This was my partner, he was as tough normally as he looks however once he ---
Twas back in the 50's. After hiking half way down Mexico's almost uninhabited west coast, My partner and I had turned inland and hit patches of pure jungle growth. We were recutting the remains of old paths that had been cut before, since they were going our way. We had been on the trail for weeks getting in condition to go to the Border of British Honduras to look for Mayan ruins
One day while cutting trail, my partner suddenly took off his pack, threw it on the ground then sat on it? We hadn't seen anyone for a week.
When I stopped cutting, I was lead cutter at the time, and turned around to see what was up, he lit a cigarette then said "it's no use. we are through, we are done, we will die here. but no-one will ever find us?
"hot-- ell are you saying" I asked a bit confused, he replied "It is just no use Jose, we are going to die here". "Die ?? are you nuts? we are doing just what we have trained and planned for, for almost two years. We have 3 cooked Chacalacas, Rice, Beans, etc., plenty of food, water etc." ??
"Nope" he said 'it is just no use" ?? HMM "OK" I said, "I'll let your family know what happened to you" and turned around and continued cutting, About 15 minutes later I head him calling from back down the trail "Jose Jose, where are you"? I didn't say anything, just kept cutting.
He quickly caught up wth me as I had planned. I still didn't say anything, however, after a whie, said "Let's cut back to the beach and rest for a few days" He agreed, and a few days later we were on the beautiful, unspoiled beach again.
I never mentioned this to him again , and he only gave me trouble once more when we ran out of water for two days, but found it on the third day. Nope we didn't die.
One day, while we were at that beautiful beach I spotted a 6 ft shark in very shallow water. Since shark meat is good chomping, I grabbed my Machete, a 30" colins, pistol, and went into the surf after him. When the shark heard me, he turned towards me and started coming, apparently he wanted dinner also.
We played 'circle around each other' several times then mutually decided to get the 'H' out of there.
My partner was laughing his arse off in the small hut that we had constructed. sheesh.
The picture is of him on what would become a major 4 lane highway down the west coast of Mexico. He actually was one tough guy.
that's a chcalaca he is holding, our mainstay on our diet. built similar to a roadrunner.
