Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Bariloche
The sun shone high above the Bariloche airport, of which only few insiders knew its pompous name of Teniente Luiz Candelaria International Airport.
The first flight of the day from the Airport of the City of Buenos Aires had just landed. Matías ran through the spacious lobby always under the watchful eye of his father. After a while the first passengers began to flow, particularly those who had checked no baggage and should not therefore expect upon its arrival at the conveyors. As the lobby began getting crowded Eduardo Bertoni called his son at his side.
“ Matu, stay with me. I do not want you to get lost among so many people. Let's wait your uncle here.”
The child obeyed but with a little impatience. He wanted to know his mother´s only brother, although he knew he had not children with whom he could play. The arrival of his father´s brothers from Casilda in the Province of Santa Fe had instead an extra incentive since he always came with cousins about Matías ´age.
Eduardo finally waved his arm in salute, took the child by the hand and walked towards a young couple who had just emerged at the arrivals area.
“ That is uncle Marcelo, and the lady must be his wife.”
Matias saw his father approaching the other man and warmly embracing him.
“Welcome. You are finally here.” Said Eduardo. “ For how long have you been out of the country?”
“ Two and a half years.” replied Marcelo with a hint of emotion in his voice. “Let me introduce you to my wife Teresa.”
“ Here we kissed all relatives, especially young women. “Said Eduardo addressing the woman. “Can I kiss you?”
“ Of course! Do not think that we in Mexico are antediluvian. And who is this gentleman?”
“ Let me introduce you to Matías, my son.”
Teresa leaned over and kissed Matías in his cheek, which blushed immediately.
“How old are you Mathias?”
“ Six.” replied ruefully the boy.
Marcelo left his suitcase on the floor and lifted the child, shook and kissed him affectionately, which had the effect of breaking the ice.
“Last time I saw you talking lisped and sometimes we could not understand what you were saying. Tell me, are you going to school?” And giving the boy no time to respond asked his brother-in-law. “And where is Sabrina?”
“ Your sister had to go to Villa La Angostura to deliver some designs. She will return in a few hours. Sabrina was very sorry she could not come to the airport with us.”
“ Sabrina is an architect.” Marcelo explained to his wife. “She has always been the family brainiac”.
“ Brainiac?”Asked frowning Teresa.
“A kind of nerd. She was always a talented student.”
Eduardo helped newcomers to carry the bags to the airport parking lot and put them in his car trunk.
The journey to the urban area of the city began immediately. Lake Niguel Hopi soon became visible among the trees beside the road. The wind that had shaken the plane during its landing now ruffled the surface of the water, and the elevations on the opposite shore of the lake were covered by low and dark clouds. When she flipped the view Teresa could see that the peaks that rose on the left also were lost in clouds.
“ Luckily you have already arrived.” said Eduardo. “The weather is changing fast and it is likely that we have a storm coming. In the hills it is already raining. I think fall will come early this year.”
“ Still the vision of the lake is stunning. It is really big. I hope the weather will allow us to visit the region. What determines the weather in this area?”
“ The Pacific Ocean winds.” Said Eduardo. “Chile is narrow so westerly winds cross it quickly and then impact the western and then the eastern side of the Andes mountains but often download their moisture on the Chilean side. There are areas, collectively called Valdivian forest, with three or four thousand millimeters of rain a year.”
They went through much of the city center and took the Avenida de los Pioneros, on the hillside of the Otto Mountain. There Eduardo climbed one of the steep side streets and stopped at a wooden gate.
“ Welcome home. Today we will have lunch here, just as your hotel room is available from fourteen hours on. Sabrina left the food prepared for us.”
When they entered the house- that was surrounded by a thick grove- they encountered Eduardo's wife who had returned from Villa La Angostura, Marcelo made the introductions.
“ Lunch is ready.” Said Sabrina. “Let’s eat it before it gets cold.”
At dessert the talk became general and addressed variety of topics. Of particular interest were the anecdotes about Teresa´s archaeological activities in different parts of America. The young woman was an excellent storyteller, and her Mexican accent was likeable to the locals.
“ .... And usually they carved their monuments with anthropomorphic figures and animals…” Teresa was referring to the Mayan culture in Yucatan and Guatemala.
“ This reminds me of the stone with markings I found in the beach.” burst Matías, who had been silent so far.
“You can show them to your aunt later. ”Sabrina replied with a hint of reproach. “Now the grownups are talking.”
Matias was contrite but agreed to just listen. Teresa knew by heart the theme she was addressing since she had already lectured on it on numerous places and with diverse audiences, and above all, she had witnessed family and public discussions given by her father since her childhood.
After the talk, actually a monologue interrupted by occasional questions, tea was served. During the collation, Teresa approached Matías while the others talked about the prospects of another eruption of a Chilean volcano that had lately caused much trouble in both countries.
“ Matias, what did you say about the discovery of marked stones on the beach?”
The child's eyes lit up and answered immediately.
“ They're in my bedroom, aunt. Wait and I´ll bring them down.”
After a few moments the child rapidly descended the stairs, demonstrating the anxiety caused to him by the chance of showing his find to an expert person. He brought an envelope prepared with flannels which he opened, showing its contents.
