Narco Mar 2012 The Suicide's Rock

It  very uncomfortable to travel standing in the corridor of the buses between Atacames and El Salto, there were pushes, to get in and out when arriving at the stops, or from the street vendors, music of crying whales, Mexican narcocorrido, or ballads, which were sung stories of the love misadventures, or the evil deeds of Mexican drug traffickers.

A few kilometers from Atacames, the bus climbed the only slope on the way to Muisne, that of Peñón del Suicida and Máxima, seeing from that place a fleet of fishing boats, fishermen's canoes, and the beach of Atacames, he remembered that story that his father She told her as a child about a craftsman who during an epidemic of malaria and typhoid together, in one, now called a syndemic, made a 40 cm Coral Christ, which the Central Bank had ordered her to make for its Museum, but then not I buy. A spiritist healer came to town, who healed with telepathy and who saved his wife in exchange for the image, then thousands of people came to the healer's house to heal after praying all night to the Cristo de Coral Negro or Cristo Negro. A presidential candidate even arrived who put tar on his body and dragged a raft cross, followed by thousands of his fanatical followers, carrying the image of his Coral Christ at the head of that procession.

But the craftsman hated that candidate, for being a fanatic, a liar, a populist, and shortly before they arrive at the Atacames park to pray in front of the church, he stole the image. The crowd ran after him to catch him and retrieve the Black Christ, but upon reaching the Peñón del Suicida, he threw the crucifix into the sea, when the tide hit the rocks and as it fell, the astonished crowd saw how the crucifix became a kingfisher golden, with a very large white breast when it flew, the fishermen and other incredulous inhabitants searched for days for the crucifix, without finding it, they only saw that golden bird on the highest cliff, which frightened them with its caws. The artisan was able to taste that Christ of Coral, it was his, he never sold it to the healer, the healer escaped from Atacames because the doctors and the Ministry of Health chased him away and the candidate lost the elections.

On the other side of the Peñón de Suicida is Same and Casa Blanca, with thousands of luxury houses and apartments, on the beach, the hills, a golf course, palm trees, it was the beach of the rich in Ecuador, especially in the Sierra.

There was a fishermen's beach near Same, which had a lot of movement all day, as the fishermen went out in two shifts, some at dawn and returning in the afternoon, others between afternoon and night. from the boardwalk to the mouth of the river there were hundreds of boats and the place reeked of rotten fish, it also had black sand, which seemed to be contaminated by oil, but in reality, it was due to the presence of titanium, the hardest metal in all and pusilana, a component of fast-setting cement. He was struck by the fact that while the bus stopped for a long time, after the doctors and teachers, who were frequent passengers at that time, got off, from the muddy street of the town, a huge trailer loaded with that sand came out. black. People on the bus commented that the same thing was happening in Mompiche.

But the biggest comment was that the police had seized drugs and took the menhaden and the motor from a Tonchigue fisherman, who had wanted to land a shipment of cocaine in Galera, a nearby beach, to the south.

In Tonchigue, peasants with their boots, machetes, embarked, some carried the purchases they had made in the town and others the cheese that they could not sell.

The hustle and bustle and laughter were not lacking as the bus had become the meeting place. They wondered about their relatives, friends, family, neighbors, animals, pests, businesses, and anything new. Just seeing each other again was already the reason for euphoric demonstrations, chatter, jokes, compliments. It was as if life was a celebration every day. They believed in chance and luck more than in God, that is why they celebrated the meetings like the daily miracle.

From Tonchigue to Salto, Máxima was able to sit next to a peasant who told her how the government was building the highway to Manabí, the neighboring province, at an astonishing speed, that workers and machines worked day and night in three daily shifts.

Finally, the bus reached El Salto.

-Well doctor, I'm glad I met you. I get off here because I'm going to Muisne.

- The pleasure was also mine.

- Excuse me, doctor, but you don't seem from Quito, you seem Argentine, like those boys who are going to get on at the bus stop. Well, I have to get off.

-Good luck

A group of Argentine boys ware waiting in line to get on the bus after the last of the remaining passengers got off. The bustle returned but this time with an Argentine accent.