Flying Over South America

Keep Your Card in This Pocket

Books will be issued only on presentation of proper
library cards.

Oj Unless labeled otherwise, books may be retained
for &wr weeks. Borrowers finding books marked, de-
faced or mutilated are expected to report same at
library desk; otherwise the last borrowers-will be held
responsible for all imperfections discovered.

The card holder is responsible for all books drawn
on this card. *t

Penalty for over-due books 2c a day plus cost of
notices.

Lost cards and change of residence mtist be re-
ported promptly.

Public Library

Kansas City., Mo.

Keep Your Card in This Pocket

NSAS CITY, MO PUBLIC LIBRARY

D 0001

MOUNT ACONCAGUA

Photographed by the author through the airplane window at a height of

more than 18,000 feet, March 31, 1930. Aconcagua (22,817 feet altitude) is

the highest measured mountain in the western hemisphere

FLYING OVER
SOUTH AMERICA

Twenty Thousand ^JMiles by

BY
ANNIE S. PECK, A.M., F.R.G.S.

Author of 'A Search for the Apex of America/ ' The South American
Tour, 1 and 'Industrial and Commercial South America 1

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

Cambridge
1932

COPYRIGHT, 1932, BY ANNIE S, PECK

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM

CAMBRIDGE , MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE TJ.S.A.

**/2>ino-

FOREWORD

HAVE you ever been in an airplane? Or are you
determined to stay on terra firma, never risking
your life in one of those machines which have
brought death to many? In either case you may
like to read the story of a long flight by a woman
in her eightieth year; no sensational tale with
more of fiction than of fact, but a true account
of the journey, with information as to the de-
velopment of air service in South America, its*
unprecedented safety, and the unrivaled beauty
and splendor revealed to one who flies over and
around that continent.

The notable flight of Colonel Lindbergh in
1927 was needed to spur our own people to a
rapid development of this mode of travel; but
in South America, where the difficult physi-
ography of most of the countries had hampered
road construction of all kinds, the utility of
air service was earlier apparent, and in several
countries it had been installed.

Although exaggerated description by persons
prone to thrills may be entertaining, aviation
will be better promoted and more persons will
be tempted to undertake a tour of this kind by
an accurate sketch of the comforts and pleasures
of the journey.

iv FOREWORD

Presenting in this volume many beautiful
pictures taken from the air, a recital of my own
experience and observation, and brief descrip-
tion of places so quickly and comfortably visited,
I hope that many will gain, by reading, a super-
ficial acquaintance with the continent, and that
those who can afford it, young, middle-aged, and
elderly, may be persuaded to undertake this
truly delightful tour. One may be surprised by
the splendid cities with homes of elegance and
culture, and will surely be enthralled by amazing
scenic spectacles: contrasting tropical jungles
and deserts, mountains clothed in verdure and
majestic snow-clad peaks, the most beautiful
of the world's great waterfalls, a thousand en-
chanting scenes.

CONTENTS

I. PRELIMINARY i

II. MY FIRST FLIGHT 9

III. BOGOTA 21

IV. OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA: MEDELL^N,
BARRANCA BERMEJA, AND BARRANQUILLA 30

V. CARTAGENA: ON THE WAY TO ECUADOR 43

VI. ECUADOR 55

VII. FLYING IN PERU: LIMA 62

VIII. A VISIT TO IQUITOS 79

IX. RETURN TO LIMA 93

X. SOUTHERN PERU 105

XL BOLIVIA 112

XII. CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA 115

XIII. SANTIAGO AND VALPARAISO 128

XIV. SANTIAGO 133
XV. SOUTHERN CHILE v 137

XVI. PUERTO MONTT AND THE LAKE REGION 146

XVII. CROSSING THE ANDES 154

XVIII. ARGENTINA 161

XIX. FLYING'SOUTH 168

XX. A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 178

XXL URUGUAY 19^

XXII. SOUTH BRAZIL 197

vi CONTENTS

XXIII. SAO PAULO AND Rio DE JANEIRO 206

XXIV. NORTH BRAZIL 214
XXV. PERNAMBUCO, NATAL, FORTALEZA, PARA 223

XXVI. COMING HOME 233

XXVII. VENEZUELA 243

POSTSCRIPT 249

ILLUSTRATIONS

MOUNT ACONCAGUA Frontispiece

Photograph by the author

PUERTO COLOMBIA 6

Photograph by Scadta, Bogota, Colombia

HANGARS OF SCADTA IN BARRANQUILLA 6

Photograph by Scadta

EL BANCO, COLOMBIA 14

Photograph by Scadta

PUERTO BERRfo AND HOTEL, COLOMBIA 14

Photograph by Scadta

FLAND&S, COLOMBIA 18

Photograph by Scadta

APULO, COLOMBIA 18

Photograph by Scadta

VIEW OF BOGOT! SHOWING CAPITOL IN CENTER ON
PLAZA AND CATHEDRAL AT LEFT OF PLAZA 24

Photograph by Scadta

CHAPINERO, A WEALTHY SUBURB OF BOGOTA 24

Photograph by Scadta

FALLS OF TEQUENDAMA, COLOMBIA 28

Photograph by Scadta

BOGOTA AND MONSERRATE 28

Photograph by Scadta

MOUNTAINS NEAR HONDA, COLOMBIA 32

Photograph by Scadta

CASINO FOR PILOTS AND HANGAR, FLANDS 32

Photograph by Scadta

HOTEL EUROPA, MEDELLfN, COLOMBIA 36

From a postcard

BARRANCA BERMEJA 36

Photograph by Scadta

viii ILLUSTRATIONS

REAR VIEW OF HOTEL EL PRADO, BARRANQUILLA 40
BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA 40

BOCA CENIZA, MAGDALENA RIVER 44

Photograph by Scadta

CARTAGENA 44

Photograph by Scadta

Cnoc6 INDIANS VISITING PLANE AT SAUTATA 48

Photograph by Scadta

ON THE CARIBBEAN SHORE OF Gaoc6 48

Photograph by Scadta

QuiBD6, COLOMBIA 52

Photograph by Scadta

BUENAVENTURA, COLOMBIA 52

Photograph by Scadta

CHIMBORAZO 58

From a postcard

THE GREAT WALL OF PERU 68

Photograph by Aerial Explorations, Inc.

