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Kinkella Meets the Witchdoctor of Belize! - Ep 155
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Have you ever had an experience that you look back on years later and think, “Did that really happen?” This is definitely one of mine. Included in this episode is a witchdoctor, a bottle of rum, a Maya pyramid, and a guitar. Yes, you read that correctly.
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- For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/pseudo/155
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast Network
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
Exploring Pseudo-Archaeology
00:00:05
Speaker
You are now entering the pseudo-archaeology podcast, a show that uncovers what's fact, what's fake, and what's fun in the crazy world of pseudo-archaeology.
Meeting the Witch Doctor of Belize
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the pseudo-archaeology podcast, episode 155. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, and tonight, Dr. Andrew Kinkella meets the Witch Doctor of Belize.
A Humorous Glasses Anecdote
00:00:36
Speaker
You better stay tuned.
00:00:43
Speaker
All right, so here we are, episode 155, man. I'm like a serious podcaster now. And you know what's been happening in serious podcaster life? Well, tragedy. And I'll tell you about my tragedy. I've got glasses, man. I had lived 50 years of my life, no glasses. You know what I mean? I didn't know how good I had it. Um, so I got the like,
00:01:20
Speaker
They're not bifocals, but they're the like they're the lenses that, you know, change like from far to near and all that kind of good stuff. And I have to say, you guys, i I feel kind of.
00:01:32
Speaker
They make me kind of dizzy. I don't know. And I kind of squint some. i ah They're getting better. I can still pass the like the DMV test just barely. But I will say it is like having superhuman vision when I look far. So I'm just I'm a little bit farsighted again. I can still hang, but it's been an interesting process.
Storytelling Through Belizean Experiences
00:01:52
Speaker
It's crazy. But enough about my glasses situation.
00:01:57
Speaker
Let's talk about some of my other situations, some of my past situations digging way deep. How often do we do this? You know what I mean? Dig back into my history of historical situations. but Today, I thought I'd talk about the Witch Doctor of Belize. And this is a story like aspects of this.
00:02:20
Speaker
I used to tell my students then it's funny after a while I just kind of didn't I think those of us who are in any have any job where we deal with our own personal experiences you kind of use them for a while and then you just they get like supplanted by other ones, you know, and these kind of get thrown by the wayside. And then sometimes they do experience a resurgence. And with last episode where I was talking about the Duende, and it really made me think about the early days and Belize,
00:02:59
Speaker
right with it. I was like, Oh man, the witch doctor, the day I went to go see the witch doctor. And this, I'm telling you, man, I'm just being honest. Like, it just feels like one of those things where you're like, did that really happen? Like, is that, that's, that's right. I think it's right.
00:03:20
Speaker
I even, as I do, wrote some of this down, you know, not too terribly long after it happened. So I do tend to think my memory is pretty good about this. So here's how this goes down.
00:03:36
Speaker
It's like my second season in Belize, right? My very first season was 1993 and my second season is 96, a couple of years where I didn't go down. 96 till this day has been the longest season I ever spent in Belize. It was four months from like, I think it was like February, like March, April, May. Yeah, till like early June or something like that.
00:04:01
Speaker
I remember I had my 20, what is that? 24th birthday in Belize that year. But since it was my second year there and we're working on a big Maya site, right? I'm part of the crew. We work at the site called LPLR. I knew some of the local people from the time before. And this is a great time for me to solidify some of my friendships and this kind of stuff. And in the last podcast, I talked about my friendship with Teo, you know, and how Teo had so many stories about the Duende, right? Teo was
00:04:34
Speaker
Not only was he one of the Belizean staff who worked on the LPLR project, he was also like the caretaker of the site. There was a little caretaker's house where he would stay up there. And I got to know him more the second year, and he would talk about. He'd talk about this witch doctor. And he'd be like Androman, right? the As I said, they would call me Andrew Mann, you know, the Belizean guys, Androman.
