Chapter 9
Finally at Bonampák
The advance party straggled into Bonampák in late afternoon. The Mexico City greenhorns, Arai, Alvarado, Alvarez, Margain, Morales, Prieto, Puig, and Sotomayor, as well as the Chiapas resident, Gomez, all expected impressive palaces and temples. In their first woeful gazes, however, it seemed to be just more of the same jungle.
How could this be the celebrated major discovery of a lost city? Aside from a huge broken stela, nothing else was obvious to them, and the newcomers felt defrauded. Certainly, the half ruined, thatched hut at the base of the vine enshrouded temple hill did little to dispel this feeling.
They started making camp. About fifteen minutes later the canoe contingent arrived. It is likely that being saddled with the old man, a woman, and her children, as well as the Lacandón, Manuel needed to portage and rest more often than he would have with a lighter load, so the downriver trip would have taken longer than planned. When they finally arrived, they appeared quite exhausted.
One problem which was obvious right away was the lack of water. It is hard to imagine how any ancient city could have survived there, since the closest modern source of water was a small well they passed a half hour before on the hike inland. After some discussion, as leader, Prieto decided that the camp would remain where it was. Their priority was the work at the ruins. The arrieros could bring water, and a daily fifty minute walk to the river for a bath would harm no one. Then he sent Pedro with mules to bring back some water.
The late arrival left barely enough time to get set up before sunset. To some extent, they repaired the hut, which was a rotting relic of the Carnegie Foundation expedition two years before.
Finally at their long awaited goal, they all wanted to spend what little daylight there was to see what they could of the site. They especially longed to view the famous murals, and took their flashlights, since darkness would soon be upon them.
They struggled up the hillside through vines and other more menacing vegetation. As soon as night fell, a cloud of mosquitoes attacked them, no doubt making for the beginning of a long night. Finally, they stumbled into the building housing the paintings, but could make out very little in what light they had. They gave up, and stumbled back to camp.
That night, they began to discuss the expedition’s problems. Among the material left behind was the very important generator, extra kerosene for their lanterns, and most of the food. Carlos listened to them complaining among themselves, and finally he said,
"Early tomorrow, I will go with Carranza and one of the muchachos to look for the goods. That way we will have it here, a little at a time. It’s not much of a problem."
"You must be very tired," responded Julio Prieto in a tone which was probably not very friendly, "I think it would be better to send the arrieros, so you can rest."
"But we need at least one of the muchachos here to bring water. You can see what little we have here."
"Well, it’s true, but what about the generator? The painters cannot work without it."
"We can bring it later in the canoe."
"What a mess. We should have been more careful in distributing the load. We would have avoided all this foolishness. With our provisions strewn along the path, the generator back there, and the water so far away, this is not good. If we had not been careful to make sure our own equipment got here, we would not even have anything to sleep in."
This last statement showed an almost incredible lack of insight. If they had not required all of their own personal belongings to be brought at the same time, they would have had more space for food and equipment.
As Camp Chief, Carlos was ultimately responsible. He did not retort that the impossible luggage demands of the participants had helped to bring this on. Instead he spoke reassuringly to Prieto.
"Do not worry. Tomorrow, I will start to bring everything."
The group stayed up talking into the night. The biggest topic was the importance of making places like Bonampak more accessible to the public, a goal not met until decades later.
Sometime past nine, they climbed into their hammocks. Eventually, in the partial light of the moon, a shadow seemed to glide across the clearing, and pause where Carlos lay. A phantom, looking very much like Nah K’in, the younger sister of Obregon, disappeared into Carlos’s hammock.
Soon the jungle insects were not the only noisemakers in the darkness. Instead, some very human murmurs were in the air. Apparently, Margarita took a dynamic joyful approach to lovemaking, and with what Sotomayor called "the Spanish, Maya, Saxon whisperings of Carlos Frey," the scenario caused some excitement among the quiet would-be slumberers around them.
The one voice of complaint came from Luis Morales, the youngest and, perhaps, the most petulant.