RUINS OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHAN CHAN 68

Photograph by W. O. Runcie

HUASCARAN FROM TEN THOUSAND FEET ALTITUDE 70

Photograph by the author

SAMNE, NEAR TRUJILLO, PERU 70

ANC6N, PERU: WATERING-PLACE AND NAVAL AVIA-
TION SCHOOL 74

Photograph by Commander H. B. Grow

CALLAO: PORT WORK IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION 74

Photograph by Commander H. B. Grow

LIMA 76

Photograph by Lieutenant George R. Johnson, of the
Peruvian Air Service, reproduced by permission of the
Pan American-Grace Airways, Inc.

MlRAFLORES, SUBURB OF LlMA 79

Photograph by Lieutenant George R. Johnson, of the Peru-
vian Air Service, reproduced by permission of the Pan
American-Grace Airways, Inc.

ILLUSTRATIONS ix

FOOTHILLS OF THE ANDES IN PERU 82
SAN RAM6N, PERU, WITH FIELD AND HANGAR

ACROSS THE RIVER ON THE LEFT 82
AIR BASE AT MASISEA, PERU, ON THE WAY TO

IQUITOS 86

THE RIVER PACHITEA, PERU 86

Photograph by W. O. Runcie

CALLE PROSPERO AND PLAZA PRINCIPAL, IQUITOS,
PERU 90

From a postcard

HOUSE FACING PLAZA, IQUITOS 90

From a postcard

PRESIDENT LEGUIA OF PERU SPEAKING 100

Photograph by Ernesto Calvo, received from Pan Ameri-
can-Grace Airways, Inc.

A PERUVIAN LADY 102

Mrs. Wiese at her home in Lima

A CHOLA OF BOLIVIA 102

Photograph by Pierola, La Paz, Bolivia

MOLLENDO, PERU 106

Photograph by Lieutenant George R. Johnson, of the
Peruvian Air Service, ^reproduced by permission of the
Pan American-Grace Airways, Inc.

FOOTHILLS WITH CHACHANI AND EL MISTI IN THE
DISTANCE 106

Photograph by W. O. Runcie

EL MISTI AND THE CITY OF AREQUIPA 108

Photograph by W. O. Runcie

THE CRATER OF EL MISTI 108

Photograph by Lieut. George R. Johnson

A PART OF LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, WITH MOUNT ILLIMANI
IN THE BACKGROUND 112

Photograph by J. Q. Jim6nez, La Paz

ANOTHER VIEW OF LA PAZ 112

Photograph by Pierola, La Paz

x ILLUSTRATIONS

HOTEL PAcfFico, ARICA, CHILE 118

Photograph furnished by the Tourist Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

CoPiAp6, CHILE 118

Photograph from Pan American Airways

NITRATE WORKS, CHILE 122

Photograph from Pan American Airways

ANDEAN PEAKS 122

Photograph from Pan American Airways

VALLEY OF ACONCAGUA WITH MOUNT ACONCAGUA
IN THE DISTANCE 126

Photograph from Pan American Airways

VALPARAISO 126

Photograph from Pan American Airways

SANTIAGO, LOOKING EAST 128

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

CERRO CmsT6BAL WITH OBSERVATORY AND COLOS-
SAL STATUE OF THE VIRGIN ON THE SUMMIT,
OVERLOOKING SANTIAGO 128

SPORTING CLUB OF VINA DEL MAR NEAR VAL-
PARAISO 130

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

JOCKEY CLUB (CLUB HIPICO), SANTIAGO 130

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

NATIONAL LIBRARY ON THE ALAMEDA, SANTIAGO 134

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works, Chile

ALAMEDA DE LAS DELICIAS, SANTIAGO 134

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works, Chile

CLUB DE LA UNION, SANTIAGO, WHERE MR. HOOVER
WAS ENTERTAINED 138

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

ILLUSTRATIONS xi

PRESIDENT-ELECT HOOVER AT THE CLUB DE LA
UNION, SANTIAGO, DECEMBER, 1928 138

LAKE AND PALACE OF FINE ARTS, PARQUE FOR-
ESTAL, SANTIAGO 14

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

PATIO OF THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS, SANTIAGO 140

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

BEACH OF MONTEMAR, NEAR VINA DEL MAR, CHILE 142

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

FALLS OF THE LAJA, CHILE 142

Photograph furnished by the^ Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

LAKE LLANQUIHUE AND THE VOLCANO OSORNO 146

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

MOUNT TRONADOR, CHILE 15

Photograph by Bayer

LAKE TODOS LOS SANTOS 150

Photograph furnished by the Travel Section of the
Ministry of Public Works of Chile

ANDEAN AUTOMOBILE ROAD 158

USPALLATA PASS AND THE CHRIST OF THE ANDES 158
GOVERNMENT PALACE FACING PLAZA AND AVENIDA

DE MAYO, BUENOS AIRES 162

CONGRESS HALL AND PARK (MADE IN SIXTY DAYS),

BUENOS AIRES
AVENIDA DE MAYO, BUENOS AIRES 164

Photograph from G. Bourquin y Cia., Buenos Aires
PLAZA LA VALLE, BUENOS AIRES 166

CASA ROSADA, THE PRESIDENT'S PALACE, ON THE

PLAZA DE MAYO, BUENOS AIRES 168

THE NATIONAL PRISON, BUENOS AIRES 168

xii ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW DOCKS, BUENOS AIRES 170

COMODORO RlVADAVIA I7O

Photograph furnished by Mr. White

ESTANCIA, NEAR MAR DEL PLATA 174

THOROUGHBREDS NEAR MAR DEL PLATA 174

CUSTOM HOUSE, BUENOS AIRES 178

HARBOR-FRONT AND AVENIDA BE MAYO, BUENOS
AIRES 178

iGUAsstf FALLS FROM THE BRAZILIAN SIDE (A PART) 182

Photograph by Enrique Broszeit for La Nacion of Buenos
Aires

iGUAsst; FALLS FROM THE ARGENTINE SIDE 182

Photograph by Enrique Broszeit for La Nation of Buenos
Aires

BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIACHUELO, BUENOS AIRES,
WITH No DRAW TO OBSTRUCT TRAFFIC 186

CITY OF ROSARIO ON THE PARANA RIVER 186

NORTH BASIN, BUENOS AIRES 190

INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE, AsuNCi6N 194

MONTEVIDEO 194

OLD FORTRESS AT ENTRANCE TO HARBOR OF SANTOS 202
SANTOS 202

Photograph from the Institute of Commercial Expansion,
Rio de Janeiro

FlSH-PONDS AND BUILDINGS OF THE DIRECTORY OF

ANIMAL INDUSTRY, SAO PAULO 206

THE CITY OF SAO PAULO 206

Photograph from the Institute of Commercial Expansion,
Rio de Janeiro

RAILWAY FROM SANTOS TO SAO PAULO 208
HIGHWAY FROM SAO PAULO TO Rio DE JANEIRO 208

THE SUGAR LOAF AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE
HARBOR OF Rio DE JANEIRO 210

ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

THE CORCOVADO 212

PRACA FLORIANO, Rio DE JANEIRO 212

NICTHEROY, CAPITAL OF THE STATE OF Rio DE

JANEIRO 214

Photograph from the Institute of Commercial Expansion,
Rio de Janeiro

THE DOCKS OF Rio DE JANEIRO 216

Photograph from the Institute of Commercial Expansion,
Rio de Janeiro

Rio DE JANEIRO, WITH PRASA FLORIANO AND
HOTEL GLORIA 216

Photograph from the Institute of Commercial Expansion,
Rio de Janeiro

SALT WORKS, CABO FRIO, BRAZIL 218

Photograph by Studio Huberti, Rio de Janeiro

VICTORIA, BRAZIL 218

Photograph by Studio Hubert!, Rio de Janeiro
CARAVELLAS, BRAZIL 220

Photograph by Studio Huberti, Rio de Janeiro

ILH&OS, BRAZIL 220

Photograph by Studio Huberti, Rio de Janeiro

BAHIA: POINT AND LIGHTHOUSE 224

Photograph by Studio Huberti, Rio de Janeiro

BAHIA: THE UPPER AND LOWER TOWNS WITH THE
ELEVATOR CONNECTING THE Two 224

From a view in Travel

Two VIEWS OF RECIFE (PERNAMBUCO) 226

Photographs by Burkhardt, Recife

DOCKS AT NATAL, BRAZIL 228

GOVERNOR AND CITIZENS AT NATAL 228

Musfio BOLIVIANO, CARACAS 240

Photograph by L. T. Foro

TRIUMPHAL ARCH, CARABOBO 240

ROAD FROM LA GUAYRA TO MACUTO 244

xiv ILLUSTRATIONS

LA GUAYRA 244

Photograph from Pan American Airways

STATUE OF BcdvAR, MARACAY, VENEZUELA 246

HOTEL JARD{N, MARACAY 246

Photograph from Pan American Airways

LAKE-FRONT, MARACAIBO, VENEZUELA 250

Photograph from Pan American Airways

CARIBBEAN PETROLEUM PROPERTY, MARACAIBO 250

Photograph from Pan American Airways

FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY

IN THE days of my youth, Darius Green (with a
flying machine) said, 'The birds can fly, and
why not I?' Unlike the majority in those days
I sympathized with the idea, though his flight
was a flop. I had, however, no expectation that
in my day the vision would be realized; and in
1903, when I sailed for South America to climb
one of the great peaks of the Andes, I did not
dream of ever flying over or around them.

But a few weeks later, Orville Wright flew
fourteen seconds on Kitty Hawk Hill. In 1908,
about the time that I climbed the north peak,
21,812 feet, of Peru's highest mountain, Huas-
carin, a flight of one hour was accomplished.
In 1909, being then in the height of my glory,
so to speak, I ventured to call on Wilbur Wright
at the Hotel Vanderbilt a day or two before he
was to fly up the river for the Hudson Fulton
Celebration. Mr. Wright received me with much
courtesy, but to my inquiry if I could go with
him he responded that he would take me if
anyone; but he would make the flight alone.

2 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

To be the first woman to fly had seemed worth
taking a chance; but why be the thousandth?
No joy-rides for me! though in later years an
invitation from Colonel Lindbergh for an hour's
flight would have been promptly accepted. Had
he been aware that I had climbed higher on my
two feet than he in his airplane, perhaps he would
have asked me.

My several expeditions to South America for
the purpose of mountain climbing aroused in-
tense interest in the people, the splendid scenery,
and the wonderful resources of the continent,
so tempting me to devote the next twenty-five
years, by means of books, lectures, and repeated
visits, to promoting acquaintance and under-
standing, intercourse and commercial relations
with our neighbors at the south.

In my 'Industrial and Commercial South
America' (edition of 1927) I had written of the
development of flying on that continent and the
services then in operation; so, when announce-
ment was made in February, 1929, of the early
inauguration of air service from PanamA south,
it seemed timely to write an article on 'Aviation
in and to South America/ ' of which little was
known here, even to many of our aviators.
Then came the inspiration, though I had never
been in an airplane, in pursuance of my efforts
to promote friendliness and trade between the

1 Scientific American, July, 1929.

PRELIMINARY 3

two sections, to make my tenth visit to South
America a tour by air. And I determined to fly,
not merely around the border, as a few men had
done, but to make use of the local service al-
ready established in the various countries.

Accordingly, in the seven months, November,
1929, to June, 1930, 1 flew above twenty thousand
miles in a dozen varieties of airplanes, and with
all the companies engaged in regular service
in the various republics except Bolivia. Many
points were so visited, far from the beaten track,
in addition to those included in an ordinary
tour.

A gushing young lady, who interviewed me for
a New York paper prior to my departure, ap-
peared disgusted that I was not therilled at the
prospect. In consequence, she referred to me
(in large letters) as a SCHOOLMARM the
first time I was ever so designated. My last
teaching, at Purdue University and Smith Col-
lege, was years before she was born. 'Thrills/
I said, 'belong to one's teens'; but life may be
full of interest when these are over. Flying is
now in the day's work. I trusted that there
would be no occasion for thrills, having no desire
to fracture my skull or any other part of my
anatomy.

In May, 1929, the mail service of the Pan-
American Grace Airways south had been in-

4 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

stalled, but there was no passenger service to
Colombia. It was therefore necessary to sail to
Colombia, there to begin the first tour of South
America made in commercial airplanes, which
later proved to be the longest. On the other
hand, Mr. William H. Gannett (whom it was a
pleasure to meet in Lima), setting out two
months later than I on an air tour of Central
and South America, was the first to complete
such a journey, arriving at Miami two months
before my return. My own flight, over South
America only, was several thousand miles the
longer. This continent was my specialty; and it
was my purpose to visit all places accessible by
air. Where this was lacking, I made some use of
railways, by the two modes of transport reaching
some sections hitherto unvisited and gaining a
more intimate acquaintance with regions long
familiar.

