MAYA COSMIC NUMBER PUZZLES VOLUME 235 MAYA COSMIC NUMBER PUZZLES VOLUME 235 | Page 9

Thomas chose to order the men their next round, and they in turn offered him a seat at their table. Thomas introduced himself, and told them he was interested in Archeology and the old Maya Civilization. He asked them, if they would be interested in taking him along on their treasure hunt? They explained to him the high cost and severe misery that would certainly be waiting for them in the unforgiving jungle. Thomas looked at the two men, and assured them with a simple smile and handshake that from the hell he had just endured, he was qualified to fight whatever evil spirits were waiting in the ancient homelands of the Maya. With a toast to their mutual prospects and a blessing to the Fates, a simple partnership, based on mutual trust and the spirit of adventure, was struck. The following day, the three men bought a new Ford truck from a dealer, and an extra set of Firestone tires and a couple of barrels of untaxed gasoline from a black-market racketeer. They then drove happily south. After two weeks of hard driving, they pulled into the Mexican state capital, Oaxaca City. They could almost smell the treasure waiting to be found once again. Juan Vega thought back, as they drove towards the center of town, to when he first wanted to find the Maya treasure. In a mud-brick house, two blocks from the main Catholic Church, Juan was told of an adventure by his old uncle, Guillermo Gaeta Covarrubias. Who as a young man was on an expedition in 1921 that first discovered an abandoned, ancient Maya city lost in the jungle. As this group of ten men dug into the earthly depths of a royal burial chamber of a Maya King, the tunnel roof suddenly collapsed during a severe rainstorm. The uncontrolled mud smothered and quickly killed eight of the men. They had just handed out only one of the immensely, valuable gold leafs of a Maya book that had been discovered. Guillermo and Eduardo, the two lone survivors, tried to unearth the other men, but the deep pit had rapidly filled with water and heavy mud. In the downpour of rain, the final blow came when a large, stone block bearing the image of the Spirit Zipakná fell across Eduardo’s legs. Guillermo desperately dug him out, while he was still clutching in his hands, the gold page of Maya glyphs and numbers. Eduardo’s legs were crushed and he couldn’t walk. To make matters worse, their pack burros had been spooked by the thunder and lighting, and they had vanished. Guillermo looked down at the broken body of his friend, but he never gave it a second thought of leaving his friend. He valiantly shouldered the burden of the wounded Eduardo, and tried to carry him back to civilization. Eduardo pleaded with Guillermo to leave him; but, Guillermo would not listen to the words as he determinately put one foot in front of the other. However, in less than a week Eduardo died painfully of gangrene poisoning from his wounds. Guillermo buried him deep in the soft earth, and about two weeks later, he stumbled out of the living jungle onto a small rancho. It would be many years later that Guillermo would learn the whole truth, from a friendly Maya Spirit, of what happened to PAGE 9