NOT saved by the bell 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
This is NOT a Darwin Award contender, especially since it did NOT cause the demise of anyone.
CATEGORY: Personal Account
ELEGIBLE: Honorable mention
Some 19 years ago, a friend of mine and me (at the time 16 and 19 years of age respectively) were on vacation in San Miguel Allende, Mexico.
We decided to climb the beautiful (and very tall) cathedral from the outside. The main facade was out of the question, since we would get caught immediately. So we climbed the side of it and succesfully reached the central tower, on top of which was the bellfry. From here on, we climbed from the inside (we didn't want to be too stupid). The way up, however, was dangerous enough to satisfy our craving for adventure, since it consisted on a series of old (I mean OLD) wooden ladders that stood on OLD and narrow "shelves" made of wood.
Now: think of the bellfry as a two-story building, with a big hole on the floor/ceiling dividing the two stories, through which undoubdetly the constructors lifted the humongous bell, that was suspended on the top "story", occupying a great part of it. Each of the 2 levels was at least 20 ft high.
We got to the lower of these two levels.
y friend, being stronger and more apt for climbing than myself, decided to climb the rope that led to the higher level before me, and did. Just as I was about to start climbing, I noticed a guy walking on the ceiling of the cathedral, approaching the base of the tower in which we were. There was no doubt about it: he was a caretaker of some kind, that would most likely take us to the police or (even worse) sound the bell.
In panic, I started trying to let my friend know of the danger, by waving my arms and whispering as loud as I dared that there was a guy comming. My friend didn't quite understand me, and certainly did not hear a word I said. He got on all fours at the edge of the big hole separating the two stories, and leaned as far as possible, so as to hear me better.
At this moment, te humongous bell gave its first deafening bang, scarcely five feet away from my friend's ears. Imagine that u are tense with the feeling of being caught, the previous dangerous climbing, and the fact that u are leaning over 20 feet of free fall. An indescribably loud bang is NOT what you need then. The fright, plus the earpain made him instinctively take his hands off the ledge, to put them over his ears.
It's NOT good to lean on all fours over a cliff and then quickly remove your hands! He fell, made a whole twist head first into the hole, managed to break a bit his fall by grabbing the rope, burnt his hands, and let go of the rope (at which point he shouted, but the bell, and the fact that I was covering my ears, made it look like a silent movie, falling towards me).
He fell on top of me, litterally standing on my head and crushing me to the ground.
Appart from bruises and severe handburns, no damage was done, nobody even knew we were there. Submitted on 09/17/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
none
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