"Carajo!", he exclaimed, somewhat vulgarly.
"While some are screwing, the rest of us are kept awake!"
In all fairness, it is important to realize that traditionally, in a jungle, most sexual activities take place in one room huts, and there is not a lot of privacy to be had. Thus, any actions taken were not out of line with local mores.
Eventually, there was silence from Frey’s hammock. The others, too, drifted off into slumber, though, at some point in the night, Margarita must have gone back to where her brother and family were camped.
At dawn, the group was awakened by far off cries and responses of howler monkeys. This type of primate has the ability to sound like a telephone breather with a large megaphone, who works in a group.
Early that day, Carlos, Carranza, and Pedro went off to retrieve supplies for camp. Obregon remained behind, while Chan Bor disappeared into the jungle.
The group began their work. At first they were taken aback by the pitiful condition of the murals, as are most people even today. However, once they doused the murals with kerosene, everyone was astonished by their beauty.
Some writers have claimed that it was the very use of kerosene by all the early visitors that resulted in the sorry state of the murals, and there may be some truth in that. However, from the available early accounts, it seems clear that modern eyes have never seen the paintings in good condition without wetting them down to bring out the colors.
The fact that there were any murals at all was attributed by the often negative Frans Blom, to bad planning by the ancient unknown architect. According to Blom, if the roof had been built better, the subsequent rains over the centuries would not have seeped in, and the calcification that later protected the murals would not have taken place. He claimed to have identified the remnants of paintings at the nearby ruins at Yaxchilán, which did not survive, due to a better roof design.
There were murals and a formerly lost city to be explored now. Arai and Gomez made measurements, Morales took photographs, and, no doubt, the journalists wrote. However, with the generator back at the El Cedro, the hours were short inside the hot, windowless rooms, mostly because of the need to use torches, and the resulting heat. According to Arai, the time for work on the murals was limited to very late afternoon until just after sunset, due to the lack of direct light in the morning, and the presence of excessive heat throughout most of the rest of the day.
No doubt, with the short time, and the impressiveness of the renewed murals, some were envious of the two artists, Anguiano and Olvera. Although they were not yet there, under Gamboa’s initial plan, they were to remain with Carlos for two months afterwards to work on their paintings of the murals.
With the first meals, it became obvious that something was lacking from the menu. The scanty servings consisted of lentils, or lentils and manioc, or lentils and pasta. Once, for a change, they had fried lentils.
The main exception to this ordeal was a largely unappreciated howler monkey dinner. This meal involved a mother ape being shot, and brought in by a Lacandón with its terrified little monkey child clinging to the dead body.
Soon the infant was taken away and tied to a tree. The meal was later accompanied by its heartrending cries in the distance, and only a few of the men were sufficiently bored with lentils to partake of monkey flesh. Doctor Puig even decided to go for a long walk among the ruins instead of eating.
That day, back at El Cedro, Carranza came to visit the three people still waiting to go to the ruins. They asked for news about their comrades, and in telling of Luis Lara, the Lacandón said, "Old one falls. Old one falls again. Old one no walk." This made them very worried about the old man, considering the extreme heat that he too was working in. After receiving some presents, Carranza faded into the jungle.
At around 4 p.m. Pedro Pech came in leading the five mules. He stated that Carlos had left shortly after him, and would be arriving soon with a message for an awaiting pilot to take with him. He also gave them a rundown of health concerns. They learned that Gomez was in the throes of malaria, and that Sotomayor had a "sick stomach," but they were glad to hear that old Luis Lara was reasonably well.
The pilot used the delay to swim in the river. However, as time passed with no appearance by Frey, he and his co-pilot decided to take off. Soon they were in the air, disappearing into the rose colored clouds of late afternoon.
After the sun was beyond its next horizon, they finally heard Carlos’ voice calling out in the dark from the other side of the river. Pedro hopped into a canoe and started paddling across. For his part, the painter, Olvera, held a flashlight from shore to help show the way.
