Three chavos leave
Cuernavaca
Into the
mountains, into the past,
Packed into a
battered Renault Twelve
Losing the
century fast
A land where no
Spanish is spoken
Where the Old
Ways still hold true
They passed a
church draped in corn dolls
With doors no
one ever went through
Climbing Mount Popo in boat
shoes
It seemed like the thing to do
Climbing Mount Popo in boat
shoes
They didn’t know what they’d go
through
The ruts are
deeper the closer you get
The mountain
is candied with snow
They walked on
the path to guide Simon
As he piloted
the Renault
When they
reached the Paso de Cortes
Where the
stout man viewed the might
Of the empire
he came to conquer
They camped
and spent the night
Stout Cortes
took a flyer
And burned
his ships on the strand
Set off
inland with his horses and men
To conquer a
whole new land
He had 13
horses and 500 men
A creole
mistress, a cannon or two
With this he
captured the world’s greatest city
And we were
Conquistadores too
The mountain
loomed over us smoking
As we started
our march to the plain
The women and
children driven before us
And men just
waiting to be slain
Moctezuma tried
playing the long game
And he knew
right away what it cost
His life was
forfeit to Cortes,
His entire
Empire was lost
Sleeping
eluded the climbers
The altitude
was too high
The headaches,
and the ancient dreams
Turned them out
of their bags before five
The path to
the top is a long one
It curls
round the cone like a snake
Taking
fifteen miles round to achieve but four up
But the climb
is too steep to take straight
They got as
far as fifteen thousand feet,
Just three
thousand feet from the top
Thin air, the
cold, their sunburned tongues
Conspired to force
them to stop
El Popo is
one serious mountain
Fifth highest
on the continent
They decided
to climb it like children
No gear, no
warm clothes, no tent
They were the
Conquistadores of old
They’d burned
their ships on the beach
To make sure
the decision to return to the pass
Was one not
easily reached
They knew now why
the Conqueror
Had stayed in
Mexico to grow old
He’s seen the
greatest thing in the world
Heard the
greatest story told
Climbing Mount Popo in boat
shoes
It seemed like the thing to do
Climbing Mount Popo in boat
shoes
They didn’t know what they’d go
through