00:05:04
Speaker
I have to take you to see the witch doctor. Right. And I would be like, yeah, teo that sounds really interesting. Like when, you know, it's like one Saturday. Right. So it would be one Saturday, one Saturday. We're going to go now in those days. We had six days a week work weeks, you guys. We would work Monday through Friday and we would work half day Saturdays to it was like the real deal, you know.
00:05:32
Speaker
And we had Sundays off. We kind of had Saturday afternoons and Sundays off and that was it. And I understand why we did that because it's like you're only down there for so long and everything costs so much. It's like once you're there, you just got to, you got to do the work anyway.
00:05:47
Speaker
This was this was several months into my trip when we were finally able to
Preparing to Visit the Witch Doctor
00:05:51
Speaker
to figure this out. And he's like, you know, we're going to go. So we're going to go on a Saturday. You're going to stay the night at my house, right? It's telling me. And he's like, you bring one bottle of rum, one bottle of a rum.
00:06:02
Speaker
And I'm like, OK, that's cool. Why? He's like, oh, you pay the witch doctor, right? You bring the witch doctor a bottle of rum and then he'll basically have a what amounts to a supernatural journey with you. And I'll get into that later, what I really mean by that. So the weekend comes. And I'm like, OK, I remember I went I went up to the site. We all did tail as well. Worked at the archaeology site for the day. It was like an easy day.
00:06:32
Speaker
And then driving back home on the way back to where we were staying in San Ignacio, we would pass through the little town of Bullet Tree Falls. And Belize, you guys, Belize got like the best place names. Bullet Tree Falls, right? It's a small little tiny like picture like a village. That's really what Bullet Tree Falls was like.
00:06:54
Speaker
And tail and many of the other guys who we worked with lived in in bulletry falls and so me and tail and the other workmen got out in bulletry falls and the project know that i was gonna spend the night in bulletry with the tail so i get out and i have like a overnight pack basically i do have the bottle of rum i have like you know like a change of clothes i remember.
00:07:16
Speaker
Because there actually are a photo it or two that I have floating around somewhere from this day. My sweet outfit was a some really light acid wash jeans because even by this time, acid wash jeans are totally uncool. But that's what you wear in the jungle. You wear like your crappiest clothes. I had some sweet acid wash jeans. I had my like boots that I always wear like my work boots.
00:07:44
Speaker
I had a shirt that was a, what are those? Oh, Hard Rock Cafe. A Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. And this Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt used to be like the shit. You know, everyone want a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. It's like what? I believe it was Hard Rock Cafe Maui. And I think I bought it when I was like, I don't know, like 18 or 17 or something.
00:08:08
Speaker
But it was like really big. I remember it was like an extra large. It was a big, extra large. And I'm a tall dude, but I'm skinny. And so I remember like a week or two before I went to see Titeo's house, I used like a knife and I sliced like the bottom of the shirt and both of the arms shorter. So it was like an extra large shirt, but it was like.
00:08:29
Speaker
short. I know I'm really I'm really selling myself somewhere in that. And then I have a bandana, my sweet shark bandana. So it's like this white bandana with sharks on it that that my girlfriend had made for me and that I think I think I still own these you guys. And they're sort of like good luck charms for me. So that's my sweet outfit that I wore. And So we get off and we go to get a tails house and we've been working for the day. So the first thing we do is we're going to take a shower. But this is like tails house is a very basic.
00:09:07
Speaker
Like it's kind of like a hut. I don't really want to say hut because that makes it sound more basic than it was, but a very basic structure made out of like boards and sometimes even like like like narrow, like like very skinny trunks of trees almost, if that makes sense. Like trunks of trees that are only like an inch thick or you know like two inches thick, kind of all lined up. But there is some real structure to it.
00:09:32
Speaker
And these are of decent size. Teo and his family would live there, live there. And on the inside, it's just like kind of one big room. And it's a thatch roof, right, a peaked high thatch roof on top. And the structure itself is quite, quite large. So it's it's one kind of big area, but there's like partitions and stuff. Anyway. We we need to take a shower and you go one at a time and they have like a little tiny shower booth kind
Encountering the Witch Doctor
00:09:57
Speaker
of out in the backyard. You know, they have a large area because they're also farming.
