Chapter 5
The Expedition from Hell
Despite Carlos’s long efforts on the farm, or possibly because of them, wanderlust once again got the better of him. As fate would have it, in Ocosingo in latter 1943, Carlos met Frans Blom, an archaeologist, and he told him about his experiences exploring the Lacandón Jungle. In the process, the younger man inspired Blom to plan a small expedition and bring him along.
That November, the two met in Tenosique to fly to the new airfield at the chiclero camp known as El Cedro. From there with Carlos as archaeological assistant, they headed out to explore the Lacandón area.
The region was booming with a new wartime demand for chicle. This boom appears to have been secondary to the need for rubber for the Allied armies. In areas where men could work at either rubber or chicle, it was hard to get them to gather the less lucrative gum ingredient, but in an area, such as the Lacandón jungle where little rubber was available, chicle suddenly became a major wartime crop.
In part, the situation was good for Blom and Frey. A great deal of travel time going in could now be avoided by flying from Tenosique into El Cedro, a chicle camp, which was well into the Lacandón jungle.
However, on arrival they found only one mule available for hire. While Frans also hired an amiable man named Pepe Centurion to help, transportation of supplies and equipment was a problem.
Their immediate goal was a recently abandoned camp called San Pedro, where, according to several chicleros, there were a number of ruins nearby. Because of heavy use and the excessive rainfall, the paths were a terrible mess, and the travelers made far less than half the headway they would have expected. Carlos estimated that each day, they covered the distance which normally would take between two and four hours.
Sometimes the main difference between the rainy season and the so-called dry season there is that in the rainy season it normally rains in the late afternoon, although it can rain at other times. In the dry season it can rain any time or all the time, though not at all is far more likely then.
At last the group arrived in San Pedro, and took over a couple of deserted though still solid huts. Once situated, they followed some imaginative directions given them by chicleros elsewhere, and hiked around looking for ruins. They found none there, and, in fact, there was little of direct archaeological importance seen on this trip.
Later, Blom and Frey followed the instructions given them by some other chicleros, and headed toward a village called Los Tzendales, possibly for supplies and with futile hopes to find ruins along the way. Then they returned to San Pedro to do some more unsuccessful searching for lost cities.
While it did not produce any discoveries, this expedition was particularly significant to Blom in one way. It was just prior to this journey that Franz Blom met Trudi Duby, who was a well known journalist. She had asked him to bring her along. According to Blom’s personal note on the matter, there was a mutual attraction, but nothing would shake him from his long standing policy of excluding women while exploring. No woman could come along, and Frans and Carlos flew to El Cedro without Trudi Duby.
According to Trudi’s account, at some point after Blom flying from Tenosique, she paid her way on an airplane to El Cedro to follow him. There, the manager, Don Ramon, and his wife provided Miss Duby with a place to stay until she was able to continue on her quest.
Don Ramon was very apologetic that there were no horses or mules available at the present time. Any animals then not in use for chicle in the jungle were either out of service or sickly, and Don Ramon was not going to foist them off on her.
Within a few days, two arrieros came through with pack horses and mules on their way to pick up some raw chicle that they had left near the San Pedro camp. Trudi paid to ride along with them on one of the pack animals, and she took along a another man as guide.
The group passed through a number of small chiclero camps, and the answer was always the same. Blom and Frey had passed through, and were on their way to Los Tzendales, a small settlement, which was well on the other side of San Pedro.
Due to a sudden rainstorm, Trudi’s group stopped for the night. She worried, because the arrieros were only going as far as the San Pedro camp, and if Blom were not there, she would have to either go back with them or continue on foot. Eventually, she decided that she would go on, even if it gave everyone a very good reason to think she was crazy.
The next morning Duby and companions started out early, sometimes riding in, often tramping through, and sometimes falling into the mud. Finally, they managed to make it to the river opposite San Pedro and began to cross. There on the other bank, Trudi spied a man with wild looking hair and beard, who was also holding both a machete and a rifle.
This apparition did not look very promising as they neared the shore. Trudi was very much relieved when she got close enough to realize that the apparently wild man was Carlos Frey. With his antipathy toward weapons, it is unlikely that Carlos was doing more than politely holding Blom’s gun and knife for him. Despite the uncertainty of her welcome, she greeted Frey very happily, since she knew that Frans must be near.