My air tour was to begin with a flight from
Barranquilla to Girardot. As many persons may
not have heard of either place, a few words about
them are in order. A young society lady of
New York once inquired of me, not 'Where is
Mount Huascaran?' a name naturally unknown
to the majority, but 'Where is Peru?' and Wil-
liam McFee relates that, when he was enthusi-
astically describing the marvels of Colombia, a
young lady asked if it was British Columbia.
When he explained further, she declared that

PRELIMINARY 5

she had never heard of the place. He probably
then gave it up.

Barranquilla, the chief port of Colombia, a
thriving city of 140,000 people, is a few miles
from the mouth of the Magdalena River, the
main artery of the country, a thousand miles
long. (The Hudson is 315 miles in length.) On
the same river, 650 miles south, is Girardot, a
small city, from which a railway ascends to
Colombia's capital, BogotcL Please note that
this name should be accented on the last syllable,
whether the city or the coffee from that region
is referred to. If persons in New Jersey wish to
call one of their towns Bogota, that is their
privilege; but it might be better to give the
town an ordinary English name than to borrow
one from Colombia and mispronounce it.

Sailing from New York November 6, 1929, on
the Baracoa of the Colombian S.S. Line, after a
call at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, we arrived in the
morning of November 15 at Puerto Colombia,
noted for a substantial stone pier nearly a mile
long, and important as the landing-place for
Barranquilla, seventeen miles distant. When the
mouth of the Magdalena River is dredged so that
ocean steamers can sail the seven miles upstream
to the new docks of that rapidly growing city,
the British-built pier, often accommodating four
steamers at a time, may fall into disuse. The

6 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

straggling village might then be expected to
vanish, were it not for a new enterprise that
will save it. Here is an excellent sandy beach;
for the port is not at the mouth of the river where
the shore is unsuited to docks, but some miles
to the west. At Barranquilla the river water is
muddy, unfit for swimming, though all right
when filtered in the new bathtubs. With sum-
mer prevailing all the year around, a dip in the
cold salt sea is already the mode. Colombia,
like the countries farther south, will have a
popular bathing-resort, with bathhouses, etc.
The recent construction of an excellent motor
road, by which residents of Barranquilla may in
fifteen minutes drive down for a daily or weekly
swim, is assurance of its great success.

Favored on landing with speedy attention at
the Customs, in a special railway car with its
own motor, by the friendly agent of the Co-
lombian Line I was taken to the city. After a
good luncheon at the Hotel Pension Inglesa, I
was further aided in matters of importance.
First, Colombian money must be obtained, the
peso being worth about ninety-seven cents of
our money. Then I learned that I must procure a
special permit to travel in the country. I had
deemed a passport sufficient for this purpose,
and had a new one with health and vaccination
certificates, properly vised at the Colombian
Consulate, where three photographs had been

PUERTO COLOMBIA

HANGARS OF SCADTA IN BARRANQUILLA

PRELIMINARY 7

required. Important for the traveler is the fact
that two more were demanded by the Barran-
quilla official for the new document two pesos
as well ; and then no one in Colombia ever asked
to see either this permit or the passport. Surely
it would give an impetus to travel if passports,
customs, etc., could be abolished; or if, at least,
the requirements were " simplified and every-
where were the same.

Later in the afternoon I had the pleasure
of meeting Dr. P. P. von Bauer, a gentleman
(Austrian) of the highest type, the agreeable
and efficient Vice-President and Manager of
'Scadta': a word formed from the initials of the
name of the company, 'Sociedad Colombo-
Alemana de Transportes Aereos.' The President
and some of the directors are Colombians, but
the personnel in service, pilots, mechanics, et al.,
are Germans or other Nordic foreigners.

Organized in December, 1919, this company
began service in the following August; thus it is
not merely the first permanently operating air
"company on this hemisphere, but the oldest in
the world. Its record is remarkable. Receiving
no subvention from the Government, it has
developed and prospered until it has become
famous the world over; completing in August,
1930, ten years of operation, one hundred per
cent perfect: no fatal accident in regular service
through all that long period, and up to the
present time.

8 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

There was still time for a drive with Dr. von
Bauer through the beautiful new suburb El
Prado, and to visit the hangar from which I
was to sail and fly in the morning. Here I saw
among others the seaplane in which I was to
embark, with room for four passengers, baggage,
and mail; and one very much larger, with seats
for ten: a real boat, similar to that in which
Franco floated for a week in a fairly rough sea.

For persons not making use of the air service,
it has been necessary, in going to Bogot, to
sail up the river to La Dorada, 537 miles; express
boats require seven to ten days for the journey
according to the depth of water in the river.
In a period of very low water, service was once
suspended for three weeks. At La Dorada one
must change to a railway seventy miles long,
built to avoid the Honda Rapids. At Puerto
Beltr&n one enters a smaller steamer for the sixty
miles to Girardot, thence going by rail to Bogoti.
To be able to make this entire journey in a single
day instead of eight or ten is surely a great boon
to this country, especially to those whose time
is money, and to many who would find the sail
tedious; though others might enjoy the op-
portunity to examine more closely the character
of the country, the forests, and life in the towns
and villages along the way.

CHAPTER II
MY FIRST FLIGHT

IN NEW YORK I had learned with regret that
6 A.M. was the regular hour of departure from
Barranquilla. As the airport is two miles from
the center of the city, a bus calls for the passengers
at five. To have any breakfast I must obviously
rise by four. Assured that the hotel people
always saw that their guests were ready on time,
I nevertheless had the matter on my mind, and
happily turned on the light just at four by my
little clock. The alarm was out of order. Quickly
making myself and my baggage ready, I de-
scended to find the mozo fast asleep on a couch.
Arising with no great alacrity, he prepared coffee;
and when the bus came, I was ready.

In the still night, the ride through the quiet
streets, a lone policeman here and there, was a
novelty. We passed many attractive dwellings
in the new suburban Prado, at several of which
we paused; once taking on baggage, twice a
man. Passengers? No. The pilot and the me-
chanic. Is that the reddish orb of the full moon
about to sink in the west? At this moment we
turn northward and are soon at the hangar.

A waiting-room is comfortable in the cool of
early dawn, but important matters must be

io FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

attended to. Passengers, of course, are weighed ;
the limit 167 pounds. What happens to the
fat ones I can only guess. Doubtless they must
pay as if for excess baggage, which is expensive;
17 kilos allowed, $3 for every extra kilo (2.2
pounds). Before it became fashionable, I was
glad to be always under weight, and I was pleased
to find myself now 40 pounds below the limit.
So all my baggage could go with me, instead of a
part remaining for the freight plane, which
would fly on Sunday, the next day.

