Visitor

One night on my journey I was sitting under the stars drinking the last of my food - some nice cold potato soup - when I hear this noises coming from the trees ahead. It was like a lady whispering in my ear some words I could not quite hear. It make the hair on my moustache tickle like when the fairy spiders come for their dance parties - and it make Pablo blow the big noisy nose trumpet so loud the jungle go very quiet.

After this I am hearing some footsteps and in the dark I can see some tall thin old lady wearing big dark dress. She stop just far enough away so I cannot see the face.

So I call to the old lady - ask if she would like to share some soup (even though it is my last). thinking she must be very hungry and tired here in the middle of no place. The lady say thank you and drink the soup - all the time her head turned away from me.

I ask her where she is coming from, and she says she is from the small village called Guanjanito (or something like) and is looking for her granddaughter who got very scared when the bad men came and ran away into the jungle and must have got lost someplace.

So I ask her if she want some help - maybe we can look together?

But no, the lady say that is not needed. She prefer to travel alone. Besides, it is the strangers which scare her away, so if she see another she does not know, she will maybe run even further away.

Now I am feeling bad, and say sorry but I am just passing through, I too am looking for someone I love.

"I know", said the old lady, "that is how I knew I could come and sit with you. Do not worry about the child. She will come back, they all come home in the end".

So I give her some of my gunannybanny juice - saying the child will be needing this more than me - and wish her well. The old lady she take the juice - say thank you - and then she was gone, her green dress disappearing into the jungle like how it came.

Her story make Pablo feel very sad, but Pablo happy at least can be of some help (even if he have no guannybanny juice left now!)

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In the night I have some big strange dream of a green and red bird who come find Pablo in the hot jungle, dying of thirst and who carry me over the mountain and towards the big blue water, towards my mama...

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Some days later I find myself some miles north away, when I meet some kind local farmer who give me some of their water and tacos, and let me sleep with their cow.

I ask them about the village the woman come from. The old one he says "yes, this was just a few miles away south of here."

Then he tell me some spooky story about this village.

"The indians they were very proud people, who lived in these parts for longer than the trees can remember. One year was terrible disaster. They have little food because of the bad storms which wash away their crops. Then the new government ask them for even more money so when they could not pay, they send in the troops to teach them a lesson, to show the other villages they must also pay for protection.

"So there was some fight, more guns came, and then the whole village was burnt to the ground and many peoples they just disappeared - men, women and children. Nobody know if they were killed or if they run away to the cities, like the president he said. All we know is that was many years ago, but also it is like yesterday.

"Where the village was is nothing now but birds, trees and their secrets".

Adios amigos!

Palenque arrows

Pablo is sorry it is taking him a long tome to have more adventures, but please do remember that he Pablo has no legs.




In the meantimes here is what the Lacandon indians gave pablo.

And also in colour:



Remember that it is a long way to travel to find your soul. And to find the answers you have to know the right questions to ask.

the moons of Palenque

Ola amigos!

I have been having a hard one this week.

You see, is a long trip for a someone no leg like me make my way over mountain to the sea.

Some places I see nothing but dark ahead. Some times I was thinking I must give up, go back and never see my momma, or the sand and the sea.

You see was a long time ago I eat my last potato and now I must eat what I find in jungle floor. Is not easy.

Each night I hear roar my belly button jaguar, and I must rub him very hard make him shut his face.

As I head north up the hills I see the fruit from the forest seem to be hiding away more and more from me, make me weak and my eyes spin round my brain like the time I eat the funny fungus.

So there I am, lying in the muck, singing to the blue moon in the sky, when out of the shrubbery come a ghost man, long white dress, hair black and long, scars run down his old crumply cheeks and big big nose big like the toucan birdy.

I am so very tired, I think I must be dreaming, or maybe it is some angel come to take me to meet my dead friends. So I give him a smile, welcome him and sing him my bestest song.

Soon there are many more angels come, watching, listening me, waiting for something…

Next I know it is daytime and I wake up near some old, beautiful stone temple, naked under soft flower smelly white sheet. Now I can see where all the fruits must have gone, for in front of me are so many jams and breads Pablo cry out with joy!

After I stuff my face stupid the man with the funny nose he tell me they are in this village the last of the Lacandon Indians – forced to run from the world when the devil it come to take their history and land. He say he come to help when he hear the sad songs I sing, like they hear the pain in my heart, and this make us brothers (or some such thing – Pablo not too sure - they speak a bit funny you know?). He tell me all about their ancestor the Maya and how now they are hiding, waiting for the world to start up again. Me I tell them of my kneepit adventures, my dead doggie, my mamma and my potatoes. We become good friends.



Anyways, after many more talkings, I realise I am very dirty (after many days Pablo start to smell like the burros underpants).

So they take me go for a swim in some big water they are calling sueños olvidados (see this picture – can you see me? Understand that Pablo must be keeping my hat on because many ladies present!).



