see it on his face. he was too far away to hear what he was saying, but he was talking to the squad commander. eventually victor came back and the squad commander launched into this speech about the revolutionary armed forces of colombia, the farc. they were members of the farc. they were there to protect the people of colombia. and we listened. when he was done speaking, victor started speaking to me in english. this man, i don t know. he was trying to appear casual, but he was struggling. he was really trying to pick his words carefully. say it again? this man is no good, no good.
he saw us pull in. hello. welcome. good morning. mark. i liked victor right off. he was really friendly. good morning, miss. hi. how is it going? i am single. older, earlier 50s. victor kind of took us on a tour. we walked through the village. he showed us his house. we told victor we were planning to cross the darien into colombia. and that didn t seem like too big an issue for him. he talked about his experience guiding in the past. and he claimed to have contact with the farc, which was another relief. that s one less of a reason to worry with a guy that has contacts with the farc. kind of won us over, you know. si, bien. leaving capati was phenomenal. it was happening.
we ate fish and then rice and some bush meat, iguana. you eat what is served. and it was good. it was good. by that time, things were moving along pretty well, and we were able to negotiate with the chief for guides. i couldn t believe where i was. i felt incredibly fortunate. i felt like i was doing what i set out to do. we were there for a couple of days. victor told us that it would be safer if we made contact with the farc now rather than later. he told us that a local commander with the farc would meet with us. we spent a whole day. we just hung out. but they never showed up. if the farc had showed up, that would have been a huge relief, but that didn t happen. and the following day, we left. leaving paya, i knew we were close to colombia. we were probably about a day or day and a half from the border.
we re uninvited. we re in the darien. we ve left the police outpost. and all we really have is victor. all i can think, stay with victor. stay with victor. if anyone is going to sort this out, victor is going to sort it out. victor kept his calm, and he walked directly to the chief s home. obviously they wanted to hear from us what we were doing there and what we were planning. victor negotiated with the tribe. the next day, victor negotiated guides for us. the plan was for the guides to
this conversation which was basically how do we really know these people are who they say they are. we thought if we were going to run into somebody, it would be the farc, but i remember victor was nervous from the beginning that he didn t really know who they were. when he left, he was really quiet. i m certain he feared for his life. it s possible he was thinking they were sworn enemy of the farc, paramilitaries. i knew that there were rumors about them using chainsaws on people.