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SNOWING IN BALI

But the danger for Rafael had only really just begun. His old mare started dining out on the bag-swap story, and Rafael’s name got bandied around in Bali. He quickly realised this was the problem of using horses who lived on the island. Others he could send home fast. Now his fame was growing, many more people, often strangers, were approaching him in clubs, restaurants, even in the surf, about doing runs; it was great for business, but extremely dangerous.

Everybody knew about this because Barbara talked too much. Marco joked, 'Look, your mule doesn’t work. Viejo, old mule and this is the result.' She thought this was cool, she tells everybody, 'I was working for Rafael, and I take the wrong bag, I go back and change it because I’m Barbara.' But here is a small place, everyone knows everything. She was my big mistake.

My partner Poca used to take care of mules - but I start to get a little bit famous. And then many people come to me: 'Hi, you Rafael?' 'Yep.' 'I’m a friend of Barbara’s. Sorry to disturb you, but Barbara tells me you need somebody to work.' I was like, 'Fuck, what’s Barbara doing?' Then I was like, 'Okay, just wait. You don’t need to contact me, we’ll talk through Barbara and when I have something, she will call you. Does she know your number?' 'Yeah she knows my number.'

And then I start to have people on standby in Bali. Barbara found a way to find horses for me, take commission, and make money without risk. But this was a very bad move, because she talked to many people who didn’t need to know ... because, fuck ... you know ... She was one of the big mistakes I made in my career.

- Rafael

Rafael wasn’t unused to dramas with his horses. Another who was tricky and loose-lipped was a long-time friend from Rio,