00:10:01
Speaker
And it's just this like closed off little. Little tiny little enclosure with a bucket and you just take a bucket full of water, you like wet yourself with half the bucket, you have soap in there and you like soap yourself down and then you rinse yourself up with the rest of the buckets. Or I remember taking the bucket shower. And then we had dinner, which was really nice, you know, until his wife was so kind and again he had a bunch of kids, you know, you guys like picture like, you know,
00:10:31
Speaker
eight kids running around or something. It's like eight kids and stay on and his wife and me and we have dinner and it's very typical belision dinner of like rice and beans and tortillas and chicken. You know, this is this is typical fare. And then we got to go to bed. Right. And the next morning we're going to get up. We're going to go see the witch doctor. And so it's it's dark. And so when I go in, I'm like, where did all the kids go?
00:10:59
Speaker
And Taylor and his wife had like a partition to themselves, you know, where they where they would sleep. But all the kids all slept in the house, but they slept in like every nook and cranny there was. There were like multiple hammocks slung around and there's little like just areas you know that they would all just kind of crunch into and fall asleep. And there's one extra hammock sitting there. in the And so I slept in that. So I sleep in the hammock. And I have a fine sleep. I'm used to this, you guys, by this point, I slept in hammocks a ton of times and beliefs.
00:11:28
Speaker
And then we wake up in the morning, get ready. I think we have a little breakfast or something. And then we're going to go off and see the witch doctor. Right. And I go with a go with Teo. And of course, the witch doctor lives on the outskirts of town, on the outskirts of the village.
00:11:49
Speaker
And to double down on that, the outskirts of the village were also right along the river. This is the Mopon River. This is a tributary to the Belize River in Belize, in Western Belize, this area. We're not too terribly far away from the Guatemala border. You know, a couple miles kind of thing. It feels like further, but it's not.
00:12:09
Speaker
The the Mopon and the McCall are two tributaries that will meet and form the Belize River several miles to the east. But so the witch doctor's house is on the outskirts of town near the banks of the Mopon River. And you guys. It's on top of an ancient Maya mound. And with that, I'll be right back.
00:12:37
Speaker
Hello, and welcome back to the pseudo archaeology podcast episode 155. And we have been discussing the witch doctor of beliefs. When I last left you, I was at a little house on the top of my amount, cause that's what it was. And if you're like, this is feeling a little like dusk till dawn by Quentin Tarantino. And I'm like, yeah, kinda. So.
00:13:03
Speaker
Let me let me paint this picture for you. So it's not a totally clean down, pristine, huge Maya pyramid, right? This is what we would call in the Maya world a range structure.
00:13:14
Speaker
And what those are are long linear buildings and they're not super tall. There may be like, oh God, let's say like 12 feet tall, but they're long. They're like 12 feet tall and maybe they're like 75 feet long. And so for the ancient Maya, this would have been a building that was kind of built up on a platform and it would have had walls and rooms and this kind of thing, right? But low lying like that. So, but the ruins of it are now, it's all covered with,
00:13:42
Speaker
You know, trees and grass and shrubs and stuff. But on the top is the witch doctor's house. And so we kind of
A Supernatural Ritual Begins
00:13:50
Speaker
scurry up the mountain in and we meet the witch doctor of Belize. And this guy, he's um I remember he's very short, very rotund, bald. He looks very much like the Buddha. Like if the Buddha met you, you know, that's what he looked like. Older guy.
00:14:09
Speaker
just sort of yeah stand in there. We meet him. I think I think I shake his hand and then he starts just like taking us around his house. Oh, and I must I must tell you there were there are four people ultimately.
00:14:25
Speaker
on this journey. There's the witch doctor, there's me, there's Teo, and there's one other of Teo's friends who also worked with us on the archaeology project. We'll just call him Don because ah a lot of times people in the village who are older people or people with more sort of influence, they they will call them Don. Like if I was a influential person, I'd be like Don Andrew, you know, or this kind of thing.