Once ashore, Carlos, too, filled them in on the condition of the others, and they were glad that they would finally get to join the group at the site. They turned in for the night to rest for the trip the next day.
On May first, owing to a lack of food, they had a light breakfast of black coffee and canned peaches. After a late start, they took their equipment over to the mules still tethered on the other side of the river. Hiking onward at around 11:30, they followed the same route taken by the main party, and were glad to finally be on their way. They took with them their own belongings, the generator, some beans and corn, as well as a few canned goods.
The local biting insects were up to form. The men hiked for several hours, becoming more and more sweaty, bitten, and tired. They finally sipped the last of the water in their canteens, and eventually stopped while Frey and Pedro brought them a water vine, from which they shared a taste.
Hiking more, they came across some fruits of the Mamey, a local fruit tree. The tidbits appeared to have been discarded by monkeys after a good chewing, but the men cut off the most worrisome parts and ate the rest. Being the first fresh fruit they would get for awhile, each bite seemed like a treat.
Eventually, they found a creek, and filled their canteens. They walked in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Not much later, they came to an old hut where they would spend the night.
Possibly, some of the allure of the jungle fell away after Pedro Pech motioned for them to come over to him. He showed them the distinct tracks of a jaguar near a matapalo tree. Then Pedro told them, "The jaguar slept here last night." Having had his fun with the greenhorns, a guess might be that he or Carlos later hastened to assure them that jaguars are happiest when they can avoid people, and that there was no danger.
However, for amusement, they may not have said anything more, and left them to their own devices. It is hard to say, since Anguiano wrote little about his actual reactions to this information, except for an implication that it was something to be brave about. Frightened or not, there was no reason to ignore the incident, and so he wrote about the it.
There was still time before dark for the group to do something, and Carlos offered to take them to a nearby ruin, most likely, Na Uinik, but he said they should rest first. This seemed as good a time as any to eat, so they opened some cans of salmon and shrimp, serving themselves by hand from the one plate they brought along.
After resting, Frey, Olvera and Anguiano left the others for a hike into the jungle. They walked on and on, not finding anything. There were some vine covered mounds that could have been ruins, but as there was no way to know, they trudged on.
Olvera and Anguiano became more and more tired and sweaty. Raul later wrote that he felt as if someone had dumped an unrefreshing bucket of water on him. He also wryly commented that "this was not a stroll through the Chapultepec Woods," a park in Mexico City.
Finally, Carlos saw how tired they were, and told them to rest while he searched for the missing ruin. He disappeared into the forest, and appeared half an hour later from a different direction, having found nothing. He suggested another way, and after dark, by flashlight they came upon a stela. It was plain, and Carlos stated that it originally was covered in stucco. On a nearby tree they found the name of Frans Blom etched with a machete.
At that point, they were ready to return to camp. However, like their comrades before them, they were lost. They struggled up and down hills, falling down at times, finally ending up where they started. To be fair, a jungle at night is exceedingly dark, and it appears that they had only one flashlight. Certainly though, it must have weighed upon Carlos, the daring explorer, to be so terribly lost. Eventually he managed to find the hint of a trail, and they followed it back.
They shambled into camp, exhausted and soaked in perspiration. The only food waiting for them was a can of sardines. By mutual agreement, they saved this for a symbolic breakfast. They turned in for a much needed rest.
Anguiano later lay awake in his hammock, fascinated by thousands of glow worms, moving in all directions. Here he was, finally away from El Cedro, and in on the final adventure. Despite all the rigors of the day, he described this as "one of the most beautiful nights of my life."
Early the next morning, the three went back in search of the stela, and quickly found it. Then they saw a pyramid and an apparent temple in ruins. Heading back, they found themselves to be lost yet again. They stumbled through the jungle until they found some machete cuts, and followed them until they returned to the trail.
Unfortunately, they had no idea which direction to go, though they started out toward one alternative. They yelled louder and louder as they went on for quite a while. Finally, they heard Pedro Pech’s voice in the opposite direction. They followed the sound of his voice for a while until they met up with him. He then showed them back to camp.
