And from that tragic industrial accident to a violent and shocking armed assault in the Colombia River Forest Reserve in Southern Belize.
Tonight two experienced bushmen from San Pedro Colombia Village in Toledo are in the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga. 55 year old Alfredo Sho and 59 year old Ermelindo Cho were shot and chopped by Xateros in a remote part of the Colombia River Forest Reserve.
It happened yesterday as the pair were returning from an independent expedition to Doyle's Delight in the cockscomb mountain range - which is considered by some to be the highest point in Belize.
According to their associate Bruno Kuppinger, the pair left home on Sunday, sumitted Doyle's and were returning home.
Yesterday afternoon at about 3:00, they stopped to rest at Union Camp. That's where they met two Guatemalan Xateros who asked them for food. We understand it is quite common for travelers in this area to meet Guatemalan poachers of all kinds.
Sho and Cho accommodated and shared Ramen noodles with the Xateros. But when Sho and Cho were leaving, as they turned their backs, one of the Xateros pulled a gun and shot Ermelino to his lower abdomen and shot Alfredo to his shoulder. Ermelino told police he charged at his shooter and that's when he was chopped right above the eye.
Sho and Cho were able to run off without further injury. But they were still in the middle of a remote jungle with multiple injuries - and about a 7 hour hike to the nearest village.
Still, they fearlessly carried on; at 6:00 pm, they left their packs behind and trekked south. According to Kuppinger, they reached a farm near San Jose Village at 7:00 the next morning. They were taken by horseback to San Jose where Kuppinger was among the first to meet them. He told us that they looked dehydrated and thoroughly worn out but Alfredo was still standing and both were conscious and lucid when he met them.
An ambulance picked them up in San Jose and rushed them to the Punta Gorda Hospital which they reached at around 12:30 this afternoon.
An X-Ray confirmed that the older man Ermelino had two bullets lodged in his lower abdomen while Alfredo was shot on his shoulder. This afternoon they were taken to the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga where they are in stable condition.
We'll keep following their progress of and the incredible story of survival for these remarkably durable, very experienced bushmen. And while their survival is something to celebrate, the dangers of the Colombia River Forest Reserve are brought into sharp focus by this incident which demonstrates what conservationists have long been saying: that the area is over-run with Guatemalan outlaws who receive little or no resistance from Belizean authorities who simply do not have the resources to maintain a presence in the vast area.
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