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which_chickWhen last we visited the book, Alex and his grandma Kate had just landed in Santa Maria de las Lluvias (Saint Maria of the Rains?). Since then so much has happened, oh boy.
Alex and Nadia (daughter of the guide Cesar they picked up in SMdlL) met with a Shaman (and the ghost of his dead wife, who follows him around and stuff) who predicted that one of their expedition was going to die.
While in the town, they (Alex and Nadia) overheard the head soldier and the large businessman of SMdlL discussing their plan to foil the expedition by steering them away from anything useful, using their spy within the group. (We do not know the identity of the spy.)
Then the expedition group visited the large businessman's compound where there was a jaguar in a cage. Alex had vision stuff happen (apparently the Jaguar is his spirit animal), Nadia's dad shot the Jaguar, and the expedition got the loan of two motorboats to use when heading upriver.
On the way upriver, one of the soldiers accompanying them got blowdarted to death by an unseen assailant.
Also on the way upriver, one of the photographers of the expedition (there were two) was attacked by an anaconda that broke his ribs before they could stop the snake. And another soldier was offed by La Bestia. So, the expedition decided to send one motorboat back with some people AND the injured photographer to see if they can get help for the expedition back at SMdlL.
The two remaining soldiers absconded with the OTHER motorboat in the middle of their night watch, so that what was LEFT of the original expeditionary group (Kate, Dr. Torres, Asshole Leblanc, a couple of indians, and iirc Cesar Santos along with Alex and Nadia Santos) was stuck upriver without a boat.
Nadia and Alex get captured by a group of tribespeople, "la gente de la neblina" (The People of the Mist? Fog? Vapor? Something along those lines.), and are drug far away from the rest of the group by said tribe.
(at this point our narrative follows the Adventures of Alex and Nadia. I have no further updates on the rest of the expedition in a "Meanwhile, back with the expedition" sort of way.)
They have to climb up behind a waterfall and go through a tunnel to the lands of the tribe. Alex has to save the leader of the tribe because he fell on the slippery wet rocks. But, eventually they make it to the tribespeople village.
There's a party, a thing that starts in the evening and runs all night, with drinking and feasting and stuff. Afterward, they are talking to the injured leader (the one Alex rescued) They ask him what he will do about the foreigners coming into contact with the tribe, which is inevitable. He says "next chief will have to figure it out. My time here is done." Chief dies the next morning at dawn.
The men of the tribe, who'd spent the night drinking because of the festival, seem of concern. Tensions are rising. Nadia suggests that she and Alex should summon Walimai-the-Shaman from before. So they do, using a ?magic amulet he gave her. Meanwhile, the village men decide to get stoned to vision who the next chief will be. (Finalmente decidieron resolver el conflicto mediante el yopo, un polvo verde que como el masato, solo usaban los varones), but that doesn't happen. Nobody has a useful vision, but one of the stoned tribesmen feels that they need to "get" Alex because it is his fault the old chief is dead. (This is not sensible, but also they are stoned.) Alex tries to flee but is captured and tied to a tree.
The tribe dudes pay no attention to Nadia, so she is able to cut Alex free from the tree. They use their "fade into the background" skills learned from watching the tribe to make a getaway. They don't get far because they run into the Shaman Walimai from before, whom they had summoned. He got there quickly, travelling by Plot Device.
He calms the tribe down because he is a Famous Shaman and well-known.
The Shaman makes a potion to help the tribesmen see with their hearts. Alex and Nadia get to drink some too, because they "will complete a heroic mission most important in their lives and for that they don't just need help of the gods but also they need to know their own strengths"? Or something. Anyway. Alex and Nadia drink the drink.
Alex Jaguars again, yep, that's his spirit animal. Nadia flies. She's an eagle? "aguila". I think eagle. Bird of prey, anyway. El gran pajaro. Very large bird. Flies to the top of a very large mountain, sees a nest with three crystal eggs. Nadia thinks this is of import to save the People of the Mist. It's all very prophetic and somewhat woo-woo.
Meanwhile, in the tribe, Iyomi (spouse of dead chief) grinds up burned bones of dead chief, puts in liquid, everyone drinks. And then Walimai says "De acuerdo a la tradicion, solo los hombres podian aspirar a esa posicion" (being chief) BUT that "esta vez se debia es escoger con extrema prudencia porque vivian tiempos muy extranos y se requeria un jefe capaz de comprender los misterios de otros mundos, comunicarse con los dioses y mantener a raya al Rahakanariwa."
They elect Iyomi as chief, everybody even the kids. It's not a real election, not with votes (Alex tried to explain but the tribe didn't know how to count and anyway they elect "with visions) but Iyomi is the jefa now, first female one ever.
Iyomi's first order of business (after food) is to name other jefes.