00:14:53
Speaker
Anyway, so the don was the fourth guy. And and again, he and Teo were friends. He just brought his friend along and they were just chilling. So the witch doctor takes me around and he takes me in his house. He has some Maya pottery that he shows me. He speaks mostly Mayan.
00:15:09
Speaker
And I speak mostly English, but we can kind of mishy-mashy it together in Spanish. So I remember doing a lot of like partial Spanish as we talk and he just kind of talks. He starts to talk a little about the Maya and just a little bit about history. I'm trying to catch it. It's hard. You know, I'm like, I'm not sure. But then he's like,
00:15:32
Speaker
OK, kind of abruptly stops any motions that we're going to go down, down the other side of the Maya mound outside his house and like down the other side of the map. So we got his house, we go down the other side and the corner of the mound. Has been dug out.
00:15:51
Speaker
down to the Maya stone. So actually, we are now at the corner of a very low, but real and ancient Maya pyramid. So it's white, just like you would think, right? The white stone, the white plaster, and it's right at the corner. And not only is the corner like all the shrubs and trees are removed and he has a little shade thing like over it.
00:16:15
Speaker
So not only is it all cleaned down, but there's a bunch of like Maya religious iconography in there. And there's also a decent amount of Catholic religious iconography in there. So it's this really interesting mix of like Maya Catholic stuff, right?
00:16:36
Speaker
Like there's there's I remember there's an image of the Virgin Mary in there. Oh, and he has a podium, too. And there's like this little like wooden podium. And I'm looking at this going like, whoa. And then he motions for me to like sit
A Mystical Jungle Journey
00:16:52
Speaker
down. So I sit down tail and donor over to the side. And he like asked me if I've brought the one bottle of rum and I have. So I give him the rum.
00:17:04
Speaker
And I'm like, okay. And then he takes out a glass and not one of those low glasses. I mean like, like a beer glass, you know, like the pint glasses, takes out a pint glass and he pours a glass of rum. Like, don't do this at home. Glass of rum. And he looks at it and he kind of like breathes in for a second. He kind of goes,
00:17:30
Speaker
And then he just tilts it up and drinks like the whole thing. And I'm like, whoa. You know, because I've never seen anything like that that's like super dangerous. And then he looks at me. And he pushes the bottle, he pushes the glass towards me, the empty glass, and he starts pouring. And I'm thinking, I'm like, dude, I don't care how much of an anthropology type guy I'm supposed to be. There's no way I'm drinking a glass of rum. That's like crazy.
00:17:59
Speaker
But luckily, he stops at the equivalent of like what they call him believes like a three finger, right? Like a tree finger, which means if you put your three fingers up to the side of the glass, like about that much, it's ah equivalent of like, I don't know, a double shot, double and a half, you know, some something like that. And I'm like, OK, and I drink this of course, I'm like, and you know, vaguely empty stomach ah that 11 in the morning or whatever it was. So I drink too. So I'm like, OK, I'm going to do this. And I think that Taeyeon don't have like a little drink to. OK, so.
00:18:38
Speaker
We've all had our drink and this is now going to be the start of our supernatural journey. And in anthropological terms, the witch doctor is a shaman, right? And what he can do is he can first control mana. Mana is the sacred and impersonal force that kind of surrounds us all. It's very similar. It's like the same thing as the force in Star Wars. So as a shaman, he can do that.
00:19:07
Speaker
And he can also guide us on this soul journey is what we would call an anthropologist spiritual journey or supernatural journey. And the reason why he drank so much rum is not because he's some crazy alcoholic or you know trying to be dangerous. It's because shaman will always do that. They will do something to to break with reality, right? It can be something like that, like having too much drum or drugs or some sort of pain or not sleeping. There's always some event to switch into the world of the supernatural. Right.
00:19:48
Speaker
And this witch doctor person is going to be our guide through the supernatural, right? That's why you go to him. So that's why you would see a witch doctor or shaman, right? They're going to guide you on the supernatural journey and hopefully you will learn something about yourself or learn something about your problem or whatever reason it is that you want to go see him, right?
