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The Ghost of Juan Valdez

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Everyone knows of Juan Valdez…right?  He´s the guy in the commercials for that special brand of Colombian coffee.  It sure is good because I went to the Juan Valdez Cafe in Medellin´s Zona Rosa for breakfast yesterday and had a Cafe Con Leche and a puff pastry.  They sell a whole line of tee shirts, sweatshirts, gift coffee cups, and coffee-related objects, and I guess there are franchises in many countries.  Big commercial coffee operation.

Well, here in this hostel, we have our own version of Juan Valdez in the form of a ghost who inhabits a particular five-bed dorm room and it´s adjoining bathroom.  I haven´t before, during my long life,  had the pleasure of co-occupancy with a ghost  (my private room is next to said dorm and said bathroom), so I was thrilled with the opportunity to see how this sort of thing feels, being a “sensitive” myself.

Luis and Salome, employees of this hostel, also talented in spiritual things, told me of the goosebumps they could feel when this ghost was nearby and Salome could see him, but with a sensing inner radar, rather than her eyes.  One maid is particularly afraid of him and will often come and get Luis to chase him away while she is cleaning a room or a bath.  The general impression here is that he is good and not harmful but many people, including some guests, just don´t want to deal with such goings-on from another dimension, and they get “spooked.”

So, I decided to visit this “phantasm” in his favorite hangout,  that dorm bathroom.  Instantly, both of my lower arms broke out in goosebumps.  Soon, the light began to flicker in a regular, mathematical pattern.  One.  One, two.  One, two, three.  That´s intended as a clue to say:  “Hey! I´m and intelligent being here!  This is no coincidence.”  Then, I heard a slight crackling, electrical sound coming from the same light fixture.  I knew that I had his full attention and that he was trying to communicate, so I began to think-talk to him.  “Hi, what´s your name?” ignoring the chance that he was a Spanish-speaking ghost, no doubt.

These telepathic lines go to brain cells that ignore language differences, and he answered that his name was Juan Valdez.  I said, “Yeah, right!  Where´s your donkey?  That´s the silliest thing I ever heard! You must be joking!”  Later, when I repeated this experience to Luis, it meant something to him, as he is a great admirer of this coffee and everything about the franchise, so we figured it might be a message for him as the ghost seems to want to communicate with Luis.  By now, we just call this invisible one, Juan, and don´t worry about the legitimacy of the title.  So, he took on a name with this little tete-a-tete of ours.   Previously, he had just been referred to in hushed tones as the Phantasm.

That very afternoon, that same bathroom´s crackling lightbulb burned out….so there´s an out for any practical-thinkers who might be reading this blog and shaking their heads at my foolishness.  That´s all it ever was…an electrical problem.  Except, simultaneously, the lightbulb in the hall outside of my nearby room, burned out too.  I conversed with Juan for a few hours that day and told him that he needed to be on his way into the realms where people must go when they leave their bodies.  When I became unable to sense his presence any more, I thought that he had done just that.

However, the beat goes on with Luis and Salome, so maybe he just didn´t like my line of thinking.  Stay tuned folks.  More on the Ghost of Juan Valdez later.