The Adventures of Amanda and the Pirate's Cat II - The Treasure of Collasuyo

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Chapter I

When I was 12 years old, I had one of the most ex traordinary experiences a girl of that age can have.I lived with my parents and my younger brother in our house in CerroAlegre,in the mythical city ofValparaíso,Chile’s main port.Like any other girl,I went to school,hung out with my friends and practiced my favourite sport,artistic gymnastics. My life went by with its usual happiness and occasional sadness, until a legendary character appeared on my doorstep.Then everything changed.

Captain Croc is a Siberian cat who is not content with just the gift of human speech. His seven long lives are riddled with stories of adventure, and he travelled from far away to connect me with my pirate ancestors forcing me on a mission that almost left me living fo rever on the Caleuche, a ghost ship that, until then, I had thought was only part of the mythology of the Is land of Chiloé. Fortunately, the result of that adventure was successful, and with it ended a curse that Captain Bartholomew Sharp had placed on my family due to a confusing incident involving some lost emeralds.

Suddenly, learning that I had ancient seafaring blood running through my veins, provoked a change in me. I wanted to find out more about it, and so I got to know more from what was most readily available. I watched a

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lot of films on cable and on the Internet. My mind was filled with old and modern film versions of pirate stories, such asTreasure Island, Captain Kidd and Barbarossa. Of course,I had to put up with the disgust of Captain Croc, the human-speaking cat, who had become the mascot of the house.The poor fellow was more than offended to see Johnny Depp’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean. the Internet.

“Mon Dieu, what kind of mockery is this?” he would say every time Jack Sparrow did his antics on the screen, so I got the feeling that the films were not really a good reference. I restricted my research to books and documents on the web, which made me realize that the history of piracy was far more bloodthirsty and crueler than I had imagined. But if at some point I thought that the search for the seventh emerald in southern Chile was going to be the start of a life full of extraordinary adventures, I was wrong.

The activities I had undertaken in the summer of 2012 in the company of a gang formed by the cat, a wise tortoise, and a loquacious Caribbean macaw, were kept secret, and remained a secret, and I limited myself to writing them down in my diary so I wouldn’t forget them, without saying anything to my friends of course, let alone my parents.

As time went by, the excitement of those holidays cooled off. After his friends returned to their homes Croc seemed to settle back into his existence as a spoilt cat and only very occasionally wandering off for a few days. He would still talk to me, if no one else was pre sent of course, but when he began to realize that he was repeating his adventurous stories from centuries ago,

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his silences became more and more frequent.At times I began to think that the power to speak to humans had been a temporary thing, and that if it was the effect of an enchantment which was disappearing. But they say that the only permanent thing is change, and just when I thought that adventures were a thing of the past, fate put Croc and me back in a tangled mess from which we almost did not come out of to tell the tale.

I am Amanda Cabot, I am now 15 years old, and this is my most recent adventure.

It all started at the beginning of Fiestas Patrias, which is Chile’s Independence Day. Many think that this date is when my country became a sovereign nation, but what happened on 18 September 1810 was only the beginning of this process. So, going into a bit of history - in those distant times, the Emperor of France, Napoleon had invaded Spain and appointed his older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King, while he held the true monarch, Ferdinand VII, prisoner. The American colonies belon ging to Spain, including the Kingdom of Chile, did not recognize Joseph Bonaparte as their king,and they began to organize themselves while waiting for the real king to be set free.Thus, juntas (assemblies) of government were set up in various kingdoms of the crown, which functioned autonomously for some years, but when His Majesty Ferdinand VII returned to power, the colonies had become accustomed to their freedom, and there was a long period of warfare between the criollos (as those born in America were called) and the Spaniards.

It was not until 12 February 1818 that Chile’s full independence could be declared, but here we like to ce lebrate it in September,and all over the country there are

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big celebrations that last several days.Anyway, when my family was just starting to think about what we would do for this mini holiday, my mum received a most entertai ning proposal.A distant cousin, but with whom she had practically grown up with,lived in the city of Coquimbo, in the IV Region,and she invited us,and even the cat,to spend the Fiestas Patrias at her house.