Shortly afterwards, the archaeologist came out of a hut and also saw what must have been a very ragged woman. Despite her torn and soiled clothes, dirty disarranged hair, and mud streaked face, or perhaps, because of them, Frans Blom quickly walked over to her. In Trudi’s words, "He came near, and like a great gentleman, he kissed my muddy hand."
It probably would have been very hard to turn down such a determined woman with such spunk a second time, especially one so attractive, and Blom added Duby to the expedition. The newly formed group stayed at San Pedro a few days, each with his own hut to sleep in. Apparently, they also obtained a mule from the arrieros, because when one disappeared into the jungle, there was still one left.
After more unsuccessful searching for ruins, they planned to travel to another abandoned chiclero camp with the rather promising name, "Las Ruinas." They loaded the mule, and it decided not to budge. Pepe tried singing to it, to no avail, and their pulling at the beast certainly did not work. Once they relieved the animal of all baggage, it was finally ready to go, and it followed them faithfully onward.
Not far into the journey, a downpour began. They quickly made their way into an old hut that did not look as if it could last much longer. While the edifice would have passed no one’s safety inspection, and even leaked, it was the only shelter available. They moved in and hung up their hammocks very gingerly, spending the rest of the day in the hut as the rain seemed to come in from all sides.
Frans hung his lantern from two beams, and spent the day reading one of his favorite books, Don Quixote. According to Trudi, he seemed as relaxed as though he were ensconced in some fine hotel.
Late that night, Trudi awoke to the sight of their lone mule on the verge of escape in the rain. She sounded the alarm, and Frans, Carlos and Pepe scrambled at once from their hammocks, causing the hut to shake very dangerously. Blom grabbed his lantern as they rushed out, and they captured the wily animal before it could disappear into the darkness. This time, they tied it much more carefully.
The next day, the group made it to a place they appropriately called Champa Podrida, or Rotten Hut. They placed their gear into a shack that was even worse than the one before, and decided that Carlos and Pepe would take the mule and try to replace it, while Frans and Trudi would go on to Las Ruinas and beyond.
Carlos and Pepe headed out, and by all accounts, they were gone "for many days," but it is not clear by anyone’s version how much time they spent. The plan was for them to replace the worthless mule with whatever they could find while Blom and Duby went on. Apparently, Frey believed that they would meet at some particular location.
Here Carlos’ existing accounts are rather vague, but it does appear that he eventually met up with the Lacandón, Chan Bor, later known as Jose Pepe, and spent a number of days at his home. This was the man who on a later trip would lead him to the ruins now known as Bonampak.
While staying with Chan Bor, Carlos found that the man no longer believed in the old gods, mostly because he had seen so many Lacandons succumb to disease, even after praying fervently to them. Probably of significance was that in recent years, this particular group had lost its traditional religious leaders in an epidemic. One leader had assigned no successor, and the other had left two who did not agree on basic ideas. However one looks at it, this was not a good time for that old time religion among the southern Lacandons.
Having a keen eye for acquisitions and barter, Chan Bor offered to take Carlos to see a ruin in exchange for a rifle. This was probably the one time in Carlos’s life when he wished he had a gun. He probably would have jumped at the opportunity to be the first outsider to see some particular lost city, but as he had no firearms, nor anything else to trade, he had to let the opportunity pass.
Meanwhile, Frans and Trudi finally arrived at the camp known as Las Ruinas. Since Blom’s 1953 map shows some actual ruins near that location, it is likely that they examined them.
Around this time, Frans began to come down with malaria. He and Trudi started back, hoping to get to the San Juan camp, which was on the way back to El Cedro. They tried to cut down on the weight of their packs, but could not, since they did not have anything they considered expendable. At first, Blom gallantly insisted in carrying most of the gear, but he became progressively weaker with his illness.
Soon it was obvious that Frans was doing badly. As the rain began, he frequently stumbled, and eventually paused to rest at every fallen tree that crossed the path. Sometimes he pretended he was stopping for a cigarette.
Finally, Trudi insisted on carrying her gear ahead, and coming back for his. She left him there to rest, and hurried ahead to a certain abandoned chiclero hut which was on the way back to San Juan.
