Still In Mexico, This is way too long.... Oh well Options

[Twystd1]

Hello all,
Geezzz i never realized how much I miss this forum and the friends I have met here.

I found a internet cafe in Durango Mexico. YEAH...!!!!!!

I didnt realize what it was like to be without a computer and a cell phone for weeks on end.

I thought I would check in and see how everyone is doing.
And give ya a blurb on what up with da Twystd1

I just finished the Brad thread. That was one of the most amazing and envigorating pieces I have read in years.

It forced me take a look at myself and see where i had made mistakes in my own life. And review a few mistakes I made with a couple of the crew here on this forum.

I owe them. And I know it.

One more time... A gift from the club.

I am in beeeeUtiful downtown Durango,DGO Mexico. Where the women are georgeous and the food is cheap. Great place for a single guy. Who cant speak spanish worth a dam. But I am learning.

Í have been excavating Spanish Conquistador era gold and silver mines for a couple of weeks now.

It is absolutely amazing to walk on the same path as these explorers. To touch the stones they carved and feel a bit sad to know that most of the work was done by indian slave labor.

The areas I am in is so far from civilization it almost defys description.

Right next ton very old mine, we ate off the same pappaya trees that the Spanish planted 500 years ago. Actually it is the offspring of the original trees.

These mines are so far into the interior of the Sierra Madres. Even the Locals don't have names for some of these mountains. It is a trip to have 90 degree days with a hail storm lasting twenty minutes show up in the niddle of the day.

Thee are natual springs everywhere. Ya don't know how good water is until you have walked up and down mountains all day at 10K feet and higher and run out of water and KNOW if ya look around. You can find a natural spring. Just look for lotsa green stuff growing. Dig a shallow hole. VOILA. Insta water.

Ya have to imagen what it is like to have a base camp at 10,000 feet and crawl up to mines. How the Spanish got this ore to the coast is something I can't even imagine.

How did they traverse a mountain side that took me two days to climb with one mule and an alpacca? They had to go another 200 miles in the most insane terain imagiable. That again is the mystery of the Sierra Madres.

Compases and GPS won't work. The magnetite in the mountains are so strong at some points I am lucky a flashlight works. I t even (apparently) bends thge radio waves so that even the GPS can't find sattelites. I know leave all the electronic crap in the city. We now travel by instinct and stars.

Almost got nailed by EL Diablo (Black Panther) last week.
I was stuck on the side of a mountain when the sun set. Had to camp on the side of the mountain with a couple of locals. Woke up in the middle of the night. Was staring at two big eyes in the moonlight. Was a panther. Bout ten feet from me. I just stayed silent and stared back at him. There was a moment of what I felt like there was a kind of friendly conversation between the cat and my spirit.
He was gone before I could see or hear where he went. Spooky and wonderful all at the same time.

Wacky, scary and wonderful stuff happens like that every day in the Sierra Madres. I can't take photos. The growers would kill me if they saw a camera. They would have to assume I was a federally or a policia looking for narco trafficantes. I just go all over hell with my jugs of water and a chipping hammer. Most of time, they leave me alone.

Tomorrow I go back into the Siera Madres to search under a approx.430 year old spanish general store that only has the foundation left. The story goes that there is a cave about 30 feet below the foundation that has gold, guns, silver, and six dead horses buried with it. Was closed during the spanish revolution by the guy that originally found the treasure. I met his (70 year old) son on a mountain side a few weeks ago. he told me the story. Now I am going after the goods. I just have to figure out how to shore up a 10 foot around X 30 foot deep hole without any tools except hand tools. Should be a calculation nightmare. Oh yeah. Lest we forget the neuro toxins from the dead horses. Am scared shitless about getting good men hurt on this project. But the Mexican mountain men in the Siera Madres are an amazing lot. They can make a car out of a tin can. Simply amazing people.

OK, I could write for hours. This is my only chance to use english and I am relishing in it at the moment.

Thanks for giving me a place to touch base with my brothers and my friends.

May your God give you the gifts that I am getting right now.

Love ya all...

Twystd1

PS: SKLINE, yur still ugly......
Matt, hope ya like the paint
Aaron: My barefooted brother.
Slits: I want to be crusty like you when I grow up.
Mueller: I wish I knew you better. I would like to learn from you.
Spunone: Dude does anyone really know how good you are in aluminum?
All Else: Thanks for creating a good place for all of us.