WEBVTT
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Hola, hola, this is Cristina and Carmen, and this is
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Espooky Tales, the podcast for all things spooky, haunted places, myths, legends,
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sometimes true crime, sometimes horror books, all things spooky. And Latine. Yes,
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that's true. And yeah, we are here with another episode,
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Haunted Roads. Well, sorry, A Haunted Road. Oh, okay. A
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Haunted Road. Not plural. One Haunted Road. It's been a while, though.
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I love a Haunted Road story. Same. Same. It's been
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too long, really. It has. Yeah. Before that, we usually
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have a listener story. This is not a good time
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in my life right now, so I was, like, too
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busy to find one, you know? Okay, but besides that,
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we're running low, so please send us your stories. Yes,
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that too. Um, you can email them to a spooky
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toes at gmail.com. You can leave it in the comment
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of any video. You can call the spooky hotline. Uh,
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you can, did I say DM it already? I don't remember. Well,
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you can DM it. If I didn't say that already,
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you can DM it on any of our socials. Um,
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we love receiving them. We missed receiving them. Please send them.
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And so, yeah, like I said, we have a haunted
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road today. We are talking about La Cuesta de las
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Cañas in Guatemala. Guate. Yes. You know, our friend is
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in Guatemala right now. I'm going to force her to
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listen to this episode. She doesn't listen to us, first
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of all. You know what? I'm not surprised. It's a
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hit or miss with friends. She doesn't listen to podcasts.
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She only watches them. No. Okay. You know what? I
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need to get back on YouTube. I know. I've seen
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people commenting that. Yes. Yeah. It's so hard. Anyway. Moving
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on from that. She's in Guatemala. And I was like,
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let me find a Guatemala story because it's been Guatemala
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has been neglected for a while. We've been very Mexico centric.
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We have been, especially since we're doing the states. The states. Yeah.
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So Cuesta de las Cañas is a road that leads
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from the municipalities of San Lucas and Santa Lucia, Milpas Altas.
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Towards Antigua, Guatemala. Okay. And this road is known for
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its steep descent, which starts at about kilometer 32 of
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Route 10 and ends around where Antigua starts. The curves
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of this road make it one of the most dangerous
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in Guatemala. Dude, I've seen the roads. There's this one
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video I saw of a bus going through some curvy road.
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It was probably this road. Could have been, but it
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was like a mountain, like on a cliff. Anyway, it
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was so scary. I don't know if it turned over.
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I don't remember, but it was super scary. Yeah, because
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speaking of, crashes, overturned buses, skidding, and other accidents happen
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almost daily, but for sure like every couple days on
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this road. According to the General Directorate of Road Protection
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and Safety, PROVIAL in Spanish, The causes of accidents are speeding,
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mechanical failures of said vehicles, trucks, buses, and when it's raining,
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wet asphalt makes it super dangerous. But according to the people,
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the causes are not those. They are supernatural. Okay, I
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believe it. Me too. 100%. And this supernatural cause of accidents,
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it could date back to the beginning of Antigua as
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a city. For starters, the most obvious horror... Sorry, before
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I get into that. Because, like, whenever bad things happen
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in a place, like, I don't know, people who are
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into haunted places, the supernatural, like, those places then attract more, like,
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supernatural things, right? Like, bad things happened here and now
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haunted things happen here. You know what I mean? So,
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the most obvious horror causing these supernatural activities, colonization. Okay.
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This road that we're talking about leads to Antigua, Guatemala,
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like we said. This is the third capital of Guatemala
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because they had moved it two times already before it
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became Antigua. Once because of several Cachiquel uprisings. And then again,
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because of a devastating, I don't know how to pronounce this.
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I'm sorry. Lahar? Lahar? It's a mudflow, mudflow from a volcano.
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In this case, el Volcán de Agua. That mudflow devastated
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the area. And so they had to move the capital again.
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So a lot of deaths already in those uprisings. And
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then this volcano flood. I don't know. Lahar. So it
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was moved two times. Part of those old capitals are
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where the road, Cuesta de las Cañas, is today. But
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on top of that, there was at least six devastating
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earthquakes in the region, like all in the same like
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time span. Damn. So that region has really been through
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a lot. It's been through it. Yeah. And all adding
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all of the stuff, adding to the number of deaths
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and the violence taking place on that road. And like
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I said, accidents still occur almost daily. But one of
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the most tragic accidents on that road, at least in
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like recent memory, took place on the 19th of July, 1982.