I happened exceptionally to be the only
passenger. The two seats facing each other ac-
commodate two persons each. Other planes of
the same size have two armchairs facing the
front, besides the comfortable seat at the back.
On each side are three windows, one easily
^opened, with adjustable curtains to keep out
the hot sun. The plane was in the water when I
entered, the door was then shut, pilot and
mechanic jumped to their places in front and
above; a push from men at the side, and we were
off, power on and moving over the water. Being
already aware of Scadta's proud record, I had
taken my seat in the airplane as calmly as I
went on board the steamer in New York. Alert,
interested to observe all particulars in this to
me new mode of travel, I experienced no thrills.
Flying up the Hudson twenty years earlier
would have been different.

MY FIRST FLIGHT n

At first we proceed slowly; faster after turning
to the right up the river. So gently do we leave
the water that I am aware of it only by perceiv-
ing that we are a few feet above; now we go
higher and higher. The motor roared not very
loudly. Cotton had been provided for the ears.
Advised to procure a raincoat, a coat sweater,
flying hat, and goggles, I purchased only the
first, of leatherette, which I later regretted and
soon sent back unused. It was altogether too
heavy to carry about. Such a coat, goggles, or
a special hat are unnecessary in the cabin of an
airship. An old, close-fitting felt hat with a
slight turned-down brim was just the thing.
An ordinary dress, not woolen, with a long spring
coat to don when swift motion brought a cool
breeze through the open window, proved all
that was needed. I was free to enjoy this journey
by air.

The broad waters of the river, a mile or more
in width, are now visible, and far at the left a
high range of mountains, the Nevada of Santa
Marta, the tops glowing in the sunshine; some
time had passed before the sun itself peeped
over. These mountains, gray and bare, indented
with furrows, rise steep and grim, adding an
unexpected interest to the landscape. This
range stretching northeast along the coast
contains snow-capped peaks, among the loftiest
in Colombia, though separate from the great

12 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Cordillera of the Andes, which farther south has
three distinct ranges.

A few houses appear along the river-bank.
Mere toys they seem. Moving men are tiny
black spots. Though averaging over ninety
miles an hour, we appear to progress slowly, with
ample time to faze at the panorama of river
and 'flat grassy plain, and at the distant but
clearly outlined mountains. The broad river
becomes several streams; pbols, and wide and
narrow strips of water diversify the plain.

Too soon, as our direction changes, the lofty
mountains disappear. Clouds gather; first at the
left and partly over the river, while it remains
clear on the right; later, mist arises there. "A
village is seen, tilled fields, a few cattle; but
presently a sea of clouds conceals the entire
landscape, a soft pretty coverlid like great tufts
of cotton, such as I had seen but once before
on my first ascent of Mount Washington, when,
after an especially fine sunrise, the scene quickly
changed. Nothing was visible below save a sea
of white clouds covering all but the tip-top
of the mountain where we stood. In my real
climbs I had had no such experience. In the
Alps I waited for good weather until it came.
In South America I climbed in the dry season
when a cloudless sky could be expected. To be
above clouds is not simply a question of height,
but of weather.

MY FIRST FLIGHT 13

In Colombia the climate is variable, usually
damp near the sea, often with fog and plenty of
rain. Now, toward the close of the rainy season
,on the coast, though in the middle of it farther
inland, clouds might delay or prevent our pas-
, sage. I wondered how high we were above that
.billowy sea; one thousand feet? Could we pro-
ceed in safety by guess, or had we instruments to
TTy blind? I was not worried; having great con-
fidence in the experienced German pilot, who
.also spoke good English. Now I note that our
s course is changing in a wide sweep from south to
'east, then swinging northward. Were we going
fcack to Barranquilla? When north of most of the
Clauds, where a village lies on the river-bank, we
descend as if to land. But no! Again we go
south a few miles at a greater height; five thou-
sand feet, the pilot said later; probably fifteen
^hundred feet above the clouds, which are as dense
^as before. Again a great half-circle to the north
beyond the little village. Barranquilla is clearly
visible ten miles away. A sharp banking turn is
made, about forty-five degrees, and we go down,
kown, to the river, on which we skim south,
then shoreward to a steep bank. Men and boys
run to help, and we halt with one wing resting
on the shore.

The pilot opens the door and inquires if I
wish to land. 'We shall probably stay here an
hour in the hope that conditions will improve/

i 4 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

The planes are not allowed to proceed, he said,
when the entire river is concealed by clouds.
Walking ashore on the wing, I stroll around
followed by a crowd of children, women with
babies, and a few men, who had gathered as the
plane was approaching. It is not a usual landing-
place, so I am more of a curiosity than else-
where. The people are of mixed blood, brown or
white, small children naked or with a single
garment. Houses are adobe with thatched roof,
or they have walls of bamboo or slender trunks
of trees. Near by, beer and food may be bought,
but I am not hungry. Evidently the simple
life is here the rule.

On my return to the plane, the pilot says he
will now try again, hoping that the clouds will
be thinner; perhaps we shall fly higher. But
' instead he keeps low, at times not above the tops
of the trees on shore. We dodge among the
breaking clouds, above or below, to the right
or left, skillfully threading our way. It is surely
interesting. Sooner than I expected we reach
Calamar, fifty miles from our halting-place, a
town of ten thousand, important as the end of a
railway from the old city of Cartagena, by which
passengers frequently come to fly or sail south.
In our halt of fifteen minutes, we leave and take
on mail, and two cans of gasoline are poured
into the tanks. The town is said to have good
piers with considerable traffic, and a fair hotel.

EL BANCO, COLOMBIA

PUERTO BERRIO AND HOTEL, COLOMBIA

MY FIRST FLIGHT 15

Now we fly higher. Hills appear on both sides.
On the plain are pools of water, dense patches
of trees, real jungle, and some open country.
The river has two definite channels, very brown;
everything else is green. Into the western
channel flows the Cauca River, eight hundred
miles long, navigable, in the lower part of its
course and in stretches farther up.- Continuous
traffic is interrupted by rapids. On the west
. channel of the Magdalena is quite a town, Ma-
gangue, not on the schedule today. As there
was much rain in October, the river is high. A
season of fog follows and some is rising. Solitary
huts are occasional, with banana plants near.
A lonely life must the occupants lead, a canoe
their only means of travel. At 11.35 we arrive
at El Banco (170 miles from Calamar), a town
on the east bank of the river, important enough
to be honored with a daily call by the airplane.
Here the River Cesar comes in from the north-
east. A short walk is a pleasant change. I
usually disembarked where we halted both to
stretch my legs and to observe the people, the
shops near by, etc. It was easy to walk ashore
on the wing. It is desirable to take along sand-
wiches for luncheon, though I considered myself
well provided for, with a fine box of Swiss choc-
olates, presented to me in Barranquilla.

