THE PUNISHMENT -- by Jack Ewing

The incident took place so long ago that Daniel Valverde doesn't remember for sure if it was Alvaro Mesa who felled the last manú negro tree on Hacienda Baru, but he was definitely the one who sent the workers to cut it into logs and split the logs into posts. Some people say that what happened that day was Alvaro’s punishment for cutting down the last manú negro on Hacienda Barú. Others say it was the curse of an Indian shaman whose tomb Alvaro had opened. Regardless of why it happened, it was the worst experience of his entire live.

The year was 1971. Daniel Valverde, Nato and Challo Campos and Arcele Arroyo followed Alvaro Mesa to the fallen tree, deep in the rainforest of the upper portions of the hacienda. On the hike up, Alvaro showed the men a  pre-Colombian cemetery where he claimed to have found gold in one of the tombs. When they reached the fallen manú negro, Alvaro left instructions with Daniel and Arcele and took Nato and Challo with him to blaze the trail they would use to carry the posts out on their shoulders.