00:20:10
Speaker
People would obviously go see him if they're sick or if they're confused in life and want answers. I more got just a basic tour of the supernatural world. So I've gone through this ritual. I'm now, you know, kind of tipsy, a little toasty. And he motions to us to go out into the jungle.
Musical Exchange with the Witch Doctor
00:20:35
Speaker
So we do. Right. And he starts talking more about the jungle and the Maya as we walk through the jungle. And I'm just going with these guys and we're just out in the jungle. And at one point. Somebody produces a joint rate, a marijuana joint. Now, at this time, this is like illegal. And I am not a fan of doing like anything, even the slightest bit illegal in any foreign country. That's a terrible choice.
00:21:03
Speaker
But I figure like I'm with these guys, I'm with the shaman, you know, I'm with the wish doctor believes he wants me to. I'm like, all right. And I take a few puffs of, you know, the world's most basic. Belision, bunk, reefer, you know. And so not only have we had alcohol, we've also now had, you know, some marijuana. And so we are very much. Into this supernatural aspect of things.
00:21:33
Speaker
And I remember as I'm walking, it felt like the jungle was starting to breathe. Right. The whole place was sort of out and in, you know, sort of. And you could sort of see the trees go out and come back in. Right. And it all works together as it breathes.
00:21:54
Speaker
And the witch doctor tells you about how the jungle works and the ancient Maya. Right. So I'm getting it. And it's it's really fascinating to just sort of go along on the voyage and listen to him talk.
00:22:19
Speaker
And I noticed that I'm understanding more what he's saying. And I do think I do notice in myself that if I'm a little drunk or something, I'm much better at speaking Spanish because I think it just relaxes me because I'm very I'm always very self-conscious talking in foreign languages. And so I'm you know, I'm relaxed. I'm learning.
00:22:42
Speaker
I'm listening. I'm in the world of the supernatural. I'm listening to the jungle creatures, which seem more precise in a weird way. That makes sense. The jungle is always loud, but it's now more precise. And then in the middle of this. And I don't know to this day where this came from, you guys, but he produces a guitar. I'll talk about the guitar in just a moment.
00:23:11
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to episode 155 of the pseudo-archaeology podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, and I have been talking about my day with the witch doctor of Belize. And getting back to our story, he has just produced a guitar seemingly out of nowhere. And man, I remember this, right?
00:23:34
Speaker
And we all sit on this log and like when you're deep in the jungle, you're always looking for a decent place to sit, you know, and I do think.
00:23:46
Speaker
that we were walking along a trail that he had known or he used a lot or this kind of thing. We had to have been because in in the jungle, you can't just go anywhere. The brush is so thick and the foliage and stuff. So we were on some trail. He knew he knew where we were. I didn't. but Maybe he had. I swear it felt like I'm like, did he plant the guitar like underneath the log, you know, or behind the log because he knew. I don't know. But so we get there to this log and the four of us like sit down.
00:24:15
Speaker
and the witch doctor, like bust out the guitar and start singing. And he just starts like singing some tunes and they're they're just sort of. I don't know, like Spanish esque, you know, tunes, they felt older. Not not classical, but maybe older folk tunes, that kind of thing.
00:24:37
Speaker
And so he plays him and he's singing and like Teo and Don't know the songs and they're all singing along and they're like all having a blast. And I'm trying, I'm like just smiling along like a fool. You know how it is. Like when you're like the outsider and you're just trying to like, you know, be friendly. So I'm just smiling along and they're playing.
00:25:02
Speaker
So they play and they play. Right. And it's great. Right. It's just like. Four drunken stone dudes having some fun playing the guitar while the jungle breathes along in the background. And so he finishes the song. And then it's quiet for a second. Right. And I'm just sort of taking it in and then he leans over to me.
