“A-i-i, Don Dennis,” he said, when I visited him. “I thought you forgot the old man.”
“Never, Don Julio,” I said. “I want to hear about some of your jungle adventures.”
Old Julio is one of my favorite people in Belize. He’s in his 90’s now but his younger days were full of adventure. He worked as a surveyor, mapping out the jungles and his stories are some of the best I’ve ever heard.
“Let me tell you about when we were surveying the Maya site they call Caracol, over near the Guatemalan border. This was back in the 70’s and we had to fight off Guatemalan bandidos and wild animals to get the job done.”
“That must have been some scary times,” I said.
“Scary? Whew, you don’t know scary. One time I was walking down a path in the jungle around Caracol and a huge jaguar charged at me.”
“A jaguar?”
“Yeh. A big one, too. I had stopped to put in a surveying stake, driving it into the ground with my axe. Suddenly, a huge jaguar leaped out of the bush and came flying through the air at me. He let out a mighty R-R-O-O-A-A-R-R!”
“Oh, my God! What did you do?”
“I soiled my pants. It’s shameful.”
“Don Julio,” I said. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. In that situation anyone would have probably done the same.”
“I’m not talking about then. I’m talking about just now when I said R-R-O-O-A-A-R-R!”
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