In the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador, I was told by a young lad that he knew a secret place. As this young kid, 10-11 years old, was so exited about his secret my first thought was that he only tried to receive some money for this information. When he told me that he will take me to this place for free, but also told me that if what I will see is worth some USD he will accept!
I told two of my friends about this and we decided to rent a jeep to find this secret place.
Pablo, the kid, came with us. He showed us the way up to Morona- Santiago heading right into the rain forest. When we asked Pablo about the distance to this secret place, he just smiled told us, it’s a long journey.
The so-called roads where crossing small rivers and heading up into the deepest rainforest I ever seen, we had now been driving for over 4 hours. This was really an adventure for us, and Pablo just enjoyed the ride.
Finally, he told us to park the jeep at the roadside, to start walking up a steep hill. This was real jungle, with screaming monkeys and the high sound of all kind of birds, it was a fascinating place. I almost forgot about our destiny looking at all this deep green rain forest with its wildlife.
I looked at the face of Pablo, when he stopped and pointed up a rocky mountain that suddenly was ahead of us, he was all smiling! This is my secret, he screamed!
He showed us the entrance to a cave. Later I found the name, Cueva de los Tayos and situated 540 meter above sea level. First, I was disappointed to se this secret of Pablo, but when he showed us what was behind the entrance, I changed my mind. After a while a square cut tunnel appeared and going down by about 30% slope, the walls and ceiling were so perfect and smooth as it was cut by a laser. I don’t remember so well for how long we walked down, it was so exiting, but suddenly a large cave was ahead of us and Pablo stopped us! Don’t walk into the cave, he orders. What we sew ahead of us, was a huge rock hanging freely in the air in the center of the cave! How is this possible? We were stunned! Pablo entered in the cave and demonstrated that nothing was under or above the rock, but was telling us not to touch it, something terrible could happened he said.
When we finally came out it was late afternoon and we had to hurry back before the fall of the dark night. We payed Pablo 10 USD for his “secret “and he was more than thankful for this and gave us all a big hug.
It was now very warm and the humidity high, we were swarmed by flies and mosquitos. Before reaching the Jeep, I was stung several times. We traveled the same way back to Guayaquil and arrived almost at midnight, I felt dizzy and just wanted to go onboard the ship to sleep in my cabin. I was laying in my bed and were thinking about what I had seen and could hardly believe it all. This was what the last thing I remembered before waking up in a sickbed at San Jose, Puerto Rico!!
I was told by a nurse that I had been in coma for 4 days, the time it took our ship to sail from Ecuador and made an emergency halt in Juan Jose to send me by helicopter to the city hospital, before leaving to USA.
I had Malaria!! My body was all wet by sweat and had no strength left, I felt like dying…!
When I first met the doctor, he told me not to worry, I had been treated for malaria and everything was looking good. But I was also told that I was going to have a few difficult years ahead of me. The malaria attacks will come back every 3-4 month for some time. This was so true, I lived with this sudden coming fever for years ahead, but I had survived!
My toughs always came back to the cave and the hanging rock. I was seeking information in books and found out later that just after our visit, the Ecuador government had sealed the entrance to the cave, for security reasons. I also found some scientific articles regarding possible antimaterial, but this was never confirmed!
After 2 weeks at hospital, I was sent by airline direct to Los Angeles, as my ship M/s Broland was in the port of San Pedro. Back onboard I was welcomed by our Captain and all my mates.
I found years later some interesting reading about our experience in La Cueva de Los Tayos, as you can find below.
By for now,
Windmush will be back soon!
