Of Crocodiles, Gun Fights
and Friendship
Packing up and traveling halfway around the world tends to
leaves one with mountains of questions.
Not the least of these is, what will the people be like? The answer has
proven to be far more curious than we would have guessed. These people have carved a life from the
Jungles of the tropics. They have
survived among crocodiles, jaguars, tarantulas, and the climate.
David and Daphne are a couple who have befriended us and we
have come to love time spent in their company.
Daphne is the no nonsense math teacher with a heart for her students as
big as the hills she lives in. David
on the other hand is a rugged, character with a dark swarthy look from working
under the tropical sun. When he pulled up to the
Gilmour’s house one evening to show us a couple of six foot snakes he’d burned
out of the grass my image of him as the Crocodile Dundee of Blue Creek was
again reinforced.
 |
| David instructs in the way of coconuts |
 |
| Kerianne, Dave and Daphne's daughter, chops coconuts with a machete. |
 |
| Nikki is brave with the dead snakes |
 |
| This is Paul trying to tease out the croc |
David has lots of stories about crocks although it’s his
brother Paul who called us to come see the nine footer he caught in the rice
fields one Sunday afternoon. Paul had
taken some friends and the kids to look for ducklings. Instead he found this
old crock and decided to catch it. When
we arrived all 300 pounds of it was still tied to a tree along his driveway and
Paul wanted to get his rope back before turning the beast loose into the swamp. This meant at one point I was holding the end
of said rope with the crock still tied to the other end while Paul casually
threw chunks of trees into the lizards jaw to distract it. Unfortunately the powerful jaws crushed the wood
easily while I haplessly held the end of the line which was to keep the crock
from charging Paul. I couldn’t help but
wonder what made this rope so valuable as there was nothing stopping the crock
from reversing its direction and charging back towards me. Finally freeing the crock Paul left him on
the edge of his driveway to find his own way into the swamp below.
 |
| Paul just left the crock to find his own way home |
One of David’s crock encounters was from when he was a
kid. Green lake is a big lagoon at the
bottom of the hills which also serves as a popular swimming spot for
teenagers. We drove our 4x4 out there
once, almost throwing the Gilmour kids from the box as we bounced through the
muddy ruts or catching them on the tree branches and vines that hung down from
the canopy above and into the truck box.
We arrived to find two of Kevin’s high school boys trying to impress a
couple girls by climbing a 25 foot rope from the water into a tree and then leaping
back in. As the water goes almost strait
down with no beach, it’s not really suitable for the kids, so we packed up and
left the boys to continue their exhibition unhindered by their teachers.
David tells us that he and friends often swam across the
lake. As the beach on the other side is
often cluttered with weeds and debris, getting back into the water requires a
good run and a diving leap from the shore.
On one such occasion, David’s leap ended up on the back of a crocodile
that was hidden in the weeds. While he
calmly assured us that a three or four footer doesn’t usually represent much danger
to people, this was a hand to tooth encounter that the crocodile hadn’t
expected and couldn’t avoid. His nearby
friends saw the commotion and quickly identified the crock in the water but
were powerless to do much as David negotiated this unexpected meeting. As quickly as the encounter began the crock
had extricated himself from the bout and had disappeared into the depths of the
lake, at which point the other kids continued into the water and swam back
across the lake. It’s not next thing I might have done but it’s sort or
response that seems fairly typical here.
 |
| Boys trying to impress girls at Green lake. We left so they could proceed unhindered by their teachers. |
Gunfight at the O.K.
Coral
The next tale from David’s earlier days made us wonder that
he was here to tell it at all. No, this
wasn’t the story where he lept from his 30 ton bulldozer as it tumbled down the
steep side of a hill, crushing the cab and almost taking his life. Nor is this the story of his panic-stricken
sprint alone through the jungle. For
over two desperate miles he prayed he would reach the lifesaving shelter of his
pickup as a cloud of killer bees stung him again and again. It was a near miss. No,
this was a story from when he was still a kid and in the dark of a moonlit
night he was asked to enter a life and death struggle to protect his community.
Back in the early years of the Blue Creek, they had
established a community owned co-op store and a basic communication system
between homes based on short wave radio.
Late one night David’s father, David Sr. woke him from a deep sleep. “The
store is being robbed. Get up quick and
grab your hunting rifle.”
The community store had been set upon by three fortune
seeking Mexicans from across the Rio Hondo.
Their downfall was that their covert activity
had been picked up by the intercom radio in the store. Within minutes the community was aware of their
presence and had sprung into action. The
message had travelled via radio waves down to the village on the plain below
the hills of Blue Creek. The Belizean police
constable had been woken and alerted.