On leaving, we head downstream as we had
landed, in this way rising from the water more

16 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

easily. Mountain ranges appear in the distance
on each side. We meet and fly through heavy
clouds, though keeping rather low. There is
fog, but we can see the river. We pass a better
town with broad streets and houses painted
white; in the middle of the river an islet. High
above the dark, swiftly moving clouds are white
ones that appear motionless, and some blue
sky. We experience occasional tips and bumps,
but nothing to bother about. An hour and a
half more brings us to Puerto Wilches, one
hundred and thirty miles farther, a poor place,
though of some importance, for here begins a
railway which will go to Bucaramanga, capital
of Santander, and here, twice a week, a land-
plane takes on passengers to fly over high
mountains of the East Cordillera to that city; a
flight of unusual interest. Soon we see from
above, twenty-five miles beyond, the oil tanks
and houses of Barranca Bermeja, the port of
the Tropical Oil Company, where I paused on
my return.

Our next halt is at Puerto Berrio (441 miles
above Barranquilla), this port and El Banco the
only ones receiving daily calls from the airplanes
as they go up and down the river. Berrio, smaller
than the other ports, is more important, being
the outlet for Medellin, to which it has railway
service. Medellin, capital of Antioquia, noted
as the most enterprising city in Colombia, is

MY FIRST FLIGHT 17

famed also for the finest coffee. There was time
at Berrio to take a short walk, on which I was
surprised to encounter a man who spoke English,
and to drink a small bottle of beer with the two
members of the crew, with whom I shared a few
chocolates. It was hot inside the plane when
halted, but agreeably cool when flying. Al-
though we had lost an hour or more on account
of the clouds, the pilot here declares that we
shall arrive at our destination, Flandes, in two
and a half hours, early enough to take the
5 P.M. train to Apulo, the best place to spend the
night.

The scenery now grows finer. The mountains
come close to the river, which is confined in a
narrow gorge. On the right the mountains are
void of vegetation except moss, at least as seen
from above. At the left is a straight ridge, near
the top of which we fly, and so near that a sud-
den blow of wind might well dash us against it.
As I gaze upon these rugged mountains, consider
the dense jungles, the streams and marshes seen
along the way, and the many loftier mountains
in the distance which must be crossed to reach
the pleasant highlands, I am again impressed
with the conviction that we too little appreciate
the fact that the boldness and hardihood of the
early Spanish explorers, who found their way
across and up and down over this extraordinarily
difficult continent, have never been surpassed.

18 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

At the hangar at Flandes, a smaller town on
the west side of the river opposite to Girardot,
ended my first aerial journey, for which no
better course could have been chosen. Aware
of the long years of perfect service over this
route, surely anyone would peacefully enjoy
the novel sensation of floating high in air above
the clouds, flying through them, or skimming
along just a few feet above the river, now the
pathway from the sea for airplanes as well as
boats up toward the capital of a country, new
indeed to the tourist, but in settlement by
Europeans a century older than nearly all of
our cities.

From the comfortable airship with courteous
and skillful pilotage, though too high for details,
one tranquilly surveys an immense area of
jungles, distant and lofty mountains, smaller
ones close at hand, noting here and there hamlets
and towns where on landing are found people
with friendly mien of high and low degree: these
things and more make the day memorable if not
exciting.

But the day was not to close without an amus-
ing incident which partook slightly of the latter
character. The scheduled landing hour for
Flandes was three, but delayed by clouds we
arrived at quarter past four; still with time for
me to catch the five o'clock train for Apulo.
Though disagreement between driver and pas-

FIANDES, COLOMBIA

APULO, COLOMBIA

MY FIRST FLIGHT 19

senger is frequent the world around, with no
time for bargaining I entered a waiting automo-
bile which promptly carried me with hand bag-
gage, all I had taken with me, across the river
to the railway station, where I was soon aboard
the train in the first-class car. Then followed
the mildly exciting episode. On asking the
chauffeur in Spanish, 'How much?' he replied,
'Ten pesos/ nearly ten dollars. I was greatly
amused. He evidently regarded me as a tender-
foot, which I was not; so I merely laughed.
After much talk the man came down to five.
Courteous Colombians near by urged me not
to be imposed upon. The proper price was
$1.50, at most $2. I was willing to give more
than the usual fee but not six times as much.
My offer of $3 was indignantly rejected. The
train started. When the conductor arrived and
learned the situation, he was indignant. He
pulled the rope to stop the train for the man to
get off, but did not eject him. I said repeatedly,
' Tres, no mas!' ' Three, no more! ' but the man
would not take it and go. We had met two
trains and gone halfway to Apulo, many miles,
when the man at last grabbed the money and
departed.

This man should not be considered a fair
sample of Colombian wage-earners. Nowhere in
my travels have I found a more willing and
agreeable coterie of attendants than in the Hotel

20 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Regina of Bogota ; a friendly atmosphere per-
vades all the hotels visited throughout the tour.
My first flight was over; no real adventures or
thrills; agreeable, comfortable, safer, it would
seem, than an automobile ride, or a walk in
New York City, a swim at our shore resorts, or
a sail in a canoe.

CHAPTER III
BOGOTA

ALTHOUGH my first flight was over, my goal was
not attained. Practically everyone who arrives
at Girardot by any route is on his way to the
capital city; and well-informed persons, not
tarrying in the hot valley, altitude one thousand
feet, have as a rule patronized the late afternoon
train in order to spend the night at Apulo.
Here the gleaming lights of a good hotel, seen
from the station, seem to welcome the traveler
to this delightful nook in the foot-hills of the
East Cordillera. After a rather abstemious day,
an excellent well-served dinner was fully ap-
preciated. Then, promenading on the broad
veranda under a tropical moon, it was happiness
to inhale the fragrance and rejoice in the beauty
of: flowers, vine, and forest. A good night's
sleep follows the long and strenuous day. One
must arise early for morning coffee to take the
train for Bogotd as it comes up from Girardot,
though two hours later than if one remained
below. A delightful ride follows as we ascend
the East Cordillera to the Sabana of Bogoti.
Many heights have I scaled on foot, on horse-
back, and by train, but this was different from
any others. One might fancy that mountain

