But look! I found out how to put photos on my blog! Simp gave me a camera for my recent THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY, so there'll be lots more of this, I like to think. In as much as there's more blogging of any description. Here's a picture of a frog:
But that's not why I'm blogging this evening. I'm blogging because I want to tell you about the dead man I saw recently. About two weeks ago myself and simp went up north to the Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, to enjoy the splendour of the rainforest, pretend to be intrepid on rafts and kayaks, and mingle with backpackers. It was marvellous, as I'm sure you can imagine. (But if you can't, here's a picture:
So we signed up for a whitewater adventure trip, which, I must insist, was entirely Simp's idea (I had suggested reading and sunbathing as a more fruitful activity). We were grouped with a pleasant Honduran family and their German (almost certainly Christian) exchange student. And a couple of annoying gung ho GI Jo type instructors, who are unavoidable if you're going to take it upon yourself to do adventure sports anywhere in the world.
There are three lodges strung along the Rio Cangrejal, all offering adventure sports of this sort, and all embarking their rafting expeditions at the same point on the river. That point is also very close to the site of the brand new visitors' centre and suspension bridge. In a pristine and barely touched part of the country, this is pretty much the epicentre of human traffic. Which is why the dead body came as a surprise.
Our group drove to the embarking point on the river, then we had to scramble down over large rocks for about 10 minutes, to get to a tiny little beachy area. I was about fifth in the line, and so I didn't immediately know why the people ahead of me had stopped and turned round. The Honduran dad was taking responsibility, having been the one to spot the body. It was a man, naked from the waste up, slumped just beneath a huge overhanging rock. He had no visible bullet wounds, but his back was tattooed heavily with the marks of the "mara 18", the 18 gang. We turned around and conferred about what to do.
Obviously, there was very little we could do. Hans, a German instructor checked the man's pulse and confirmed he was dead. The sinister thing is that from our lodge alone, a rafting trip had left that morning at 9.30, passing the same point where there was no dead body. So whatever happened happened between 10Am and our arrival at 1ish.
Hans concluded that it was an accident, and given the trauma he'd been through with the pulse checking and all, we figured it would be indiscreet to argue. Nobody else felt it was an accident though; there have been 1,400 homicides reported in Honduras since the beginning of this year, and they frequently involve the major gangs (of which 18 is one of the most major). There haven't been that many deaths by falling in highly public places.
The Honduran man seriously contemplated calling off the trip, claiming that he didn't want his teenage daughters seeing the body (he wasn't bothered for his son). But in the end, once the police had been called (it took them 6 hours to arrive, in a private car, to take the body away) there was really nothing else to do. I was spooked for a while, wondered if the bad guys mightn't be back to get us, but pretty soon I was more spooked by trying to stay afloat in the rapids and forgot all about it. In the end, the most sinister thing about the whole incident was the grinding banality of it all. I fell asleep wondering if the image would make it into the papers the next day. It didn't. We'll never know anything more about the incident.
I promise to blog about Mexico shortly. And Casa Guatemala. In the meantime, here's a link to my picasa account so you can look at some more photos!
...That's not working. Maybe try the old fashioned way: http://picasaweb.google.com/carolballantine/HondurasIntoTheCountry
4 comments:
Is it wrong that, when I found out this post involved (1) a dead body and (2) your new found ability to post photos, I was momentarily excited to see the photos you had taken of said corpse?
... yes, I thought it was.
You are a terrible person Shazzle Dazzle.
Carol now that you have a laptop can you skype at will?
Oh yes! I am fully and entirely skypeable. I normally (ie, the last 2 days) check my computer before breakfast: between 6.30 and 7 here; 1.30 & 2.00 in Ireland and the UK; and - oh - 1.30 and 2.00AM the following night in NZ. Hmm. Good lord. It's currently 2 in the afternoon tomorrow in New Zealand. Who can get their head around that???
I am a terrible person, yes. But, probably because of the bad karma caused by that first comment, a chimney fell on my head on Tuesday. So I think I should be forgiven, if only because I'm now brain damaged.
Rane! I Skyped Carol (or rather, she skyped me) - you're next! Woo hoo!
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