Tahama (a warrior guy) is head of guerra y la caza (war and hunting)
Aguila (Nadia) is in charge of placating Rahakanariwa (??? a spirit? I do not have a good grasp of whether or not Rahakanariwa is real or what he/she/it/they might be.)
Alex is to negotiate with the foreigners and their pajaros de ruido y viento (birds of noise and wind, "helicopters")
Walimai is to visit the gods. (This is a position he already holds.)
and the jefe para los jefes is Iyomi.
So that's like her cabinet. Next order of business is "el joven forastero, Jaguar, debia convertirse en hombre y recibir sus armas de guerrero". They're going to make a man out of him.
So Alex goes into the woods with the menfolk for an abbreviated ritual (No habia tiempo para la ceremonia tradicional, que duraba tres dias y normalmente incluia a todos los muchachos de la tribu que habian alcanzado la pubertad") of one day and one night, involving song and dance and religious education and a handful of Jaguaring and some hormigas de fuego (these are fire ants, more or less) on his left arm as a test of pain endurance or similar. Bienvenido entre los hombres. "Welcome to the men." (Women do not put up with this bullshit, btw. It's just a man thing.)
Following that, Alex is somewhat passed out and sees a vision of his mother in the Texas hospital doing her chemo (she saw him too). He wakes up and they treat his ant-bitten arm and they (Nadia, Alex, Walimai and his ghost-wife) all head off to the sacred mountain.
As they are en route, Alex is like "Hey, Walimai, what is the house of the gods like?"
Walimai is not super-forthcoming. "Mas grande que el mas grande de los shabonos, brillante y amarillo como el sol" (Bigger than the biggest of villages, brilliant and yellow like the sun.)
"El Dorado?! Sera esa la legendaria ciudad de oro que buscaron los conquistadores?" (Alex reads a lot and has a fair decent imagination.)
"Puede ser y puede no ser" says Walimai. "Could be. Could not be." (Book helpfully points out that Walimai has no frame of reference for what 'El Dorado' was, how to spot gold, or any idea of what a conquistador might be.)
Walimai points out that they are headed to the secret house of the gods on the grounds of his visions.
"Seremos dignos de esa confianza. Nunca revelaremos la entrada..." Alex -- We are worthy of this confidence. We will never reveal the entrance...
Walimai throws the shade: "No podran. Si salen vivos, lo olvidaran." (You can't. If you leave alive, you will forget.) Not like that's reassuring, there, Walimai.
Alex and Nadia (daughter of the guide Cesar they picked up in SMdlL) met with a Shaman (and the ghost of his dead wife, who follows him around and stuff) who predicted that one of their expedition was going to die.
While in the town, they (Alex and Nadia) overheard the head soldier and the large businessman of SMdlL discussing their plan to foil the expedition by steering them away from anything useful, using their spy within the group. (We do not know the identity of the spy.)
Then the expedition group visited the large businessman's compound where there was a jaguar in a cage. Alex had vision stuff happen (apparently the Jaguar is his spirit animal), Nadia's dad shot the Jaguar, and the expedition got the loan of two motorboats to use when heading upriver.
On the way upriver, one of the soldiers accompanying them got blowdarted to death by an unseen assailant.
Also on the way upriver, one of the photographers of the expedition (there were two) was attacked by an anaconda that broke his ribs before they could stop the snake. And another soldier was offed by La Bestia. So, the expedition decided to send one motorboat back with some people AND the injured photographer to see if they can get help for the expedition back at SMdlL.
The two remaining soldiers absconded with the OTHER motorboat in the middle of their night watch, so that what was LEFT of the original expeditionary group (Kate, Dr. Torres, Asshole Leblanc, a couple of indians, and iirc Cesar Santos along with Alex and Nadia Santos) was stuck upriver without a boat.
Nadia and Alex get captured by a group of tribespeople, "la gente de la neblina" (The People of the Mist? Fog? Vapor? Something along those lines.), and are drug far away from the rest of the group by said tribe.
(at this point our narrative follows the Adventures of Alex and Nadia. I have no further updates on the rest of the expedition in a "Meanwhile, back with the expedition" sort of way.)
They have to climb up behind a waterfall and go through a tunnel to the lands of the tribe. Alex has to save the leader of the tribe because he fell on the slippery wet rocks. But, eventually they make it to the tribespeople village.
There's a party, a thing that starts in the evening and runs all night, with drinking and feasting and stuff. Afterward, they are talking to the injured leader (the one Alex rescued) They ask him what he will do about the foreigners coming into contact with the tribe, which is inevitable. He says "next chief will have to figure it out. My time here is done." Chief dies the next morning at dawn.