22 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

ranges in the torrid zone would be very similar;
but I have learned that each has especial charac-
teristics and charms. The railways, indeed,
mostly climb in very long curves; though the
Oroya, in Peru, follows up a straight, steep
valley and by means of tunnels, zigzags, and
sharp curves attains the height of Mont Blanc
in the shortest distance possible, about one
hundred miles. In Colombia, the ranges are
less abrupt than in Peru, and the buttresses,
with more gradual inclines, are covered with
luxuriant vegetation. In the six hours' ride
there is much variety. Forests are dense, trailing
vines plentiful. Continuing upward along the
side of steep slopes, with surprise we perceive
in the forest coffee bushes bearing white blossoms
or ripe fruit, the mild coffee prized by many.
Halts are made where there is but a single
house, but as we go higher, we find sizable towns,
where a fairly level space permits. Such is
Cachapuy, where many people are in evidence, a
fandango in operation. At Esperanza is a pretty
girl with beautiful pink carnations and gardenias.
On the way upward we admire attractive, bright-
looking babies, some of them white, real blondes,
as well as on the cool plateau. Much land is
under cultivation even before we reach the
broad Sabana of Bogota, the largest fairly level
section of Colombia save the great llanos east
of all three mountain ranges, and the flats near
the lower Magdalena and the north coast.

BOGOTA 23

In the midst of this plateau at an altitude of
8680 feet, lies the city of Bogota, first visited
by Europeans in 1536. De Quesada and his
bold companions made their way from the sea
over the rugged, mountainous country, until,
after conquering the native Chibchas, with a
scant remnant of his original force he established
a settlement. And not alone Quesada with men
and horses arrived on this favored spot. In the
same year came also from the south Belalcasar,
an expedition from Quito, seeking the far-famed
El Dorado. And still another band arrived, from
the east, Federman, who had wandered three
years over the marshy llanos, until, after losing
three quarters of his men, in desperation the
survivors climbed the Andes to this same haven :
indeed, a strange coincidence: this meeting of
three explorers, who then united in hunting,
feasting, and laying out the city that was to be.
Here have lived their descendants for nearly
four centuries in an agreeable, healthful climate,
preserving in their quiet homes an astonishing
degree of culture: the most inaccessible of all
the South American capitals, until the way was
made easy by the ships of the air, it has been,
nevertheless, one of the leading literary centers
of Latin America.

Under their new President, the capable and
broad-minded Dr. Olaya, this country, possess-
ing great wealth in minerals, in possibilities for

24 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

agriculture, forestry, and other industries, will
soon be on a firm financial footing and enter
upon an era of greater development, without
losing, let us hope, its distinctive type of civiliza-
tion.

Bogotd, now a city of about 260,000, in un-
usual degree possesses the charm of the olden
time, combined with the modern conveniences of
electricity, water supply, sewers, electric tram-
ways, etc. ; recently, hotels comfortable if rather
old-fashioned, but now with a brand-new one,
the Granada, fully up to date, opened in 1930.
Of especial interest is the imposing Capitol
building of the Ionic style of architecture, not
at all like ours; including broad patios it covers
two and a half acres. Here the new President,
August 7, 1930, took the oath of office, walking
thither from his home near by; and after the
quiet ceremony, proceeded, also on foot, to the
Presidential Palace a block or two distant, where
he was welcomed by the retiring President
Obadia.

The Capitol faces the large Plaza Bolivar, with
a statue in the center of the hero and General,
Bolivar, the centenary of whose death was re-
cently observed throughout the Americas. On
another side of the Plaza is seen at the left the
Cathedral; also a second church. Several of
the churches are worth visiting, each containing
a special statue or other unusual relic of interest.

BOGOTA 25

The market, of course, presents many attractions,
the Indians, less colorful than farther south, but
with gorgeous flowers of both tropic and tem-
perate climes, and a variety of articles of native
manufacture.

Although a stranger to everyone except by
reputation, my personal experience here was
most agreeable. Cordially greeted by our Minis-
ter Mr. Caffery, and those of his entourage, as
by others to whom I brought letters, I received
many calls, and invitations to luncheons and
dinner. Through the courtesy of our Minister
and the Jefe of the Protocol I enjoyed a pleasant
fifteen minutes' chat in the Palace with the now
retired President Obadia, who seemed much in-
terested in my air tour and in the book I pro-
posed to write. Sandwiched in between an auto-
mobile ride to the remarkable salt mines at
Zipaquiri and one to the lovely Tequendama
Falls was a pleasant luncheon with the American
Club, where I was constrained to "give a little
talk about my highest mountain climb and an-
swer many questions.

One who cares to see something unusual will
enjoy a pleasant drive over the plain twenty or
thirty miles to visit Zipaquir and its famous salt
mine; observing on the way the character of the
country and homes of the people. Salt-making
is a Government monopoly, which brings in a
handsome income.

26 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

The mine is indeed curious: a striking contrast
to one I saw, years ago, near Salzburg, Austria.
There I sailed on a lake, enclosed by walls and
roof of pure white salt, later descending on a rail
sled for an exit to the outer world. Here, on
the contrary, conducted by the courteous super-
intendent, we entered through a tunnel into a
great vaulted hall of blackness, save for electric
lights which made the darkness visible. As we
proceeded through galleries and chambers, the
appearance was that of a coal mine rather than
one of salt. In fact, the stuff is partly carbon,
and coal mines are operated not far away.
Strangely, this is called one of the largest and
richest salt mines in the world, being estimated
as ten thousand feet deep and at present two
thousand feet through. After a survey of the
lower floor we climbed a flight of stairs, cut in
the earthy rock, by one hundred and twenty-two
steps, each a foot high, to an upper story, so
emerging on the mountain-side at a greater
elevation*

What appears to be black chunks of earth is
brought on small rail cars to the lower egress
and dumped into a great reservoir; then into
vats. The earth sinks to the bottom. In about
three hours the salt is dissolved. The liquid drawn
off is sent for evaporation and refining to sixty
private laboratories in the town, sold to these at
eleven cents a liter. The stuff as mined, called

BOGOTA 27

'sal Jema? is sold for the use of cattle, twenty-
five pounds for forty-five cents. The Govern-
ment is not unmindful of its duty to the two
hundred employees, for whom there is a school
where all assemble for an hour daily; it may be
to hear a lecture on sanitation, or receive prac-
tical information of any sort. For the children
and illiterate grown-ups, ordinary instruction
is provided. The men, though ignorant, are
self-respecting and respected, being addressed
as 'Gentlemen,' 'Senoresf when summoned to
assemble. The people of all ranks are polite and
friendly.