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A group of Mexican folklorico, ballet folklorico dancers were traveling
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for one of their first international performances. They left Mexico
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on the 14th. on a bus with two drivers. They're like,
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we're going to be extra safe and have like drivers
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that switch off instead of just the one, right? Their bus,
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it was, you can find pictures of this bus. The
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bus is blue. It had the word Lobo on the side.
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There's a picture of like the dancers all standing in
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front of the bus, like so happy and cheerful. They
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apparently cleaned the bus themselves. They were so excited for
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their first out of country performance. On the 19th, They
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were reaching Antigua on that road when somehow the bus overturned,
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falling into the ravine. Oh, wow. Because the road is
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like on a giant cliff, basically. 25 dancers died and
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16 were injured but alive. Wow. Like Mexico had to
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send military helicopters and rescuers to pick up those who
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had passed away and the injured who were still alive.
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And the country mourned their deaths. It was a huge accident.
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It got so much publicity. It was on the news
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a lot. Because that's a lot of people. And they
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were all young. Yeah. Two years before that, in 1990,
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a bus with 35 passengers crashed in the same spot.
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Only that time, all of the passengers passed away. In 1993,
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a group of musicians also crashed and died in that
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same spot. Oh, my God. There has to be another
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way to get there. There's not. Sorry. It's the only way.
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I can't. I simply would not go there. Like, obviously,
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people have to, but I would just, like, I could not.
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I get so scared even driving to, like, fucking Yosemite.
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You get scared on the Seattle Hills. Actually, that's true.
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And that's why I love public transportation. Because I'm not
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driving these hills. They scare me. Another bus, this time
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also in 1993, another bus, this time with Salvadoran passengers
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also crashed and they all died. This is all the
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early 1990s. And so they added some, I shouldn't say maps.
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What the fuck was I supposed to say? I don't know. Anyway. Anyway.
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They added like, you know, like, like, yeah. Like, what
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are they? I don't know what they're called, but like,
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there's like on the side of the road. Yeah. You
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see it when you're on the freeway. Almost like a bumper. Yeah.
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Like a, like a safety feature, like on the bed. Yes.
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Or like on for bowling. Yeah. Yeah. Like those things
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that come up. I just can't think of the actual name. Like, yes. Yeah.
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I can't think of the name, but they added some
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of those on the side. They made a lot of
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changes to make the road safer, especially that spot. But
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the accidents continued. Oh, no. And we would be here
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forever if we shared every single horrible and tragic accident
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because there's just that many. Literally, I was like adding these.
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And then I came across another like 2012 student bus crash.
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But that time only the teacher passed away. But the
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students all survived, which so sad. Oh, yeah. Like, again,
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another more recent one. And then, like, there was just
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so many articles. Like, firefighters called to Cuesta de las Cañas.
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Another crash. Just endless. But let's talk about some of
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the legends on this road. Because something is appearing and
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causing them to drive off the road. Yeah. According to legend,
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in the late hours of the night, Also, sometimes in
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the very early hours of the morning, drivers run into
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a woman in a white dress. Always a white dress.
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Always a woman in a white dress. If it's not white,
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it's red, though. True. Sometimes black. Yeah, but it's just
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those three colors. Nothing else. No. No, nothing else. So
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they'll be driving and suddenly in the middle of the road,
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there she is, just standing. All medicinally. Naturally, drivers hit
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their brakes, causing them to overturn. Those who survived the
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crash look around, looking for the woman who frightened them.
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But by then, she has vanished. They say that if
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the car's motor is shut off, she will appear inside
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of the car, either in the passenger seat or in
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the backseat. Some report seeing a man instead of a woman.
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I wonder if he's also wearing white. Yeah, they don't say, huh?
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I wonder. Hmm. Hmm. Questions. But the results are the same. Okay.
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Crash and die or crash and survive? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Others
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have reported seeing an angelic figure described only as luminous,
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always at the exact same time, 4.30 in the morning.