Knowing that he needed to catch the thieves red handed to get any kind
of conviction in court, he ordered the men to allow the robbery to proceed and
set in motion a plan for their capture.
Down on the plains, the only road in and out of Blue Creek
was blocked with a tractor placed just in front of the bridge crossing a creek. The tractor bristled with men, armed with hunting
weapons who would cover the constable as he confronted and arrested the
thieves. Back up the hills by the store,
David and his brothers stood in the back of their fathers pickup. Hidden within
the darkness of the trees, they watched the unknowing thieves load their
getaway car under the light of the full moon.
These men were to follow the thieves and trap them with their pickup
from behind, forcing a quick surrender.
A sound plan until it completely fell apart and David would find himself
in the fight of his life.
As the time ticked by tension built. David nervously watched for the thieves to
finish their work. Finally loaded the
criminals jumped into the car and were off.
David Sr. and two other pursuers started their trucks and slowly pulled
out from the protection of the darkness but left their headlights off, driving
by only the light of the moon. As the thieves
wound their way down the Blue Creek hills, thinking themselves safe they turned
on their lights and the car accelerated to freedom. David held on tight as his dad kept pace in
the darkness, bracing himself for springing the trap waiting below.
The getaway car shot out of the hills onto the quiet
plain. Within minutes however, the
driver noticed something in the road ahead, David watched the car slow, then
finally stop as the car light illuminated the blockade and the thieves realized
their freedom might be short-lived. While
a sudden heated discussion erupted in the car ahead, David Sr. drove the truck forward
until it bumped the rear of the car, trapping it. The thieves discussion was cut short by the
realization they were trapped. The
driver franticly pulled ahead then threw it in reverse and slammed down the gas
ramming the pickup. This lasted for
minutes until the car became completely wedged between the tractor and
truck. Springing into action the
constable led the approach to apprehend the criminals.
Rather than going quietly however, the criminals decided to
fight and quickly complete mayhem seized the scene. As the constable approached the driver’s door
he attempted to flee. He was immediately
caught in a struggle with the constable, who began screaming “Fire! Fire! Shoot them!” as he fought. David’s father was covering the back door
with a pistol and likewise suddenly found himself struggling hand to hand with
a shotgun pointed directly into his face by a desperate Mexican man. Now gunshots were going off everywhere as
David tried to get a shot at the man fighting his father.
David Sr. grabbed the Mexican’s gun barrel gripped tightly
in his hand and a fierce struggle ensued.
As he struggled to keep the gun pointed away from himself he managed to
squeeze off a shot with his own pistol.
The bullet glanced off his opponent’s shotgun severing his fingers that
were wrapped around the weapon. The
fight only increased in intensity. Then suddenly
David Sr. felt a piercing pain in his ankle.
David heard his father cry out “I’ve been shot!” as he continued to
fight. Suddenly his opponent disengaged and made a mad dash for the nearby
cornfields. In the darkness and chaos the
runaway was a tricky target for David and his brothers shooting from the back
of the pickup truck. The man managed to
escape, though not unwounded.
In the mean time the third man had been laid out by gun
fire. He rolled in the grass writhing in
pain. The driver had also run and escaped
over the distance to the cornfield apparently dodging shots from the Blue Creek
posy. David rushed to his father fearing he may be mortally wounded as he sat
bleeding on the ground by the car. It
was quickly discovered that the ‘shot’ was a broken ankle. The struggle had been so fierce that David
Sr.’s ankle had snapped beneath him, allowing the distraction for the criminal
to get away.
In the aftermath of the struggle the constable decided the
wounded thief and David Sr. needed to be taken for immediate medical
attention. David Jr. and others were
left to stand guard because although the other two criminals had escaped they were
clearly wounded and not able to go far.
Their cries of pain carried through the darkness to the road. As the night wound on towards day break one
of the men surrendered themselves and was also taken for medical attention. The third escaped and was not caught. He managed to struggle his way through the
fields and across the river to Mexico.
Of course this story just furthered my image of David as a
fearless pioneer in this rugged wilderness.
David on the other hand will readily admit that the experience terrified
him. I guess that walking the line so
close to life and death makes one ask certain questions. David who was not a religious man at that time
says the experience led him to the Lord.
Maybe that’s the supernatural protection that has carried him through
the many dangers that made him into Blue Creeks very own Crocodile Dundee. In my mind anyway.
 |
| Dave shares the coconut of friendship |