Now that was going to be good! Because in Coquimbo the celebration of La Pampilla, is considered one of the biggest in the country.Thousands of people gather at a fair with roofs made of tree branches (fondas), and refres hment stands offering typical dishes (ramadas), games and a stage with famous artists performing free of charge for several days. In addition, what sets this celebration apart from any other that takes place in Chile,is that here many people camp out for up to a whole week. I’d never seen anything like this before, only what they always show on the news, and it would be so interesting to see it live So, without thinking too much about it,we got into the van, the sameVolkswagen van that my parents have had since they were dating,and we headed off in the best of moods to spend an unforgettable eighteenth in Coquimbo, the trip also had something special for me, as this port is known as the “land of pirates”. How could I forget that Captain Bartholomew Sharp attacked this city in 1680, and that it was there that all the entanglements originated that ended up with me and Croc, the cat, rescuing the seventh emerald in the south! Anyway, I was enthusiastic about getting to know this place, to walk around and to take the opportunity to breathe a bit of pirate air.

How could I have imagined that a new adventure awaited me here.

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CHAPTER II

We arrived in Coquimbo at about five o’clock on Sunday afternoon, and our cousin Paula, her husband Raul and their daughter Javiera, still had the table set for lunch.There were hugs and introductions, and after our cousin shouted all over the house looking for her eldest son, Gabriel, who was nowhere to be seen, nor was he answering his cell phone, we sat down to eat.

The cousin and my mum hadn’t seen each other for several years, and although they are friends on social networks and are in constant contact, it’s not the same as talking in person. As we ate, they began catching up and commenting on the same gossip they had already told each other on the Internet. The table was full of tasty things to eat and only after we had enjoyed a des sert of papayas with cream, a typical fruit of the area, they gave us a tour of the house. It was very nice; it was in a kind of condominium, a huge courtyard with a swimming pool, and a large barbecue area, with a tennis table and television. This space would be transformed during the following days into the fortress of the “dads”, who dedicated themselves to throwing everything on the grill, drinking beer and watching football matches, while the mums settled down to chat anywhere and everywhere.Javi and my little brotherAndrés had a good

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vibe between them, and they started playing right away, forgetting about the rest of us. In the courtyard lived a couple of very beautiful dogs of some shaggy blonde breed,and although at first they barked a couple of times at Croc, he stared at them with his one eye for a long time.

Perhaps what he said to them was in cat language, because from then on they did not bother him anymore, on the contrary, they seemed to show him a kind of respect when he went for a walk in the gardens.

But the one who stole my heart was a big crossbreed dog, a typical mongrel, with black and brown seal like hair, probably a mix of German shepherd and whatever else. He was intelligent, affectionate, and alert, and as soon as he saw the cat he liked him. After looking at each other and sniffing a little, the dog and Croc started to become friends,which made me feel relieved because it’s not easy to be in someone else’s house and even more so with a feline.The little dog approached me with his ears perked up and his tail wagging, and I bent down to pat him a little on his back.

“His name is Ufo,” I suddenly heard someone say behind me. When I turned around, I saw a boy about my age, slim and dark, with frizzy disheveled hair and cheerful dark eyes.

-You’re Gabo, right?

The boy nodded -Your mother was looking for you when we arrived. -Yes, I was out on a kind of expedition,” he said with a strange gleam in his eye.

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-Does your cat have a pirate patch? -he asked, noticing the curious accessory Croc wore on his head.

-Oh, yes, he has a bad eye, and I made it to make him look cuter.

-Isn’t it true, Croc, that you look very handsome? I replied, stroking the cat on his head and laughing to myself at the cat’s angry face, he was probably giving me a good talking to in his mind.

From then on Gabo and I kept talking about our respective pets, and when I asked him about the name of his dog, which I had never heard before, he replied: Ufo which stands for Unidentified Flying Object, the acronym in English. I would have called him Ovni but it doesn’t’ t sound very good as a dog’s name. As I was puzzled at the curious name of the animal, he nodded for me to follow him. Climbing up a spiral staircase, we reached a section at the top of the house. that we hadn’t seen on our tour, something like an attic with windows facing in all directions, which he explained to me was like a refuge for his life’s passion: the UFO phenome non.The walls of the room were covered with posters of supposed sightings and posters of ufology meetings. He had an old computer put together with different parts, for the exclusive use of the subject (no homework, he clarified) and a large plasma, which had been the main TV in the house until they bought a newer thinner one, was the screen where he watched the UFO videos. His jewel was a telescope, which he could move to any of the windows to have a view in all directions.