They shared the last can of sardines for breakfast, and headed out. Soon they came upon El Tumbo ford. Before crossing, they abandoned the generator. They left the machinery on the shore and redistributed the packs. The idea was to return for it when possible.
After wading into the ford, Olvera quickly found himself in trouble. He was a slight man, and the camera equipment hanging from his shoulder got entangled with a mule when it began to founder. He and the animal were about to be swept away when Carlos and Pedro quickly waded to his aid. After freeing Jorge from the mule they led them both to shore.
After more trudging along the path, they came up to Obregon’s caribal. It was a welcome place to rest, especially since the women were preparing a meal.
They found Chan Bor resting in a hammock, and he rose to greet them. Margarita detached herself from the other women to welcome them, also. The visitors sat down, and the Lacandons brought them some fruits to munch on.
One of Obregon’s wives was cooking what was obviously part of a monkey over an open fire. Since a roasting monkey looks very much like a small child, Raul was not at all interested in this promise of food. After a short rest, he moved away, and started to sketch the other scenes around him. He began to imagine the smell from the roast as that of a human, and started to feel sick. Still, he kept drawing, though by his attitude, he managed to communicate his feelings to the hosts.
Later, Obregon invited them into his house for a meal of jabalí, which is similar to a small pig. One of the wives served this boiled with green plantain from a pot. Raul compared it to beef, though drier and tougher. As dry and as tough as Mexican beef tends to be, that makes for an interesting comparison. Still, it was enjoyable to someone as hungry as Raul.
After the meal, Obregon told them that they would not get to the ruins that day, and invited them to spend the night. When it became clear that these three, who had already languished so long were, not about to wait around any longer, he told Maria, a wife, and Na K'in, his sister, to go along as guides.
Maria was one tough woman. Along the path, she got a difficult splinter in the bottom of her foot. After borrowing a knife from Anguiano, she dug it out mercilessly. Then, ignoring the bleeding, she continued hiking with the others.
Late in the day, the group finally trudged in. There was a round of applause; in part, because all were now there, and presumably, now there would be more to eat. It is easy to imagine their chagrin at finding that there was no food except some grain to be brought. The cans of food had vanished, some few eaten along the way by the second group, but there had been no others. Perhaps, some had been secretly sequestered by the two signalmen at El Cedro. Other food containers left along the way by the first group may have even fallen into Lacandón or other hands.
To put the ensuing conversation into a nutshell:
"Did you bring the cans?"
"What cans? There were no cans," a statement not totally true, since they had just finished the last one for breakfast. and had left a few behind at El Cedro to make room for their personal belongings.
"Well, what did you bring?"
"We brought the illusion that we would come here and eat like real people," responded Anguiano.
The whole company laughed, and made some jokes about the situation. No doubt, there was nothing else to be done, except to hope for more help from the Lacandons. The thought that their generosity with food might help did not pan out to a large extent. There is little doubt that a solitary traveler would have been given enough provisions to help him out over a period of time. However, a large group, especially one that scared away nearby game, was another matter.
Later, Anguiano was telling the ones who came before them what jabalí tasted like. Frey was there, and he laughed in his quiet, friendly way. He explained that what Raul ate from a pot was the same as what was being roasted. It was the rest of the howler monkey.
Raul was not particularly upset by this revelation. He was actually somewhat grateful to have had a much needed meal without any qualms attached.
If one were to read the accounts told by the main participants, there is a sense of bonhomie that is not borne out by other reports. According to other accounts, Marco Gomez, a meek man, was belittled by Prieto, because he did not want another engraver along. In these trip versions, Marco was forced to eat with the woman and children. There also was considerable rivalry between the other participants.
By the available accounts, Frey made the best of an imperfect situation. He worked harder than anyone else any way he could. As always, he got along with most of the Lacandons.
Separated, most likely permanently, from his wife, he took up with Na K’in. No doubt, Carlos was also glad to visit his friends of the forest again for other reasons, too.
