A Hero’s Journey

THE JOURNEY Prologue A HERO’S JOURNEY Imagine if you will, a sea of islands with Spanish names and Spanish traditions, yet laying an ocean away from Spain. And imagine, at the westerly edge of that sea of islands, a narrow strip of land, stretching more than 2000 miles, connecting two great continents. In the north it is a broad hilly plateau, and it swings southeastward to jumbled peaks edged by coastal lowlands. Here nature created a landscape of infinite variety — from dense rain forest to stark desert plain, from steamy marshes to snowy peaks. And here an ancient people molded spectacular cultures that rose and fell between 2000 BCE and the 16th century of the current era. That is when the Spaniards arrived and overpowered the civilizations they found. Imagine now a boy, about to become a man, who grows up in this favored place, a descendant of a great people known as the Maya. It is 500 years later, the final year before a new millennium. The boy has heard the stories of greatness about his cultural past, how as early as 5000 BCE, farmers domesticated corn and beans, and laid the foundation for a settled life; how trade networks were set up to link the farming villages; how his ancestors came to know and use astronomy, writing and the calendar; and how religion inspired art and architecture and gave them a pantheon of gods. His people had built great cities and temples and had fashioned beautiful ornaments and jewelry from gold. But that was gone now: cities and temples reduced to rubble; the tribe, powerless and poor. They had lost their greatness, the boy had often heard his elders lament, because they had lost their gold. So the boy determined that when he grew to be a man, he would leave the home tribe and go in search of it. The boy knew little of the outside world. But he did learn something of the people who came for the gold. That story he was taught in school. It started with an Italian navigator, they said, who sailed in the service of Spain. Cristobal Colon, they called him in Spanish. He set out with a fleet of three small ships to find a westward sea route to Asia. The Spanish were in search of such a route, he was told, because they wanted to trade in silk and spices with China. But Cristobal never reached China. Instead he landed on the shores of a new world and returned to Spain a year later, not with silk and spices, but with gold. Cristobal made four voyages to this New World, the boy learned, establishing Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and exploring the coastline of what anthropologists would come to know as Mesoamerica. But that was just the beginning. His discoveries led to fleets of Spanish ships exploring and inhabiting the Caribbean, and Central and South America. One Spaniard, named Hernan Cortes, would lead the conquest of Mexico, and another, Francisco Pizarro, would conquer Peru. Many Spaniards came to the New World and returned with the gold of Columbia and Ecuador, of Hispaniola and Panama. Imagine now it is the month of May, past the spring equinox but not yet the summer solstice. The boy has bid farewell to the home tribe and has set out to recover its lost fortune. He earns passage as a cabin boy on a ship that is crossing the Atlantic, bound for Spain. In two weeks time, the ship will dock in Barcelona. The boy believes this is the place where he will find and recover the lost gold. For Barcelona is the city where Cristobal was received by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand when he first returned to Spain with the precious yellow metal. And so a hero’s journey begins ....   THE JOURNAL DAY 0. FORT LAUDERDALE 1:00 p.m.: I arrived in Fort Lauderdale last night and boarded the ship early this morning. I have a very comfortable and well-appointed stateroom on the starboard of the ship, which right now offers a fine view of the dockside. While I was getting settled in my stateroom, the cabin attendant came by to introduce himself and to find out if I had need of anything. He is a young boy from the interior of Mexico, and this is his first contract. I shall make him the “hero” figure for my mythological Lecture Series. From my stateroom window I see passengers making their way up the gangway with their carry-on luggage. Their large bags have been collected on the dockside, to be boarded later. Alongside the stacks of suitcases, crate upon crate of foodstuffs are sitting on the dock, and still more crates are being offloaded from a number of huge transport trucks. Can passengers and crew possibly consume this much food on a two-week trans-Atlantic voyage! 4:00 p.m.: Most of the crates and luggage have been boarded now, and I have unpacked my clothing and hung my gowns. I think I have perhaps brought too many pairs of shoes — but can a girl ever have too many pairs of shoes .... 10:00 p.m.: The “Legend of the Seas” pulled away from her moorings shortly after 6:00 p.m. I watched from the deck as she made her way through the channel and moved into the open sea. From their homes along the waterway, people waved as we cruised by. I felt an air of adventure about leaving a continent, knowing that I would be crossing an ocean. How easily such a voyage can be accomplished today compared to that of early explorations!   THE JOURNAL DAY 1. AT SEA 4:00 p.m.: Our first day at sea. The ocean is quite calm and passengers are settling into the rhythm of being aboard a cruise ship. The ship itself is very beautiful with an open centrum mid-ship and stunning artwork throughout. A 70,000-tonne vessel, she can accommodate more than 2,000 guests. Her maiden voyage was in 1995. There are a myriad of activities from which to choose. As for me, I am polishing my lecture material in preparation for my first lecture tomorrow. I am feeling especially fortunate because my stateroom attendant is turning out to be the perfect “hero” for my story. Right now we are cruising through the Caribbean Sea, a vast body of water containing a myriad of islands. Most cruises to this area begin in Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Some start in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the ships cruise to different areas. The Western Caribbean includes destinations like Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Eastern Mediterranean cruises usually include the Virgin Islands or the Bahamas, and Southern Caribbean cruises usually make their way to the Lesser Antilles, the Venezuelan coast, Martinique, Barbados and Curacao. We are tracking a southeasterly course that will take us between Cuba and the Bahamas toward our first port of call at St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.