The men of the tribe, who'd spent the night drinking because of the festival, seem of concern. Tensions are rising. Nadia suggests that she and Alex should summon Walimai-the-Shaman from before. So they do, using a ?magic amulet he gave her. Meanwhile, the village men decide to get stoned to vision who the next chief will be. (Finalmente decidieron resolver el conflicto mediante el yopo, un polvo verde que como el masato, solo usaban los varones), but that doesn't happen. Nobody has a useful vision, but one of the stoned tribesmen feels that they need to "get" Alex because it is his fault the old chief is dead. (This is not sensible, but also they are stoned.) Alex tries to flee but is captured and tied to a tree.
The tribe dudes pay no attention to Nadia, so she is able to cut Alex free from the tree. They use their "fade into the background" skills learned from watching the tribe to make a getaway. They don't get far because they run into the Shaman Walimai from before, whom they had summoned. He got there quickly, travelling by Plot Device.
He calms the tribe down because he is a Famous Shaman and well-known.
The Shaman makes a potion to help the tribesmen see with their hearts. Alex and Nadia get to drink some too, because they "will complete a heroic mission most important in their lives and for that they don't just need help of the gods but also they need to know their own strengths"? Or something. Anyway. Alex and Nadia drink the drink.
Alex Jaguars again, yep, that's his spirit animal. Nadia flies. She's an eagle? "aguila". I think eagle. Bird of prey, anyway. El gran pajaro. Very large bird. Flies to the top of a very large mountain, sees a nest with three crystal eggs. Nadia thinks this is of import to save the People of the Mist. It's all very prophetic and somewhat woo-woo.
Meanwhile, in the tribe, Iyomi (spouse of dead chief) grinds up burned bones of dead chief, puts in liquid, everyone drinks. And then Walimai says "De acuerdo a la tradicion, solo los hombres podian aspirar a esa posicion" (being chief) BUT that "esta vez se debia es escoger con extrema prudencia porque vivian tiempos muy extranos y se requeria un jefe capaz de comprender los misterios de otros mundos, comunicarse con los dioses y mantener a raya al Rahakanariwa."
They elect Iyomi as chief, everybody even the kids. It's not a real election, not with votes (Alex tried to explain but the tribe didn't know how to count and anyway they elect "with visions) but Iyomi is the jefa now, first female one ever.
Iyomi's first order of business (after food) is to name other jefes.
Tahama (a warrior guy) is head of guerra y la caza (war and hunting)
Aguila (Nadia) is in charge of placating Rahakanariwa (??? a spirit? I do not have a good grasp of whether or not Rahakanariwa is real or what he/she/it/they might be.)
Alex is to negotiate with the foreigners and their pajaros de ruido y viento (birds of noise and wind, "helicopters")
Walimai is to visit the gods. (This is a position he already holds.)
and the jefe para los jefes is Iyomi.
So that's like her cabinet. Next order of business is "el joven forastero, Jaguar, debia convertirse en hombre y recibir sus armas de guerrero". They're going to make a man out of him.
So Alex goes into the woods with the menfolk for an abbreviated ritual (No habia tiempo para la ceremonia tradicional, que duraba tres dias y normalmente incluia a todos los muchachos de la tribu que habian alcanzado la pubertad") of one day and one night, involving song and dance and religious education and a handful of Jaguaring and some hormigas de fuego (these are fire ants, more or less) on his left arm as a test of pain endurance or similar. Bienvenido entre los hombres. "Welcome to the men." (Women do not put up with this bullshit, btw. It's just a man thing.)
Following that, Alex is somewhat passed out and sees a vision of his mother in the Texas hospital doing her chemo (she saw him too). He wakes up and they treat his ant-bitten arm and they (Nadia, Alex, Walimai and his ghost-wife) all head off to the sacred mountain.
As they are en route, Alex is like "Hey, Walimai, what is the house of the gods like?"
Walimai is not super-forthcoming. "Mas grande que el mas grande de los shabonos, brillante y amarillo como el sol" (Bigger than the biggest of villages, brilliant and yellow like the sun.)
"El Dorado?! Sera esa la legendaria ciudad de oro que buscaron los conquistadores?" (Alex reads a lot and has a fair decent imagination.)
"Puede ser y puede no ser" says Walimai. "Could be. Could not be." (Book helpfully points out that Walimai has no frame of reference for what 'El Dorado' was, how to spot gold, or any idea of what a conquistador might be.)
Walimai points out that they are headed to the secret house of the gods on the grounds of his visions.
"Seremos dignos de esa confianza. Nunca revelaremos la entrada..." Alex -- We are worthy of this confidence. We will never reveal the entrance...
Walimai throws the shade: "No podran. Si salen vivos, lo olvidaran." (You can't. If you leave alive, you will forget.) Not like that's reassuring, there, Walimai.
