FINDING LOST CIVILIZATIONS This

Chapter 2ZacualpanDiscovery was the opium of explorers who sought thepath less traveled. To have tread where few men hadgone was the fuel that fired their passion, whether it was toseek knowledge or a quest for glory, fortune, or for a god.And for just an instant, in the small pueblo of Zacualpan, inNayarit, Mexico, I knew what it felt like to discover, learn,and to behold a treasure before my eyes.My journey began in the town of Guayabitos, standingunder a cross on a hilltop overlooking the Bay of Jaltemba.By chance I met an elderly man from Saskatchewan whopointed out to me that the site we were standing on wasonce an ancient Indian village. As I looked about the groundI found ancient pottery fragments and a stone tool used tocrush corn. Before parting, the elderly fellow mentioned thathe had heard that there was a cavern or underground area inZacualpan that contained mummies or relics.I was familiar with Zacualpan as it was situated onMexico Highway 161, north of Guayabitos, before the smallfishing village of Platanitos, which my father and I had visitedseveral times. I was curious about what the man fromSaskatchewan had said and decided that the next time wetraveled to Platanitos, we would embark upon a journeybased on this vague indication of relics in Zacualpan.About two weeks later my father and I and our erstwhilecompanion and world traveler, Rafael, found ourselves infront of Zacualpan’s church, situated in the town square. Ithought that perhaps the church might contain mummies,as is the case in other locations in Mexico and Europe. Wesaw several taxicabs parked on the street and asked one cabdriver if he knew if there were any mummies or relics inthe church or surrounding area. He gave us somewhat ofa blank stare. We then decided to take another approachand asked him if there was a museum in town. After severalseconds of deep thought he nodded and indicated that twostreets ahead we should take a left turn and then two streetsfurther up we would see a museum. We followed these directionsand upon reaching the location, we could not see9