The Ludmila Confessions

Now that we arrived in Tepoztlan near Cuernavaca and I broke entry without having confirmation of Maria to use her home, but it was empty  I reason too myself so most be O.K.so I found the away in did no say too Tad anytihing about it,  beautiful place, wood bims celing and told spaceis roms, big bad with furs on it, now one thing there were not enough wood to keep the whole house warm, so we were in bad early with a cozy fire a bottle of wine and acurucaditos with lots of fur covers all over the bad, and same in us,  we love, we read , we laufgh,and fell asleep early, the wood was still in that big fireplace burning with, the room look so so romantic and Mexican, whit precolombian art every where on the room shelves and candles and that smell of burning wood that only in Mexico, the wood  smell”s like that,  will get firewood tomorrow but now  too …..  Next morning we decided to go to the peak of the mountain, Tepozteco, where the clouds sometimes cover the temple and half of mountain and there is a pyramid dedicated to the god of pulque (the Mexican alcoholic beverage), about 1420 metres of altitude very heart to climb and very dangerous, many of tourist head to be taken to Mexico City for the bad fractures D.F. is about 3 or 4 hrs . drive in car depends of trafico, our to Cuernavaca  40 minutes, this last one is a retreat for the very rich people, per week ends , many many famous people live their,  Rodolfo Valentino was their many times guest of archaeologist and Powerful  people, Errol Flynn  quest of some spies  he himself was accused of being one, “the rich  poor  girl”  Miss Hutton  build a palace for herself and event Clark Gable visit Cuernavaca, everyone love at  perfect climate almost year round , green with Valleys and rivers with water falls piramides mountains and above all tranquility low key discretely wonderful, hideaway .

‘El Tapon de Darien” nears port on one of the rivers

Most of the days you don’t see the mountain top and the ruins of the old pyramids of Tepozteco, in Tepoztlan where we were now stay for couple of days and meeting very interesting people, (or what is left of the pyramids now in ruins), but, it was clear that day, so we decided to go and claim to see these ruins,

I  prepared a basket full of food and liquor and some wine, a great  picnic for us to eat and drink on top of this pyramid.  When we finally arrived there and relaxed to eat and drink, the clouds star coming upon us, as we were finishing our meal, enjoying the scenery drinking the rest of our buzz. The clouds swept over us slowly and covered us with the fog, so it was like being inside clouds envueltos in it floating in the sky, this was a marvelous feeling,  also quite different ,  looking up at them from the bottom of the hill, but then it started pouring down water on us and we had to descend, because the rain would not stop soon.

Canal de Panama in that time look like this

It was time to leave Tepoztlan– we really did not want too,  but Tad had a schedule to keep in Pamplona Spain for the running of the bulls, so we continued our journey,,,we ,took an local bus  yes  with chickens and ducks baby pigs, it smell like a farm and not a bus, it the  border of Mexico and Guatemala.

By now I told Tad I knew people  and friends right where he wanted  to go, to see Lake Atitlan and that was where Jose was now, I did not know he was living with La Negra, so I got a big surprise after an arduous trip hitchhiking and finally getting to Guatemala, and now to Lake Atitlan to the Hacienda of the coffee plantation of La Negras family. We arrived at night and as we entered their home, there  was Jose with  La Negra and a new baby!  Well surprise, surprise, surprise!

My heart stopped for a moment and all my feelings for him revived in me, I still loved him.  I had tears and lots of pain, my hard was coming crazy, , but I contained them for my pride. Tad was just a fanboy for me up too now, I did not really love him,  as Jose was still there on my mind and body, but now it became more than that, now Tad  is great company and fun and he cares for me, I like that, do Jose seems not he’d forget our love,  showing us looking at me the motorcycle in the middle of the bedroom,  next to the baby, with which we had  the accident and call her La Tzarina,  I couldn’t play anymore that game,  I start liking Tad  a lot.

 I said,  Well, let’s get  something to drink, we’d come from a long journey  dirty, shirty and tired, (good excuse) to drink unfortunately  the only thing available  buzz was Mayan real  aguardiente, the strongest cheapest alcoholic drink available in this pueblo, the only one the Mayan Indians sold. There’s  not a single liquor store in this valley in or  out of this beautiful mountains,  with the most beautiful lake  inside a crater of a volcano,  millions of years old!