“As there are only few houses in this area, light po llution is less and allows for better conditions in case

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of sightings,” he explained to me very seriously, and I agreed wholeheartedly by nodding my head. To tell the truth, I had never been interested in UFOs before. I had heard that extraterrestrials were supposed to be something like visitors from other planets, and that it was thanks to them that ancient civilizations such as the Mayans, the Aztecs and even Rapa Nui existed, but my information came from such reliable sources like cable’s “Ancient Aliens” or the conspiracy theories of Juan An drés Salfate,who is like the idol of the weird phenomena on local television. So, I listened carefully to what Gabo could tell me,and I found out that not only is Chile one of the countries with most sightings in the world, but also that we were just a few kilometers away from one of the most mystical and famous places for the presence of UFOs in the country: the ElquiValley. Located in the fourth region of Chile, the Elqui River Valley begins a little north of the city of La Serena, practically united to Coquimbo, (similar to Valparaíso and Viña de Mar) and the mountain range up to the junction of two rivers,the Claro and theTurbio.

As Gabo was telling me, and I remembered some of the knowledge I had learnt at school, this valley is known for several things.Firstly,its climate and abundant sunshine has encouraged agriculture, especially grapes, with large plants producing that concoction called pisco. Then its clear, almost cloudless skies make it one of the best places in the world for astronomy, so in the interior there are several observatories such as one called La Silla and another on CerroTololo.Also located in the valley is the city ofVicuña, where the poet Gabriela Mistral was born, the first Latin American to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.

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-And as if that wasn’t enough, in 1998, an UFO fell on a hill near the town of Paihuano -added Gabo, who couldn’t seem to wait to get back to his favourite subject.

-And do they have it somewhere? As if to go and see it, I dared to suggest, until I saw the serious look on my distant cousin’s face.

-NASA took it away.I think it was a very secret operation, but there are several testimonies, recordings and photos. After that there have continued to be sightings. There are videos onYoutube, if you are interested, we’ll watch them, he offered.Yes, I replied, and we settled down in front of his computer while Ufo and Croc settled down on an old sofa and pretended to be asleep.

After a couple of hours of watching recordings,I can’t say that I was an expert on the UFO subject, but I did come out of the deep ignorance in which I had found myself on the subject. Gabo knew a lot about it, so he spared me a lot of visits to useless sites, and with a lot of enthusiasm he told me some of his theories.

-I believe that UFOs are somehow fed by the energy emanating from the centre of the earth and coming to the surface through volcanoes or even when earthquakes occur, he commented, as he taught me how to look through his telescope. That’s why Chile has so many sightings.This is the most seismic country in the world, followed by Japan. Or the other way around.

-And have you seen any? -was the question I’d been trying been trying to ask for a long time, but somehow I was kind of embarrassed to ask it. He looked at me for a moment, as if weighing me up until I seemed to pass the test.

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-I have something on video. I recorded it recently. I haven’t uploaded it to the network because I sent it first to an expert for analysis.It happened to me before that I got excited with something I filmed and then it turned out to be airplanes. So now I’ll confirm it first and then I’ll tell you.

By the way, he added in a very low voice, my parents have no idea about this video, so don’t tell them.

-No, of course not,” I promised very seriously, feeling a kind of knot in the pit of my stomach.A beautiful sunset was casting orange and fuchsia rays from the sea, while behind us the hills were beginning to take shape with the coming of night. In silence, Gabo and I watched the clouds on the horizon, lost in our own thoughts. I felt light, as if my spirit could float on the sea breeze. I wonder what kind of an expression I had on my face because a premonition made me turn my head slightly and discover a mocking expression in Croc’s one eye.

-I almost jumped backwards, but at that moment the saving cries of the cousin alerted us that tea was served, so we went downstairs to eat.

-It looks as if this visit is getting interesting, doesn’t it, mademoiselle? -I heard Croc murmur as soon as I sat down next to him on one of the armchairs at the barbeque, late that evening.

Of course,”I mumbled,alert to the possible proximity of anyone who might overhear me chatting with the cat.

-Oh, la jeunesse! -he continued in his mocking tone.

-I don’t know why you laugh at me,” I began to stroke him a little roughly, looking in all directions.

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-I’m just saying that it’s beautiful to be young,” he continued, looking at me with that half-smile.

-Oh, cherie, how many memories of my early years!

I understood perfectly well why the cat was acting like that, but at the time I thought I was wrong. Clearly Gabriel was a cute boy, a little older than me, nice and interesting but to look at him with other eyes... there was also the fact that he was the son of my mother’s distant cousin-in-law (although I could hear the voices of my friends Laura and Francesca in my head doing their best to prove that the kinship was very remote or non-existent). However, I was not going to allow Croc’s insinuations to get in the way of what was starting out as a nice friendship, and I decided to ignore his comments.

But my determination was a little shaken by the tin gling in my stomach when a few minutes later I saw the boy enter. I panicked and avoided looking at Croc, convinced that he was spying on my reactions.

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