On May 3, some of the participants were soon to leave due to the lack of food. Those few who could argue that they were essentially done with their work, including Margain, the not so daring archaeologist, and Doctor Puig, corpulent camp physician, were actually returning to El Cedro to fly out, when Carlos Frey, Marco Gomez, along with Luis Morales, went on a fateful canoe ride to bring the generator to camp.
Why he chose these two particular trip members to go with him is hard to understand. Morales was a photographer, so that might have made some sense, but Gomez could not even swim and had a small valise handcuffed to his wrist, so he couldn't paddle well either. Because Carlos had hired Manuel specifically as a boatman, this made no sense.
Following the deaths, credit for the discovery of the bodies goes to Pedro Pech. After hearing a noise in the underbrush, some Lacandón women said it was jabalis. Since these are a tasty pig-like animal, and, no doubt, Pedro shared in the famine, he ran and got his gun. He followed the sound away from camp, but lost them.
Then Pech came back, got a mule, and for some reason he claimed not to understand, rode by the site of the deaths, which was an hour or so away. Probably he was worried about how Carlos and the others were doing and tried to estimate how far they had gone. He had been a chiclero for years and had taken parties into the Lacandón area as well, so he probably recognized a problem in the making.
At the river Pedro saw the canoe entangled in the limbs of a fallen tree. This must have been right after the event, because one paddle and a hat were floating in the water nearby. He yelled and shot his rifle, but got no response.
Pech raced back to tell the others. It is odd that if he came by the site so quickly that a hat and a paddle were still near the drowning scene, he did not come across the surviving Morales. One would think that he would have seen him or attracted him with his gunfire. On the other hand, if Luis had some real reason not to come out, a gunshot might not have been very comforting at all.
Rushing back, Pech raced into the campsite as the others were relaxing after finishing lunch. He was obviously upset, and when he explained what he had found, most of the company got up to go with him. Of the men, Anguiano and Sanchez offered to stay behind to "stand guard at the site." Sotomayor did not go because of illness.
Always interested in negative events, Frans Blom later reported that "their workmen told us the lurid story of complete disintegration when the bodies were found. Everybody taking charge and waving revolvers. All the ‘explorers’ carried revolvers, and most of them also typewriters. What a mess."
No doubt, Blom exaggerated. However, what seems clear is that they were not all good friends, despite their later writings.
The group went to recover the bodies. Arriving after a hike of an hour and a half, they gazed at the ill-fated spot around five o’clock, leaving a mere hour until sunset. Pech borrowed Prieto’s pistol and shot off six rounds in succession in case Morales was around. There was no response.
Prieto and Pech waded out to retrieve the capsized canoe, and pulled it to shore. Eventually, they connected a rope to the craft and paddled out in it, leaving Olvera to hold onto the line for safety.
Looking down into the water, they could see two bodies, one on top of the other. On one, they could make out the blue shirt and red sash worn by Franco Gomez, and on the other corpse, they saw the white t-shirt and the white soles of the tennis shoes Carlos Frey had worn for the trip. Morales was nowhere to be seen, and they feared he was dead, also.
The sun vanished without twilight. The men finally gave up their efforts, and trudged back to camp in the dark in their own silence. As if their spirits were not low enough already, a downpour began that dogged them the rest of the way back to camp.
After a sleepless night, they started back early to the accident scene, and soon came across the returning Luis Morales. All were glad at seeing him still alive. Asked about his adventure, he told about the accident. This first story by Arai may be summarized as follows:
They paddled and portaged upstream for quite a while. During this, Morales took numerous pictures of local animals and birds. He also took some photos of the other two carrying the canoe to portage rapids. Before the incident, Frey informed the others that going upstream was taking longer than planned and that they would have to spend the night in the jungle.
Luis was against this and explained that he had no provisions for an overnight trip and he tried to persuade Carlos to turn around. However, getting the generator was just too important, so Frey flatly rejected this idea and they kept paddling.
