Rejuvenating water

Let me start by admitting that in this article, I am taking a little while to get to the experiences themselves. This is due to three things. Firstly, this section should have been included in a completely different series of articles, which was not about experiences but just about things that I found interesting in one way or another. But also – and therefore secondly – ​​the story is very interesting. And thirdly, as I have mentioned several times, it is my book (from the book) and therefore it's me who decides, and I have therefore decided that the long introduction must be included before I get to the experiences. But let me get started.

When the Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon as the first European discovered what is now known as Florida on Easter Sunday in 1513, he was in search of the Fountain of Youth. At least that is what later legends like to claim. Whether there is any truth behind the story is more doubtful. From what we know of Ponce de Leon, he was more likely in search of gold, precious stones and natives to plunder. But here is a bit of the story, even though it may not be true at all.

Statue af Juan Ponce de Leon outside Lightner Museet i St. Augustine

While he was governor of the island of Borinquin, modern-day Puerto Rico, Ponce de Leon heard from the local natives stories of an indigenous tribe where the people grew very old, and he set out to investigate whether it could have anything to do with the Fountain of Youth (which many wealthy and well-read Europeans were searching for at the time). Surprisingly, the local natives could tell that these long-lived people achieved their great age because they drank water from a certain spring on the island where they lived. The island was quite far from Borinquin to the north! The tribe that lived on the island was very friendly and would welcome strangers, Ponce de Leon learned from his sources. The natives knew what it took to lure the Spaniards away from their own territory!

Ponce de Leon had heard from the people of Borinquin that the Fountain of Youth was to be found on the then unknown island, Bimini, which was north of Puerto Rico – in fact, all the way up north of Cuba. (Bimini is located in the Atlantic Ocean off Miami in Florida and south of Grand Bahama Island.) Unfortunately, de Leon could not just leave Borinquin without the king’s permission. He therefore turned to his friend Pedro Nunez de Guzman, who was still living in Spain and had some connection to the royal family and the reigning monarch Ferdinand II. de Guzman had been a tutor to King Ferdinand II's grandson, and through de Guzman Ponce de Leon received the king's permission to search for and explore the island of Bimini. In March 1513, Ponce de Leon left Borinquin with 3 ships and about 200 men. He set out on a northwesterly course towards what we know today as the Bahamas. They landed on at least two islands, Grand Turk Island and San Salvador and possibly also Grand Bahama Island before reaching Bimini, but when they finally arrived, the people who lived on the island were neither particularly friendly nor particularly old, and although the Spaniards found several springs, none of them were the right one.

In return, the local inhabitants of these islands, not least Bimini, told legends about a land to the west, where the air always smelled of perfumed flowers, and where golden fruits grew on trees. Beautiful maidens gathered the fruits and served them to any strangers who came to this land. Perhaps he could find the spring here? The natives knew what it took to lure the Spaniards away from their own territory! It is striking, by the way, how much this story resembles the Greek legend of the The Garden of the Hesperides. Here, three nymphs (the Hesperides) guard the golden apples (oranges?) that the goddess Hera has planted far to the west, on the other side of the great river Okeanos. (Other legends locate the garden in North Africa).  Hercules, who was to retrieve the apples as one of his 12 labors, had to sail through the Strait of Gibraltar and cross Okeanos to find the apples. How the two stories are connected, and how Greeks and American Natives can share mythological material, I will not discuss here.

Ponce de Leon continued his voyage further northwest and on March 27th, land was sighted. Since it was Easter Sunday, he called the place Pasque de Florida, “The Flowering Easter,” after the Spanish name for the Easter festival. On April 2, he went ashore a little north of the place where present-day St. Augustine, Florida is located. He claimed the entire island – because he believed it was an island he had come to – for the Spanish throne. On this basis, the Spanish claimed the right to the entire North American mainland for a long number of years. With him on the journey, de Leon had a pilot, Anton de Alaminos, and it was largely thanks to him that de Leon succeeded in finding the way south of the Florida Keys. On his way north, de Leon had also discovered the so-called Bahama Channel, the waters between Cuba and the Great Bahama Bank, which made the journeys between Cuba and Europe much shorter, and thus faster. When they passed the south coast of Florida, the pilot, Alaminos, observed the very strong current around the coast, and today Anton de Alaminos is considered the discoverer of the Gulf Stream.

As mentioned, the Timucua Indians were quite tall. Their average height was about 6'1" for men. The average height of women was about 5'5". We know this from the skeletons found in the area. The average life expectancy was probably about 65 to 70 years. In comparison, it should be said that the average life expectancy of the Spaniards was only about 35-40 years, and their average height was only about 4'7". Even Ponce de Leon, who was known to be very tall, was only 4'9". When he later returned to Cuba, he referred to the island, which he believed it to be, as the “land of giants”.

At the spring where de Leon first went ashore, he erected, according to Spanish custom, a large (recumbent) cross consisting of 15 stones in height and 13 in width to symbolize the year 1513, and to announce that the place now belonged to Christendom. Ponce de Leon only stayed in the area for a few days. He then headed south, following the coast to the southern tip of Florida, and from there up the west coast. Here he reached around present-day Tampa, before turning around and sailing back to Borinquin. Later, de Leon was killed by other indigenous people when he tried to establish a settlement in Florida, but that is another story that is not the subject of this article.

Fountain of Youth in the Fountain of Youth Archealogical Park in St. Augustine

At the site where the sulfurous spring was found, on the outskirts of the present-day city of Saint Augustine, a “park” has now been established, "The Fountain of Youth Archeological Park", and I have visited it several times. The first time was way back in 2002 and the most recent visit was in 2018. Here you can still see the spring, which today flows into a brick well, and you can get tastings. On my first visits, you were given a plastic cup with a small taste of the water. On my most recent visits, you are still given a plastic cup, but now it is empty, and you can fill it yourself at the fountain, so that you can fill the cup completely. If you want even more water, it can be purchased in bottles at the park's gift shop. I have drunk the water myself on all my visits, and I am sure that is why, despite my advanced age, I am holding up so well!! In fact, at the time of writing, I have three small bottles of water standing on my shelf, in case I should feel my age at a later date. And that the water has an effect, I was confirmed on my visit in 2016.

The price to enter the park was $15 at that time, but if you were over 62, you got a senior discount, and when I met this requirement I saved a whole dollar. It's strange how much it varies how old you have to be to get a senior discount in the US. I've never seen it under 60, but on the other hand "over 60", "over 62", "over 63" and "over 65". Apparently the individual attractions decide for themselves when you are a senior and here you have to be 62 to get a discount. The worst part was that they didn't even ask for ID. I must have looked old that day, which I don't usually do. On this visit, a grate had been put over the well, which surprised me, because it hadn't been there before. So I asked the park ranger who was standing by the well about the grate, and she explained that there were simply too many people who had put their hands and feet in the water. Maybe they were hoping that it would work more effectively that way than just drinking. I drank – despite the taste – two whole cups on that visit, and it does actually, because when we left the park, they demanded that I pay back my senior discount because I couldn't possibly be a day over 61! Or something J.

I was a little disappointed that they didn't require ID for my age in Florida, but I was pleasantly surprised later on the trip when both Tim and I were asked for ID at a restaurant in North Carolina when we ordered a beer with our meal. A blatant proof that the water works, but that it takes some time, because here I must have looked much younger than I am, as you just have to be over 21 to drink beer in the US.