00:25:28
Speaker
And he thrust the guitar out in front of me and he goes, play. But this is in Spanish, right? He's like, don't cut. And I'm like, what? And I guess he'd heard he'd heard that I could play guitar. Now, I am not you guys. I am not some freaking amazing guitar player, right? I'm not. But I can I can get through stuff barely, you know, I can play some chords, I can play some tunes, I can play a couple of things just for laughs, I can show off at a party if I really wanted or, you know, that kind of thing. But I am not I am not some sort of great musician. But he goes, play.
00:26:05
Speaker
And when the witch doctor believes is telling you to play, you're like, all right. And I remember, I remember the song I played. I started to play the bluesy intro to Van Halen's Ice Cream Man. Right. I remember this. I go doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, just because I felt comfortable with it. I knew how it went. And then he goes. Sing.
00:26:31
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, my God, because I don't do this naturally, you know, or usually. And so I start singing. So I'm playing, I'm playing the song and I'm like, and sometimes I hear that me some would keep you cool. Right. And I and I'm and I'm doing it and I'm playing the song. Right. I'm playing it and I'm singing and it's OK.
00:26:56
Speaker
Right. I'm going through and I'm in my head. You know how this is like when you're doing something like this, something creative and you think at any minute, this is just going to fall into a tragedy. But I'm like, this is all right. Like, this is this is no, this might not be good, but this is possible. Like I am doing this. And I get all the way through the song and I finish. And a couple of things happen first.
00:27:24
Speaker
I think to myself, I'm pretty sure that was good. Now, thinking back, I always wonder if I was having like a Leonardo DiCaprio Wolf of Wall Street moment.
00:27:38
Speaker
And for those of you who've seen it, you know what I mean? The scene where they're driving like the Lamborghini or whatever it was, right? Where they're so high that they think they're driving all perfect and they shoot it as if they drove perfect back home. And then they switched what really happened. And what really happened is they like crashed into everything along the way and they had to like crawl out of their own car because they were just so out of it. So I always wonder, I'm like,
00:28:07
Speaker
Did that song actually go okay or was it in my mind and I really, really sucked it? But I will say the other thing that happened was the witch doctor and the other guys, but especially the witch doctor, he was like, yeah, more American music. All of a sudden, like his like English was way better, but it also could have just been that I was still on my soul journey.
00:28:34
Speaker
So after that, I know I played four songs total and Ice Cream Man, I got to say my first one, that was the high point, dude. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel after that. I i know I know the second song was Blackbird by the Beatles because I know I could play that. And I think I sung along too. Who knows? But I think I did.
00:28:56
Speaker
And then the third song was either Mother Nature's Son or I've Just Seen a Face, both by the Beatles. I think it was I've Just Seen a Face. I'm pretty sure, you know, those of you who play an instrument, you know, that like there's certain songs you can play or it's just kind of in your back pocket for a while. And then you like forget. And then sometimes they kind of come back, kind of like this story. But I had to think.
00:29:21
Speaker
When I was prepping for this, I'm like, what did I play? That's why I spent the most time on, I think, in in prepping this whole story. And and i it probably shows. But I was like, what were the songs? I know I did Ice Cream Man. Then I know I did Blackbird. And then I'm 98 percent sure it was one of those two. It might have been both of those, but I could swear. For my four songs. It was two Beatles and two Van Halen's. So I might've also done 316, which is just a Van Halen, like slow solo lullaby piece. There's a, there's a small chance I did lithium by Nirvana, but I don't think so. And the other one that's a, that's a big contender is I might've done some slow jam version of ain't talking about love.
00:30:14
Speaker
ah Van Halen, right? So I know my repertoire for The Witch Doctor was four songs. And then I was just freaking out. I was like, I just like tapped out. And at the end, though, of the last song, they were like, yeah. And the and I remember The Witch Doctor was like, you can come back any time.
Reflecting on the Mystical Experience
00:30:35
Speaker
And I felt so good. I felt so good. I was like, I was like, I've won over, I've won over the witch doctor believes because before then he was kind of reticent and kind of serious. And then he really like opened up and it just made me feel really good. You know? And, and of course.