Shortly after that discussion, they were attempting to paddle up a small waterfall when the bow rose abruptly so that he couldn't reach the water surface with his paddle. Then Luis said that the canoe tried to dodge the wave and the small area of rapids, when the canoe began to turn crossways to the current and capsized. Luis stated that he could not see what happened to the others after that, because he was in the front and the craft almost immediately overturned.
Morales stated that he managed to grab his camera and equipment before falling in. Almost drowning, he had to let go of the gear and he struggled to the surface without it.
The incident took place around noon. Though he found no one around, Morales said he was very happy to have made it to dry land. Later, he looked for his companions and, thinking that the current had taken them downstream, walked that way along the shore of the Lacanha for about an hour. Then he returned to the accident scene, coming back around 2 p.m.
Luis stated that he found the canoe taken out of the river and began to hope that his companions had survived. Therefore, he spent the rest of the afternoon looking for them around there. He also reported that he had not heard Pedro Pech's gunshots.
Going down the river right away could explain why Pech did not find Morales on his first arrival, but does nothing to explain why he did not hear the six revolver shots around 5 p.m. When night fell and the rain started, he stayed under a large tree all night.
Going down the river right away would explain why Pech did not find Morales on his first arrival, but does nothing to explain why he did not hear the six revolver shots around 5 p.m.
His version also does not jibe with other people’s accounts which have the canoe being taken out of the water late in the afternoon. He claimed to have seen it ashore much earlier in the day.
In later versions of Morales’ own story, there were amendments. In them, he stated that for some reason he had also gone into the jungle and gotten lost, but otherwise, had spent a lot of time waiting for help. Lost in the jungle, he spent the night either under a large tree or in a hollow one, depending on the version.
However, a significant later version later given to journalist, Arturo Sotomayor, who stayed at camp due to illness, also has a discussion going on before the event. However this one was resolved with an agreement to stay overnight at Carranza's place, which Carlos assured him, was nearby. In this version the capsizing also took place almost right afterwards too and this was at a small rapid of about 40 centimeters in height.
Possibly in the tradition of Mexican journalism, Sotomayor went on to give an account of the last minutes of Frey and Gomez, which has Frey trying to save his companion and getting grabbed, with his last words being "Let go of me for the love of God or you and I will both die here". However, he did not attribute that to Morales.
After this happy reunion with Morales, the comrades all hiked on to the accident scene. They found that the current had moved the bodies during the night. With some help from the Lacandons, and after some difficulty they found and brought the remains up from the bottom of the river, tied ropes to them, and brought them to shore. Obregon untied the corpses with as much emotion as if he were untying a backpack. After an impromptu moment of silence, Chan Bor and Obregon made quick work with their machetes, and covered the bodies with palm leaves.
Around 1 p.m., the group trudged back to camp to send messages. They needed to let people know that Morales was alive, since the whole situation was now big news in Mexico. Pech dutifully mounted his mule, and took the missives to El Cedro.
Arriving back at camp, Prieto gave the order to suspend work, and to pack up. At 4:30, Dr. Puig returned, having examined the bodies en route back from El Cedro. His medical opinion was that there was no time to waste in burying the victims due to the state of decay. As darkness was coming too soon, they waited until morning.
The next day, the whole company broke camp. Some went straight back to El Cedro, while the rest went to bury the fallen comrades.
There was a later controversy as to why the remains were buried so quickly. The story was that the bodies stank on being removed from the water, and certainly, Doctor Puig recommended burying them near where they drowned. In the tropics, such rapid deterioration of the bodies could easily be within the realm of possibility. Certainly, by the time that Doctor Puig came back early that afternoon they would have shown some serious signs of decay.
It is unlikely that any of those people would have been enthusiastic about the now six hour trip back to the airstrip with two rapidly decaying bodies, especially when they would take up space needed for their always important personal gear.
Thus, Carlos and Marcos were buried ashore, near where they died. Pedro made a couple of small crosses to mark the spot. Then the somber, perhaps, chastened group headed back to El Cedro, and ultimately home.