Don Beni part 7: "I have all this Gold"

This is #7 in a serialized post about one of my first assignments. It comes up most Mondays.

I didn't get really scared on this whole long weird trip until Don Beni offered me 2 kilos of gold. But I am getting ahead of myself....

We left Fabion's house and walked the 1/2 day to Don Beni's. At this point we had been on the trail a couple of weeks and were used to walking. But this was different. Previously we had walked up mountains, down mountains, across rivers, through the jungle. Now we were walking on level ground for the first time, through pasture, past Don Beni's herd of cows. THIS was the piece of flat land he had seen as a boy and decided to buy! The story was true after all.

Arriving at Don Beni's house he simply looked up and said, "ah Gringos" as if it were the most natural thing in the world that we would show up and want to talk with him. Almost the next thing from his mouth was that he had a calf he was wanting to kill.

That was a project that we all jumped into with gusto. Fresh meat and lots of it. Over the course of the next few days Don B was very forthcoming with his story. He described his life in the jungle, his decision to keep going after his wife quit, killing his son in law. In his version of the story the son in law was going to kill HIM in order to put a clandestine drug airstrip on his pasture.

Sometime during our visit 2 strangers showed up from Fabian's direction. They were there, they said, to look at one of his cows. They were very interested in what we were doing there, very friendly with the guides who where planning on extorting more money, very curious about what my cameras were worth...

By now, given how weird things were with the guides and the strange inter-group dynamics, I had a creeping sense of paranoia. I knew we were about to walk through the MRTA controlled valley to leave. I knew the guides were trying to figure out how to get more money out of me...

About then, the writer and I got left alone Don Beni. Everyone else had gone off to look at the level of the river to see if we could leave the next day.

Now my Spanish at the time was practically nonexistent but Don Beni and I talked through the writer. We talked about exploration, and my inexplicable drive to visit caves and find new passages. He thought about that for a long time then said something that made my heart stop.

"Tengo mucho oro" I have much gold perhaps you could take it with you, sell it and we could use the money to start an exploration company.

How much gold? Several kilos but I can get more. Where is it? Buried here and there. It seems that when Don B first explored the jungle he came across Inca sluice boxes in the rivers that were collecting ore.

This generous offer on Don Beni's part played straight into my paranoia. I was certain that if the guides got word that I had 2 kilos of gold in my pack they'd sell me out to the MRTA in a heart beat. I excused myself, went for a walk alone in the cornfield and started to bargain with God. "If you get me out of this alive, I swear I'l be a better person." Then I thought, next time fewer cameras and more guns...

Comments

[sell gold jewelry]

If you keep that 2 kilos of Gold I guess you are half richer now.