablets with which I was able to get through the night at dawn the driver stopped for an hour to sleep he had been driving for 2 days without a break we expected to arrive in karakas that night but flat tires delayed us again as well as faulty wiring which meant the battery couldn't charge and we had to stop and fix it the climate had become tropical and there were aggressive mosquitoes and bananas on all sides the last stretch during which I dozed trying to cope with a decent asthma attack was asphalted properly and seemed to be quite pretty it was dark by then as we arrived at our destination the sky was lightning I was absolutely wrecked I fell into a bed we rented for halfy bouard and slept like a tiger aided by the substantial adrenaline injection given to me by Alberto EST EST this strange 20th century the worst that my asthma attack has now passed and I feel almost well though sometimes I resort to my new acquisition a French inhaler I feel Alberto's absence so sharply it seems like my flanks are unguarded from some hypothetical attack at every other moment I'm turning around to an observation with him only to realize he's not there it's true there's not really much to complain about thoroughly looked after good food and a lot of it and the anticipation of returning home to start studying again and to obtain the degree which will enable me to practice yet the idea of splitting up definitively doesn't make me completely happy the many months we've been side by side through good and bad accustomed to Dreaming similar dreams and similar situations had brought us so much closer together with these ideas constantly turning over in my mind I find myself drifting away from the center of karakas the homes in the suburbs are spaced much further apart karakas extends along the length of a narrow Valley en closing and restraining it on its edges so that on a short walk you'll be climbing the surrounding Hills and there with the progressive City laid out before your feet you'll begin to see a new aspect of its multifaceted makeup the blacks those magnificent examples of the African race who have maintained their racial Purity thanks to their lack of an affinity with bathing have seen their territory invaded by a new kind of slave the Portuguese and the two ancient raisins have now begun a hard life together Frau with bickering and squabbles discrimination and poverty unite them in the daily fight for survival but their different ways of approaching life separate them completely the black is indolent and a dreamer spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink the utopian has a tradition of work and saving which has pursued him as far as this corner of America and drives him to advance himself even independently of his own individual aspirations at this elevation the concrete houses have totally disappeared and only Adobe Huts rain I peer into one of them it is a room half separated by a partition with a fireplace and a table and a heap of straw in the ground apparently serving as beds various bony cats and a mangy dog play with three completely naked black children rising from the fire acurate smoke fills the room the black mother frizzy hair and sagging breasts is cooking assisted by a girl of about 15 who is dressed at the door of the Hut we get into a conversation and after a while I ask if they will post for a photo which they categorically refuse to do unless I give it to them away in vain I tried to explain that I have to develop it first but no they want it then and there or no ball game eventually I promised to hand it over straight away but now they are suspicious and don't want to cooperate one of the kids escapes to play with his friends while I continue chatting with the family in the end I stand guard at the door camera in hand pretending to snap anyone who pokes out their head we play around like this for a while until I see the little kid turning Carefree on a new bicycle I focus and press the button but the effect is disastrous to elude the photo the kid swerves and falls to the ground bursting into tears immediately they all lose their fear of the camera and rush out to hurl abuse at me I withdraw somewhat apprehensively because they are excellent stone-throwers followed by the insults of the group including the height of contempt Portuguese littered along the the edge of the road are containers for transporting cars used by the Portuguese at dwellings and one of these where a black family lives I can just glimpse a brand new refrigerator and from many of them radios blare music which their owners play at maximum volume new cars are parked outside the most miserable homes all kinds of aircraft pass overhead sewing the air with noise and silver Reflections and there at my feet lies karakas city of the Eternal spring its Center is threat by the invasion of red tile roofs that converge with the flat roofs of modern buildings but something else will allow the yellowy color of its colonial buildings to live on even after they have disappeared from the city maps the spirit of karakas and perious to the lifestyle of the north and stubbornly rooted in the retrograde semi-pastoral conditions of its Colonial past aot Al Mar a note in the margin the Stars Drew light across the night sky in that little Mountain Village and the silence and the cold made the darkness vanish away it was I don't know how to explain it as if everything solid melted away Into The Ether eliminating all individuality and absorbing us rigid into the immense Darkness not a single Cloud to lend perspective to the space blocked any portion of the star Sky less than a few meters away the dim light of a lamp lost its power to fade the the darkness the man's face was indistinct in the shadows I could only see what seemed like the spark of his eyes and The Gleam of his Forefront teeth I still can't say whether it was the atmosphere or the personality of that individual that prepared me for the Revelation but I know that many times and from many different people I had heard those same arguments and that they had never made an impression on me our interlocutor was in fact a very interesting character from a country in Europe he escaped the knife of dogmatism as a young man he knew the taste of fear one of the few experiences making you value life and afterwards he had wandered from country to Country Gathering thousands of Adventures until he and his bones finally ended up in this isolated region patiently waiting for the moment of great Reckoning to arrive after exchanging a few meaningless words and platitudes each of us marking territory the discussion began to falter and we were about to go our separate ways when he let out his idiosyncratic childlike laugh highlighting the asymmetry of his Forefront iners the future belongs to the people and gradually or in one strike they will take power here and in every country the terrible thing is the people need to be educated and this they cannot do before taking power only after they can only learn at the cost of their own mistakes which will be very serious and will cost many innocent lives or perhaps not maybe those lives will not have been innocent because they will have committed the huge sin against nature meaning a lack of ability to adapt all of them those unable to adapt you and I for example will die cursing the power they helped through great sacrifice to create Revolution is impersonal it will take their lives even utilizing their memory as an example or is an instrument for domesticating the Youth who follow them my sin is greater because I more is dute and with greater experience call it what you like will die knowing that my sacrifice stems only from an inflexibility symbolizing our rotten civilization which is crumbling I also know and this won't alter the course of history or your personal view of me that you will die with a clenched Fist and a tense jaw the epitome of of hatred and struggle because you are not a symbol some inanimate example but a genuine member of the society to be destroyed the spirit of the Beehive speaks through your mouth and motivates your actions you are as useful as I am but you are not aware of how useful your contribution to the society that sacrifices you I saw his teeth and his cheeky grin with which he foretold history I felt his handshake and like a distant murmur his formal goodbye the night folding in at contact with his words overtook me again enveloping me within it but despite his words I now knew I knew that when the Great guiding Spirit Cleaves Humanity into two antagonistic halves I would be with the people I know this I see it printed in the night sky that I eclectic dissembler of Doctrine and psychoanalyst of Dogma howling like one possessed will assault the barricades or the trenches will take my bloodstained weapon and consumed with Fury Slaughter any enemy Who falls into my hands and I see as if this great exhaustion Smothers this fresh exaltation I see myself emulated in the genuine Revolution the great equalizer of individual will proclaiming the ultimate may aopa I feel my nostrils dilate savoring the award smell of gunpowder and blood of the enemy's death I steal my body ready to do battle and prepare myself to be a Sacred Space within which the bestial howl of the triumphant proletariat can ReSound with new energy and New Hope