The old machete wounds on the tree which overhung their stopping point on the Aguarico river indicated that Benecio was not the only one who knew this route to the Napo river. Walking at an Indian's normal gait the hike could be made in two days , but for the loaded down assault team it would be considerably longer. Finally it was agreed to hide one zodiac in the forest and to proceed with its motor as a backup and everyone except Benecio, carrying rebel army issue backpacks, as well as the 15 hp motors by the two strongest boys Emelio and Washington, and all of them using their free hand on the carrying handles of the rubber boat. Benecio led the way with a machete able to follow the faint trail and after they were underway for several hours he calculated that it would take them at least 5 days to travel the 8 miles to their cut off point on the panyayacu river and even then and although they would be in water, with fallen branches and partially submerged tree trunks and no other traffic to clear the way for them, there was little promise that this stretch would go any faster.
As they inched their way through the forest loosing grip of a gun here, a motor there,never quite finding a comfortable and efficient way to carry the boat and all of their gear, Benecio became tranquil not only resigned to their tedious journey but in tune with the discipline it would take to complete it. The jungle had taught him to be infinitely patient whether it be waiting for a rare bird to expose itself to him from behind some tree limbs where it was sunning for him to admire its beauty or in the hunt, sitting two or three nights behind a blind for a capybara or a tapir to come to a salt lick for a clean shot at his prey. The jungle had humbled him many times, enough to know that you had to accept it on its own terms and to struggle against it was a foolish waste of energy- no matter what was waiting for you at the other end of the trail. So he settled down into the herky-jerky rhythm the commandos had established, tripping and cursing as they sweated profusely under the weight of the deceptively heavy rubber boat and around four Benecio slipped Paco's Revolver fromits holster and before he had time to protest shot a white-tailed deer with a single round. The Deer, a fawn actually knew no fear of man so deep were they in the forest and had frozen on the trail right in front of them , eyeing them curiously when Benecio fired off the shot. The boy Emelio ,under his direction,venting his angry streak it seemed, stripped out the loins and hind legs of the creature and they built a fire and had a portion of the venison for dinner, cooked under Benicio's direction and the rest marinated and smoked with the troop taking turns stoking the fire and turning the spitted meat .
They erected a tent for Paco and Benecio and exhausted,the young men collapsed into the boat pulling a mosquito net up over them.Sleeping three at a time while one watched the meat , occasionally snorting a little coke. A petromax, the chinese made kerosene lamps, which took a bit of talent to get functioning properly hung over a tree limb at sufficient distance not to attract insects to their campsight lit the entire area with diffused light.
Inside the tent Paco Moreno and the extermely pained Benecio sipped Sinchicara from the bottle.
"A man is always surprised when old age sneaks up on him," said Moreno sadly.
Shit, said Benecio, "you are as old as you feel and I feel like I am forty.I know what promise awaits me what Miracles I will have at my fingertips."
"And I have nothing," said Moreno, slipping into the voice of the bipolar in his depressive state "I have worked my whole life for a cause, I have supported many people, even my wife no longer believes in me, she says I have wasted my life, thirty years I am fighting with El Mono...and I am only a colonel...I am a failed revolutionary.Just as the revolution will fail. I have devoted my life to failure."
"But now you are going to be rich ,"said Benecio, "It is the best revenge. Look if I cared what my wife or any one else thought of me do you think I would be the evil pendejo that I am."
"What are you trying to say,"said Moreno, lost in the fog of his misfiring brain.
"I mean in this life if you don't take it someone else will, so you better take all you can while you can because no one is going to give it to you. And even let's say you have a good idea like Gringo Chili, maybe you can make it work for twenty years but what's going to happem ? Some fulano across the street has stolen your idea only he calls it Americano Chili and maybe he puts in Karoke so there you find yourself everyday trying to think of what you can do to keep up with the new guy because everybody likes something new even if you are giving them something better and maybe he put in a karoke and a dance floor and you see you don't have room for a karoke and a dance floor. so you have your faithful clients and then even they go over and try out the new guy because he's serving Mexican Beer Corona for 1 dollar from 4 to 6 and how did you know the Gringos would give up their Budweiser for mexican beer they drink from the bottle after they stick a wedge of lime down the opening.. So you try to buy the Mexican beer and you say to the distributor that you will pay 1 dollar a beer after he tells you he doesn't have enough! One dollar a beer for the the coronas just to have them to compete and he says that the the the owner of the Americano Chili is his brother in law and he just can't sell you. So what do you do .? You try new things, but in the meantime the other place looks so brand new and you're spending all this money on new things when really you take a walk outside your place and you say caracho! I need a new roof. Americano Chili has such a better roof than my place and then you stop... and you send somebody over to get a bowl of Americano Chili and you know in your heart of hearts after you taste and your wife tastes it that it is not only not as good as Gringo Chili but it is not even average, ok, Chili and at that moment you learn the ordering rule of the world that you can put your heart and soul into something, care more about it, have the best recipe for anything in life but when people turn on you and they will always turn on you and it is not because of the quality of your chili it is because they want the thing they will never find. The new thing. The el dorado of chili. And by the time - if they ever realize it- that the new place does not have the el dorado of chili- it is too late because they have forgotten about your Gringo Chili. They don't give a shit because they have become accustomed to Americano Chili and have forgotten the glory of Gringo Chili and you realize that it was never about the chili that made them come to you or to the new place but a dream of chili and even though you were fufilling that dream...even though you had the motherfucking world prizewinning recipe for chili... the vision of the dream has changed .It will always change, because once they have found it it doies not exist any more.So they willl stay at Americano chili until I don't know, New York Chili opens with chinese beer and striptease dancers and they will say yes. This is it. Now we have truly found the El Dorado of Chili.
So I have learned to become the evil pendejo you see here. I have learned that giving from your heart is for fools and if you ever get the chance to take .Take.Listen Paco, all revolutions fail because it is all about the struggle and never about the success. And all searches for el dorado fail because even when the searchers find them, the moment they find themm they cease to exist. But foir the handful of people in this world who have found wealth that comes from the ground and that they can put it in their hands and say this is mine, those are the people who have found the real el dorado and Paco I am sharing it with you I have found it and I am sharing it with you!"Benecio had reached a fever pitch and he saw the vision of the world he had painted with his words reflected back to him in the glistening of Paco's eyes where he now shined a flash light.
Paco cyclyed out of his depressive state into mania as his bipolar condition with this external revving and perhaps the aide of sinchicara was want to do .In one of his classic mood swings of an instant, he let out the clutch so to speak of his mania and hugged hugged Benecicio with great affection who grimaced with pain.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! he shouted, " I see now. They will take it from you for no good reason. I served the revolution for thirty years and I command 100 men. Ha !
So they like the new younger brands of beer coming up so quickly now through the ranks, ha !. I could not get respect not matter what I did. Ha! No more giving from my heart for fools to steal my ideas. Benecio I see now. The only way is to take and to take all I can !
"TO take your share,"Benecio corrected him.
"Yes of course, "said Paco,"to take my share and never give anything to anyone again because in the end everybody is a taker and it has taken me this long with my trusted childhood friend to guide me to this point and by the way Benecio, I am no longer an old man."
"Good,' said Benecio and laid on his bedroll.
"Yes you sleep said Paco, "When I am in this state I do not sleep for days sometimes. But don't worry about me. I will do my part."
