25. The narco pirates

The daily walk and run on the beach allowed Máxima to realize the slaughter that was made of the manta rays and eels. The number of stingrays killed could be counted by the heads that appeared in the sand and the eels because they woke up dead or dying. These two species were not bought by local merchants, but there was a shrewd Peruvian buyer who had two businesses, bringing contraband and sometimes drugs from Peru and bringing the headless manta rays from Ecuador.

The shells of the beach that appeared in piles in seasons, became the main entertainment of the tourists, who daily walked the beach from Same, their colors or shapes were a source of curiosity and amazement.

But the sea from time to time came floods that hit the barrier of the Tonchigue boardwalk, invaded the street reaching the house or collapsed the rocks of the cliffs, even preventing the passage, when the tide was high. There were times when the sand turned completely black, that black sand full of titanium, was loot from the mining or cement companies by the pusilana, but the town stopped its extraction, a short time before Máxima arrived.

The radiant sun invited her to go swimming in the sea, where she practiced all styles, she developed the ability to dive for a long time, to move with the current that ran north in the summer months from June to December, when the water became cold on the surface due to the arrival of the Cold Humbodt Current, but it remained hot below, where it was still hot, because the Child Current did not go away. The opposite happened from December to June, when the surface was hot, due to the north or hot winds from the north, when the current pushed it to the south, while in the depth, the water was very cold because the Humboldt Current remained .

Máxima swam between the beach, where the waves were high, rough and in many cases dangerous because of the undertows and the place where they were born, a sea that seemed calm, but that was dangerous because the fishermen ran with their boats at full speed.

It was a Wednesday when she saw someone floating thanks to a yellow plastic tank, that person was still very far from the beach. Máxima ran for help in the place where the fishermen were shuffling their boats.

-Look there is someone asking for help.

The fishermen immediately noticed and pushed their boats out to sea to rescue him.

When they returned they brought one of her companions, who had burned skin, the sun and the salty water that had blistered all over his body. He was almost unconscious.

- They stole my boat and motor and left me with the gasoline can. I've been at sea for two days - said the fisherman that he could barely speak and was very dehydrated.

"Water please, water," he asked desperately.

-You do not have to give the water abruptly because you can die,

Give him some and let's take him to the dispensary, to put IVs in his vein.

While the doctor and the nurse were hydrating the skin, where some of the blisters had burst, it was a burn of those of the middle of the body. The fisherman answered some questions from the doctor.

- What's it called?

- Juan Tufiño.

-How old is he?

- Thirty-one doctor.

-Why was your boat and his motor stolen?

- They are the narco-pirates, doctor. They steal our boats or our motors, and they have even killed fishermen.

-Narco-pirates?

- They steal from us and then carry fuel, gas, better said smuggling to Colombia and from there they bring cocaine, with which they contaminate ships in ports or even at sea to ships that are crossing outside 200 miles. Other times they only steal from us to bring contraband from the ships.

Were you alone?

Yes, I went to collect some shrimp nets. I think it was fortunate that it was not with my nephew, because they had been killed, he is braver than me.

When the doctor went to eat on the boardwalk, like every day at 3 in the afternoon. The fishermen protested in front of the marine guard post. because they did not give them protection. The sailors made a simulation of going out in search of a suspect, but in that immensity of the ocean, it seemed impossible to find a narco-pirate.

Back in the office, it was painstaking work to place the Vaseline gauze pads on the living skin, from which the skin detached by the blisters was removed. Luckily the medicines were not lacking.

Family members gathered outside, his wife, his children, friends who saw it as a miracle that Juan was saved.

"The little virgin of Carmen saved him, doctor," repeated the fisherman's wife. Hopefully, the father comes, I am going to gather the responders of the rosary, the fishermen, all the families devoted to the Virgin.