00:30:52
Speaker
By that time I've checked out his house. I've done his ritual at the corner of his Maya pyramid that was half Maya half Spanish. We've like cruised through the jungle. We've drank the rum and smoked the herb and uh, we've played a guitar. He's told me a bunch of stories about the jungle, the breathing jungle, man. And then it's finally, it's time to go home, you know? So,
00:31:22
Speaker
We get back to the witch doctor's house. I feel like once we got back to his house, I feel like I was fine. Like, I feel like I'd sort of um like the experience had all kind of closed itself up kind of all at once. We get back to his house, don't feel any effects of what I've had, you know, and I just feel like myself. So we say goodbye to the witch doctor.
00:31:48
Speaker
I go back to Teo's house, just walk over there. I get my stuff. I say goodbye to Teo and his wife and kids. They were so nice. And then I think I either got some bus or taxi or ride in the back of the truck. I can't remember. Back to San Ignacio, which is not very far. that Like the distance is only, dude, it's like five miles or something. It feels much further because back then it was all like dirt roads and stuff.
00:32:15
Speaker
But yeah back to San Ignacio and ultimately to where we're staying, BRAS Base. BRAS stands for Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey. And BRAS Base was a monastery of where the benedine Benedictine monks hosted us. And so we lived in a wing of the monastery that's got its own, you know, four thousand and six stories.
00:32:42
Speaker
And that was my experience,
Revelation of the True Witch Doctor
00:32:43
Speaker
right? I was back. I was back. That was at that point. That's going to be Sunday afternoon. I'm back and I'm going to get ready for work on Monday. There's one or two lingering questions, though, right? Way back in the beginning, I told you guys that I had seen the witch doctor was witch doctor number two. They kept referring to my number two witch doctor number two, and I didn't pay it much attention. I was just like, Oh, I guess he's just number two. I guess number one somewhere.
00:33:12
Speaker
Which doctor number one is much more powerful than which doctor number two. And I think this is true in a lot of like rural communities and this kind of thing where there's like a main guy and like a secondary guy, right? There's an Emperor Palpatine and a henchman like a Darth Vader or a Darth Maul. And I was just with the equivalent of Darth Maul. I learned weeks later that which doctor number one was the don guy, was Teo's friend. So the whole time, the other guy was a witch doctor too. And he was just keeping tabs on witch doctor number two, just making sure everything was cool. You know, just making sure I would have never guessed, like it was, that was awesome. Like that was super cool. And you know, everybody always wore normal clothes. And what I mean by that is,
00:34:09
Speaker
If you meet or interact with real shamans or real people who do this kind of stuff, they don't wear like a bunch of jewelry and ostentatious, you know, capes and crap, right? They wear normal clothes. You know why? Because they got nobody to impress.
00:34:30
Speaker
The witch doctor don't kind of impress anyone. He's the witch doctor. So he's not dressed in ostentatious silliness, you know?
Episode Conclusion
00:34:38
Speaker
None of them were. And I just really respect that about those guys. And it's been fun, you know, thinking about this, just thinking back. I hadn't thought about this, you guys, in a long time.
00:34:54
Speaker
And I mean, dude, look at where we've been, right? I had a supernatural journey with a shaman. There were like illicit drugs. There was a secret shaman with the known shaman. There was a breathing jungle. And there was even a little bit of Van Halen. I mean, do I deliver for you people or what?
00:35:21
Speaker
And with that, I'll see you guys next time.
00:35:28
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the pseudo archaeology podcast. Please like and subscribe wherever you like and subscribe. And if you have questions for me, Dr. Andrew Kinkela, feel free to reach out using the links below or go to my YouTube channel. Kinkela teaches archaeology. See you guys next time.
00:35:49
Speaker
The Archaeology Podcast Network is 10 years old this year. Our executive producer is Ashley Airy, our social media coordinator is Matilda Seabreck, and our chief editor is Rachel Rodin. The Archaeology Podcast Network was co-founded by Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle in 2014 and is part of CulturoMedia and DigTech LLC. this has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.