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You know what? Out of all of those, that kind
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of seems like the best option. But is there a
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best option if they're all causing you to crash? The angel,
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to me. I'd rather not see anything. True, true. The
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other legend is La Pareja Fantasma. A couple this time, okay.
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The ghost couple. According to legend, at kilometer 42 of
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Cuesta de las Cañas, a couple can be found asking
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for a ride. The man is always wearing a blue
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suit and a black hat. The woman wears a black
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dress and for some reason no one can ever see
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her feet. ominous that's already like nope actually seen a
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couple i mean yeah the the dress is always like
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floating you know like yeah it's never like flowy yeah
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it's long long and flowy and covering yes the feet
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but she's probably floating and not standing probably yeah they
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stand on the side of the road with their thumbs
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out waiting for a kind person to give them a
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ride but at some point once the curve is over
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the couple is gone Actually, I'd rather see them because
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it seems like they don't cause car accidents. I think, though,
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if you're like driving and they suddenly disappear, one could
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be like, oh, my God, and then crash. But it
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does seem safer. But it's after the curve. So it's
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like a little safer. That's true. If you're going to
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crash somewhere after the curve is better. Yeah. Yeah. And
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then we also found some stories on the road. So
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the swallowing one is from someone who we will call Andy.
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which I found on Facebook. Facebook? Yeah, yeah. I was
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researching in random places today. So Andy, a 20-year-old student,
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wanted to go see the festivities during Semana Santa in Antigua.
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And it was beautiful. There was like a whole procession,
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candles everywhere, you know, nice statues, church things, you know,
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Catholic things. It was truly beautiful. And then he decided
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that he was going to travel super early in the
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morning to avoid traffic leaving Antigua. So he's driving when
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he found himself at kilometer 34 of Cuestas de las
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Cañas at exactly 4.30 in the morning. As he drove,
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he saw a woman suddenly appear in his rearview mirror.
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He tried to scream, but he couldn't. Then he tried
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to accelerate, but he also couldn't. Oh, no. But he
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didn't lose control. He kept driving super slow. And as
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he got past the curve, the woman vanished before his eyes. Okay,
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that's good that he survived. Yeah, yeah. Because that could have,
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he could have not survived and not tell the story,
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you know? Right. Okay, and the next story is a
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little longer, and I would say creepier. Ooh. I don't
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remember the YouTube. I think it's El Lado Oscuro. It's
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in the sources. You'll see it. It's a YouTube page.
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That's where this story comes from. So, Don E was
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a truck driver. He drove through the most treacherous roads,
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like El Espinazo del Diablo, La Rumorosa. Ooh. Some of
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which we've already talked about in different episodes. In 1992,
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his truck was newer and he was a well-esteemed employee
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in his company. He was a serious man and sometimes
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he brought his family along on truck driving jobs, especially
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if he was going near the beach. That makes sense. Yeah.
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And so, yeah, when he was done unloading, they could
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vacation together. And because he was such a good employee,
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his boss was like, yeah, take an extra day at
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the beach. Have fun with the fam. Nice. Right. And
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so in 1992, for some reason, Don E was the
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one sent to Central America all the way to Guatemala
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for this delivery. I think because he was so trusted
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because he was so, you know, such a hard worker.
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So he went and At one of the truck stops
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after Chiapas, heading into Guatemala, he ran into another Mexican
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truck driver. And they got to chatting, as we do.
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Don E. told the other Mexican truck driver that his
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specific route... I think people use both. Okay, that his
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specific route to the quiet mountain town of Santa Lucia,
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Milpas Altas, in the department of Zacatepeque was long. and
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that he was supposed to go there, and then he
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had another delivery in Antigua, Guatemala. That's when the other
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truck driver told Don E, hey, be very careful leaving
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Santa Lucia and heading to Antigua. Go very slowly. You
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don't want to lose control. Be very careful. He then
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asked Don E what he was carrying, and Don E
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told him 16 tons, and the man was like, no mames.
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Be very careful. Because that's a lot. Dang. For these hills.
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Or not hills. These are like more than hills. These
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cliff sides. For these mountains. Yeah. These cliff sides. So
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he's like, oh, be very careful. And hey, if it
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gets dark when you're still in Santa Lucia, stay there.
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Do not make that drive at night. And Donel was like,
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pues que mal esta? Like, why? Why? How bad is it? Yeah.