Teresa could not hide her surprise; one of the objects was a stone with a vaguely circular or oval shape which obviously part of a larger set, perhaps broken in the distant past, the edges of which water and elements had eroded rounding them. It was about twenty centimeters in its longest dimension and twelve across it. On one side it only showed streaks probably due to abrasion, but the other had unequivocal man-made drawings; its edges which in all probability were once sharp had been worn and were now blunt. The central figure was a Greek cross with eight points, although the edges of the blades were concave and not straight. Although part of two of the blades was missing its identity left no room for doubt.
“ A Templar cross!” Teresa said in a whisper.
“ What? What is that? “Cried Matias in a burst of enthusiasm.
The woman, lost in her own thoughts, did not answer the child´s question and proceeded to uncover the second piece wrapped in the cloth. It was a slightly smaller and more irregular piece of stone. Like in the first stone some chisel carved inscriptions were clearly distinguishable, only that in this case there was a word, no doubt part of a stray phrase.
“Nobi ...” Teresa said to herself. “… possibly nobis.”
At that time Sabrina, Marcelo and Eduardo entered the room. Seeing Teresa holding a stone and with a thoughtful and absent look Marcelo addressed her.
“ Teresa, are you all right?”
The woman suddenly perked up and answered.
“Yes. What happens is that these artifacts are somewhat surprising, and ...even disquieting.”
“ Why? What is the matter with them?” Asked Eduardo.
“ They are undoubtedly man-made designs and likely very ancient.” said Teresa resuming her usual composure and somewhat academic tone.What surprises me most is the nature of the bas-relief engraving.”
Seeing that the answer to her phrase was silence waiting for further explanations she continued.
“This one...” said showing the oval piece.”… is in all likelihood a Maltese Cross, typical of the Order of the Temple that is of the Knights Templar.”
She then carefully placed the largest piece on a table and raised the other.
“And this has an inscription where I can make out the Latin word nobis.”
“So?” Marcelo urged her to go on with her explanation.
“This reminds me precisely the motto of the Templars, established by their sponsor, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.” and stressing her memory recited.
“Non nobis Domine, non nobis seed nomine too da Gloria.”
“Can you please translate?” Marcelo required again.
“Something like this: not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name the glory.”
“ Quite odd. “Replied Marcelo. “What were Templar objects doing on a deserted beach in Patagonia?”
“Indeed, it doesn´t seem the natural geographical context. “Answered Teresa. “The Templars acted in the Holy Land, in the Mediterranean and large parts of Europe.”
“ And unlike logs or other objects from shipwrecks, these stones could not have reached our beaches floating.” Interjected Eduardo. “No doubt their owners were on American soil.”
“ This issue is far from being my field of expertise, which is the Maya culture in the first place and the Aztec in second.” Teresa said. “But the possibility of contacts between the Templars and America looks completely improbable to me , since the Knights Templar were dissolved and pursued by a joint conspiracy of Pope Clement and the King of France, their assets seized and their leaders executed, usually burned at the stake. And all of this occurred between 1307 and 1312 that is long before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
The two men nodded but Sabrina, who until then had remained silent, made an unexpected comment.
“ But the idea of Templars here in Patagonia is not completely new. I vaguely remember having read something about searches carried out several years ago on the Atlantic coast.
After a long silence, having certainly reflected on his sister´s commentary Marcelo asked:
“ Do you have Internet at home?” After his brother-in-law´s assent he continued. “We don´t have to stay in doubt; let’s do a search.”
All settled in Sabrina’s study, and once entered the PC on the network, Teresa opened Google, and then typed: "Templars Patagonia".
To everyone's surprise, the search yielded a total of about 60,000 results.
“Oh! This is totally unexpected.” Exclaimed Sabrina. “Not all the results are independent of each other, however they are a lot.”
They were rummaging more than an hour in the results; it soon became clear that the vast majority of the entries referred to a few basic items.
“ These writings have a certain esoteric load.” Commented Marcelo.
“ And according to your understanding that makes them less credible? “ Asked Sabrina, always itchy with her brother.
“ Somehow it does.” Was the honest answer.
“ Always skeptical and materialistic.”
“ Okay, okay, enough of fraternal unsolved problems coming from your childhood.” Added jokingly Eduardo, and then addressing Teresa. “ Do you see? Always like cats and dogs, it is a facet of your husband that you have to be aware of.”
“ The truth is that esoteric theories are difficult to reconcile with very real stones with concrete inscriptions.” Replied soberly the aforementioned emphasizing her Mexican accent.
“ For once my wife cried out in my defense.” Marcelo exclaimed with a notoriously exaggerated joy.
“ Here's another source.” Whispered Sabrina, still looking at the screen.
All paid attention and read a single article, which was kind of a newspaper report of the Province of Rio Negro to a Swiss national named Emil Tschudin, who was vaguely defined as "cultural anthropologist".
“According to this article this man lives here in Bariloche.” Argued Eduardo. “Or at least he lived here in 2013, when he was interviewed.”
“Well, we didn´t realize how the time passed. It's time to have tea.” Sabrina said “ We can continue talking afterwards.”
After the snack the talk inevitably turned to the Templar topic, as the level of arousal produced had not waned. They agreed that Sabrina would mobilize to trace Tschudin if he continued living in the city, and try to make an appointment with him.