We slept in the next room to Jose’s and my mind was thinking of the past we had with Jose.  And in the morning after having had Mayan grown coffee, and some more aguardiente me alone, no one else drink like I did, we had a tour by the  coffee  plantation and all their proceedings up to  the shipping.  The following day we proceeded our journey to the next country, Honduras.  Sometimes in  buses and sometimes hitchhiking with  the trucks.  I must be honest, since this area  my confessions- I don’t remember much of Honduras. I think we slept in a hostel  in Tegucigalpa, and continued quickly on to Nicaragua, where we found a camping ground. There were lots of young people that probably had some cause to say and talk about us, me being so much older than him, but they did not comment to me or ask about my relationship with Tad Gail, which was very nice of them.  We made lots of friends there, some were going too Pamplona also.  We ate with them and drank with them and it was O.K.– but  camping in tents was not my bag!

We had no problems on the borders. I said I was his aunt, and while they most probably did not believe it,  that was alright with me.   Next stop Costa Rica:  beautiful beaches, great forests and we arrived at a good time, not much rain at that time of year. We arrived in a big truck with a bedroom built up like a second floor, so Tad asked the driver if we could sleep in the truck for that night, since it was too late to find a hotel or anything.  So he did let us stay there, and it was not bad…  The following morning we went out walking in San Jose.  We went exploring and found a little beautiful mobile home camp on the outskirts  of San Jose. Luckily there was a motor home empty that belonged to somebody who was out of the country.  So we rented it for couple of days.  Well Tad did, so far I did not spend any money.

From there we proceeded hitchhiking rides, down to Panamá. Now in Panamá City we stayed downtown, not too far for the canal of Panama.  What a fantastic labor of what men can do.  Then walking on down town we found  a incredibly luxurious hotel (at one time, long ago most had very important people,) with white stairs made of alabaster in a caracol shaped, marble  tile, tall ceilings with big crystal chandeliers and big ventanales and balconies hanging out of the ventanales. It was a great stay.  We love the fruit called Maranon.  We stay for another couple of days and then on a train, we set off to El Tapon de Darien. (Dear readers of my book: very soon there will be in more details of the beauty of all of this countries and their costumes and traditions.)

We were trying to cruise by car and or by ferry to Colombia from the last Port near El Tapon de Darien but there we found only swamp mosquitos, old very sad homes made of rotten wood by the jungle weather, and no road to Colombia or to anywhere ……. People said there would never be one down there  (but if you open the world atlas it shows (in that time) that is a trans american highway from the beginning of the Andes to the end of the Andes after Chile, because of the traffic of drugs and other illegal things never will be the part of that finished.  Well, now what?

Tad’s plan was this and this is the only time he will be able to do it.  We must and had to get to Colombia and then to Venezuela, we could not afford flying, because this was not in his budget and I don’t think it included me another person in that nor I ask him about his money so I really don’t know, and never ask him about his money situation to go any other ways.  Back to the little Port of La Palma there were cargo boats going from the near La Palma port to a river that enters into Colombia shores of the Pacific and from here we can go to Medellin and home free to Venezuela and to Canaima to see my adventurous men of the jungle.

Without  further ado, we went straight to the  Las Palmas docks, where we found a place to sleep and asked how to get on a boat to Colombia. Big ships were not allowed legally to take passengers and the big ship that did, cost a fortune so we spend day after day, me translating and doing all the talking and snooping and listening until I heard of a contrabando small boat that goes out by the back of a small river where regular boats could not go.  After talking to many boat captains, we finally met this big fat ugly guy who looks dangerous to me, but I did not panic or say anything to Tad.  So we agreed it was okay to pay and go on his boat. “Captain Juan” stood up straight and shouted to his crew laughingly, we will take these two passengers!  Well, they did not look like deeply religious or godly people exactly!  We laughed too and said “Okay”, here tonight after dark? This did not sound too promising, but we laughed nervously and shook hands with Juan the jefe. The rest of the crew looked liked thieves and one of them was like Peter Lorre with a cut on his face down to the lip!  How innocent and stupid we were!