Once there, Trudi returned for Frans and his equipment, but could not find him. One suggestion has been that in the darkness, she became lost, and that is quite possible. She looked all over the area where she thought he should have been. Finally, she went to the top of a small rise, and shouted for him over and over as the wind came up, and the rain worsened. There was no answer to her cries except the overriding roar of the wind.
Of this time, she later asked, "...are there any hours longer than those of anguish?" After what seemed to be the longest wait, and not knowing what to do, she began to go down the other side of the rise. She was completely astonished to find a hammock between two trees. Afraid that it was just a hallucination, she still plodded toward it with the mud up to her knees.
Lying inside was a very tired, very sick, and very drenched Frans Blom. He looked up at her and spoke weakly.
"I can’t do any more --- I’m staying here today --- Why don’t you go back and sleep at the huts?"
Trudi was not about to leave him behind; not after all this. She climbed in next to his feverish, trembling body, and pulled a small tarp over him and herself. All night she huddled next to him, listening to the raindrops as they fell onto their makeshift canopy.
The next day, Trudi carried all the gear, except for Frans’ rifle, which he used as a cane. He gave her directions to San Juan, and she raced ahead with the gear. Then she hurried back for him.
Once they got to San Juan, Blom felt a little better, at least enough so that he insisted on hanging up the hammocks. There they settled in, with Frans getting much rest and quinine. However, more days passed as did Christmas, and still Carlos and Pepe were away.
According to Frey, he and Pepe expected the others to meet them at some particular place, but he did not make clear what location he meant. According to him, they eventually spent a number of days awaiting Blom and Duby. Finally, an arriero came by, and told them of Blom’s illness and location at the San Juan camp.
With this bit of news, Carlos and Pepe hurried to them with a suitable pack mule and a horse. It does not appear that Carlos divulged Chan Bor’s offer about showing him some ruins. Probably there would have been no point, since Frans may have been obviously unwilling to forge into jungle again any time soon, and there was no certainty that Blom would ever need his services again.
Another significant aspect of this trip for Blom is how close it got him to Bonampak. While in San Juan, he was less than ten kilometers from that site.
With the help of Carlos and Pepe, the group made its way back to El Cedro. There, a doctor gave Blom injections of some sort until he began to improve.
According to Blom, when he was about to be flown out, some unnamed Lacandons told him about a ruin with painted figures only a few hours away.
If true, it would do much to explain his later extreme anguish at missing Bonampak. There he was, feeling just well enough to take Trudi to see the ruins at Yaxchilán, but not enough to strike off into lesser known jungle areas again. Most likely, he probably was also sick to death of hiking on and on without finding much of anything. In this scenario, he easily would have unknowingly chosen a fleeting joy over an unlikely long-term accomplishment.
Whatever happened, the result affected him. For the rest of his life, Frans Blom considered it a significant loss that he was not the discoverer of the ruins of Bonampak instead of Frey.
Some claim that this trip caused a well-documented falling out between Frans and Carlos, after which Blom held hard feelings for him for the rest of his life. Certainly, when Carlos and Pepe were sent off to exchange the useless mule for something more suitable, and took many days to do it, this could have been a source of contention.
However, there is another possibility. It may be that when two love mates first find each other, they prefer to send all others away on a one man job, such as getting a new mule. It is quite possible that Frans told Carlos and Pepe to take their time at it, too.
While it is obvious that this situation did not turn out to be a scenario for a great romantic interlude, this may have been the intent for the separation. In the long run, though the trip was quite significant; Frans and Trudi subsequently married and had a lifelong partnership.
It is certain, however, that Blom had little positive to say about Frey in later years, and anything positive was only in contrast with Giles Healey, the other contender for discoverer of Bonampák. However, among Blom’s papers there still remains an undated proposal for an expedition to "Bonampac," which included pay of 750 pesos to "Frey archaeological assistant," so the rift must have been after that point.
Since the first designation for this site, named "Lintel" by Frey, and at first called "Ruin 10" by Healey, was suggested in a letter to the latter from the archaeologist, Sylvanus Morley dated 29 July 1946, this proposal must have been made at some point after that. Although the plan was very detailed, it was not implemented in that form, and certainly not with Carlos along.
Thus ended the expedition of Frans Blom and Carlos Frey. Whatever else it did, it helped put two like-minded souls together in a lifelong partnership and got Carlos Frey back into the traveling mode.