After much fun and frollickings in the lake I tell them it is time I must be going. Before I leave they give me special magic arrows to protect me from the monsters I may meet on the way, and they also teach me how to make the special Mayan guanny banny passion pie - for to make the lady nice and comfy should I ever be feeling lonely!

Me, I promise to come back one day, bring them some of my special potato pancakes fresh from my kneepit. That day we promise to make the fiesta under the stars and make everything well again with the world.

Adios amigos – hope you can be joining me some time soon again!

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More about the plight of the Lacandon Indians.

A Pablo Poem

Yes, I have started my big journey.

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I am moving north, to the sea, where I dream my mamma is waiting for me with open arm and warm bosoms.
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At night it very cold and lonely in the mountain.

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This one night I come across a valley where the clouds they go to sleep. It look so peaceful out there, it make me want to jump into the soft whiteness and sleep with the dead souls who live in the sky.
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This make me think of old Toltec poem song. Is about the world without Quetzalcoatl – the god of light. I hope you like.
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...the book of souls has come to an end, alas, everything has reached its conclusion, no longer do I care to live here.
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Who will take me? Who will go with me? I am ready to be taken, alas. All that was fresh, the perfume, my flowers, my songs, have gone along with them.
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Great is my affliction, weighty is my burden; I write out a new song concerning it, that some time I may speak it there where I shall go, a song to be known when I shall leave the earth, that my soul shall live after I have gone from here, that my fame shall live fresh in memory.
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I cried aloud, I looked about, I reflected how I might see the root of song, that I might plant it here on the earth, and that then it should make my soul to live. The sweet exhalations of the lovely flowers rose up uniting with our flowers; one hears them growing as my song buds forth, filled with my words our flowers stand upright in the waters.
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But the flowers depart, their sweetness is divided and exhales, the fragrant poyomatl rains down its leaves where I, the poet, walk in sadness...

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From Here Begin Songs For The Teponaztli
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, by Daniel G. Brinton

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Don't forget come look about visit me my kneepit lands. Is many happy fun times!

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Adios amigos!

Pablo’s journey begins

It is with great pain I give you my happy news.

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I decide to follow the fireflies and go find my future, whatever that may be.

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Maybe I find my momma and my lost legs and dance the happy happy every night by the sea side.

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Or maybe I get kidnapped and sold to plantation bosses who will make me their slave and slowly torture and poison my lungs and the earth with their evil bananas like they do with many poor peoples no one ever sees.

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I dunno. All I know is Pablo has got to go and follow the flies.

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Before I go I say adios to my friends Frank, Chico, Juanita, the cheeky spider monkeys and my beloved potato farm. Since maybe I will never see them again, I take a little bit from each of them to carry with me in my little bag (Juanita - she give me many slappings before I get something from her).

I am hoping you will join me and help make my journey less lonely.

Adios amigos!

Pablo’s summer fiesta

The potato harvest was a good one. Juanita made tortillas and Pablo had everyone eating his most favourite fry potato in bread with peacante green salsa. To help with the eatings they have guannybanny juice which some try mixing with the tequila making them howl with the monkeys.

Now there is much dancing. Pablo must sit and watch them spin around and around the big fire moving to the sound of the forest tree and the big wind. The cheeky yellow monkeys have come too, to feast on the many nanbannas and to whip the asses of the slow dancers make them go faster and faster.

Pablo keep serving drinks and potatoes, chatting with his new friends, and the old ones. But also he keep on watching, looking into the black forest for some sign from his momma.

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Just when the fire is at its strongest, Pablo sees them coming. They come buzzing from the north, one hundred or more fireflies light up the skies so fast they make dizzy and scared the guests who all run to hide in each others kneepits. They see the flies come down and make the party. They eat all the potato and green mush that was left, drink all the guannyganny cocktails and then they fly away as quick as they were coming back to the northern hills.



Pablo sees that the people have gone quiet and scared so to make better he sing the song of the rabbits hairy forest – the one his momma teach him when he was a bambino – and soon everyone begin to make happy once more, with dancings and laughings and fightings and howlings like all good parties they must have.

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Many hours later the sun come to tell everyone the fiesta must finish for one more year. Pablo say goodbye to all his old friends, all his new ones and to the cheeky monkeys and capybaras who came to enjoy the fun too.

Pablo is so very tired, but now how can he sleep? Now he has a big big problem.

Pablo must decide.

Should he take a big voyage of discovery - follow the fireflies north over the secret mountains and past the dangerous gringo army camps to the seaside, for surely that is where his momma must be?

Or should he stay in his kneepit with all his friends, keeping the crops safe from the evil rank tatty scabs?

Pablo knows his momma said to him he must always follow his heart – but what to do when your heart is broken in different pieces?

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Come back soon to find out what Pablo decide!

Adios my amigos!

Potato Museum

Pablo find new place to go visit - the potato museum!

Make me happy thinking some people's love potatoes like Pablo like potatoes!

One day I must try to draw a potato.

Until that day my friends!

Adios!

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