Aztec Earrings
Chapter 1: Arrival on the Island

I have always seen movies and read books about people who led "double lives," like spies, serial killers and so forth, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect that I might one day experience their world in a fashion so incredible that only a person with a super imagination could believe!

It all started about a year ago when I went on a camping trip with my best buddy, Ron. Ron and I had always enjoyed outdoor spots that very few people knew about. We had gone to various wilderness areas in the Southern United States, never ceasing to marvel at the just how far away from humanity we could get. Caves, canyons, mountain crags... you name it, we went there!

This time, we had planned an excursion to an island off the coast of Florida that had been designated a National Wilderness Area. It was so deserted and inaccessible that we actually had to charter a boat to drop us off on it, directing the captain to pick us up after a five day stay.

We talked with our boat captain on the way out, and he informed us of the myths and legends associated with the island. He told us of a mystical tribe of Indians said to have once inhabited the place. Supposedly, they were the remnants of the Aztec tribe conquered by Cortes way back in the early 1500s. When the conquistador had arrived in their Mexican city, the Aztecs were known for their peace-loving artistic way of life. They worshipped a female sun god, and for them, life and all its pleasures were gifts to be cherished and revelled in. Once Cortes had massacred their leader and their people, most of the Aztecs that were left were forced into a life of slavery and slow assimilation into the culture of their Spanish conquerors. Only a few remote pockets of Aztecs refused to bend to the harsh ways of their uninvited guests. One of these rebellious bands supposed fled to the north into what was to become the U.S., taking with them their mystical charms designed to reinforce their religious and social beliefs. This band, said our captain, eventually found peace on the island that was to be our destination. There they lived happily for about a hundred years, growing more and more dedicated to their faith in the feminine sun god and the wonders of fertility and joys of the flesh that she had bestowed on them. They believed, said the captain, that all earthly things were originally female in nature, and thus there was no greater honor than to be a woman in their tribe. Various stories had been told by sailors of the time of the incredible, almost mystical beauty of the female inhabitants of the island. People who had supposedly been shipwrecked on the reefs surrounding the island had been taken in, nursed back to health and shown only love and compassion by these perfect specimens of femininity.

It was said that many sailors, upon being made aware of these incredible people, decided to forego their lives on the land and live out their days in this tropical Garden of Eden. In fact, said the captain, there were so few sailors who chose to return to the mainland, that their stories were largely looked upon as fabrications, especially when they pointed out the fact that the only males on the island were outnumbered by the women by at least two to one, and that of those few males that were there, all were no older than their teens!

As we neared the island, the captain finished his story by saying that a great hurricane struck in the mid 1600s, completely submerging the island and all its inhabitants. The storm was so strong, he said, that the island resurfaced only after fifty years, leaving no remnants of its former civilization. Since that time, archaeologists had found only a few pottery shards and broken building materials... nothing that could ever prove or disprove the many stories told about the last tribe of the Aztecs! Now, the captain told us, only a smattering of vacationers and hearty campers like ourselves went out to the island, bringing back stories only of beautiful and secluded sand, sun and sea!

After hearing these stories of our island, Ron and I were only more excited about spending some time there. Since there was no dock, the captain let us and our gear off in a little rubber raft about 100 yards from shore, saluted us, and told us he would be back in 5 days. As we paddled for the beach, listening to the rapidly diminishing growl of our boat's motors, we were both grinning with the thought of the adventure that awaited us!