An afternoon drive to the Tequendama Falls,
hardly an hour away, brings us to a romantic
spot from which we walk along the brim of a
gorge 440 feet deep. Over the brink at our right
rushes a brown, muddy stream, but pouring
over the edge, it dashes again and again upon
projecting ledges of rock, so throwing up clouds
of spray, which in the sunlight, needed to dis-
play its distinctive beauty, is tinged with a pale
yellow of hitherto unseen loveliness.

I could not depart without an ascent of
Monserrate, even though the climb, with two
friendly acquaintances, must be made by cable
car up a very steep rock slope. One should sit
on the right, as on this side is the best view of
mountain-side and plain below. Still more de-
lightful is the panorama, visible from the sum-

28 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

mit, of sabana, city, and distant mountains. Also,
it being Sunday, we saw the people of all classes
in holiday mood and attire. In a little church
where service was going on, we noticed many
climbing on their knees a stairway in the rear
of the altar. Farther back from the steep moun-
tain-face were pleasant walks, and tables where
food and a variety of souvenirs were sold.

We descended in time for me to enjoy a drive
to a fine house and a luncheon there with hos-
pitable Americans, who like many others were
happy ifi their work among friendly Colombians,
in a climate just right for sports, cool enough to
make electric heaters necessary to our pampered
race, though quite superfluous for the Bogotanos.
The temperature is continually in the fifties or
sixties. If one had time, like Blair Niles, and
proper letters to visit the homes and become
really acquainted with those dignified, gracious,
and cultured Colombians, and even with those
not of 'first family/ it would be indeed a pleasure
to all with intelligence to appreciate them.
Failing the opportunity, by all means read her
book, 'Colombia, Land of Miracles/ for all that
I had no time to see or space to tell. Much
will be missed all along the Cordilleras by a
person not simpdtico. If ?ne, like William
McFee, is able 'to get past all the narrow and
rancorous criticisms of the standardized Nordic
mind/ he may perceive that behind primitive

FALLS OF TEQUENDAMA, COLOMBIA

BOGOTA

Monserrate, to which funicular leads, at left, with church on top;
Guadelupe, higher, at right

BOGOTA 29

conditions may be found graces of mind more
essential to real civilization than three bathtubs
and buildings of fifty stories. Meanwhile, read
'Sunlight in New Granada.'

CHAPTER IV

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA: MEDELLIN,
BARRANCA BERMEJA, AND BARRANQUILLA

AFTER eight days agreeably spent in Bogotd,
with regret I departed November 26 by the way
I had come, entraining at one for Girardot in
the hot valley. Another route, however, a day
shorter, and now still another, is open to Barran-
quilla. Of the first I learned at the Hotel Regina,
where one evening a mild sensation was created
by the arrival of a man from Cartagena. Setting
out about four that morning in a special railway
car, he reached Calamar in time to take at seven
the airplane which had left Barranquilla at six.
At La Dorada he again took to rails as far as km.
96, there crossing the river by ferry to Cambao.
From this point, over a poor if not dangerous
road, which in earlier days was a much-used
bridle-path, he climbed the mountain-side, seven
thousand feet, in automobile, reaching Bogota
between eight and nine after a long and eventful
day.

In Buenos Aires a few months later, I met a
lady who, having made with her husband this
trip from Cambao after dark, considered it
perilous. But as the route was coming into favor,
the road may have been made comparatively

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA 31

safe. Nevertheless, from experience on steep
mountain roads elsewhere, I can imagine that
this climb of seven thousand feet in motor car
on a road with sharp and dizzy corners would be
a hair-raiser to many. It certainly would be an
interesting change to employ this route in one
direction, especially the early morning descent
by daylight.

Another and safer way down to the Magdalena
River has more recently been opened, especially
desirable for passengers by river steamers. The
Sabana Railway from Bogotd has been extended
down to the river at Puerto Lievano below La
Dorada. Thus passengers and freight may go
from Barranquilla to Bogoti with but a single
change instead of three or four.

On my arrival at Girardot about 7 P.M., a
runner from Hotel Cecil arranged to take me
there for the night and after early morning coffee
carry me to the hangar at Flandes all for the
sum of five pesos. I found the room clean, the
bed comfortable. Called promptly at four, after
a hasty desayuno, coffee and rolls, in darkness and
rain I was driven across the river to the air-
port, where the gate was still locked, but soon
opened. The chauffeur, receiving $5.50 in settle-
ment of the contract, departed satisfied : a fairer
sample of Colombian wage-earners than he who
had demanded ten pesos for the drive across the
river in daylight.

32 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Cordially greeted by the German pilots and
invited to share their breakfast, I indulged in a
second cup of coffee, with a pleasant chat mean-
while. This homelike place accommodates half
a dozen or more of the constantly changing
Scadta personnel. I suggested that it might be
a good idea to enlarge the establishment a little
to accommodate two or three passengers over-
night, obviating the too early morning drive.
I heard later that the matter was under con-
sideration; but the new airplane service up to
Bogotd renders this superfluous. Heavy rain
with sharp lightning creating unfavorable con-
ditions, we waited till the worst was over, de-
parting in a light rain about 6.30. Two other
passengers were a priest and a man with a wooden
leg. In spite of many clouds (the rain soon
ceased), we had good views of the mountains
close at hand, all in green, and of pleasant
valleys; a few settlements. We called at La
Dorada, a considerable town. Here the leisurely
traveler may like to abandon airplane to de-
scend the Magdalena by boat, the down journey
two days shorter than the sail up. The express
oil-burning boats of the Santander Line are
supplied with all comforts, including sheets for
the beds, in contrast with service in former days.
The journey is agreeable to those who would
enjoy a more intimate acquaintance with the
country and the life of the people. However

MOUNTAINS NEAR HONDA, COLOMBIA

CASINO FOR PILOTS AND HANGAR, FL ANDES

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA 33

one goes, a stop-over at one or two ports will
be interesting.

At 8.50 we reached Puerto Berrio, where I
debarked to go to Medellfn, an important place
to visit then not on the route of the airplanes.
A line has lately been established to Medellin
and on to Cali and Buenaventura. Walking up
to the imposing hotel, which some persons have
praised highly, I waited on the pleasant veranda
for the noon train to Medellin, chatting mean-
while with friendly people and treated to a
glass of beer by a Colombian, just on his way
home from New York. The almuerzo, luncheon,
served at eleven, was hardly what might be ex-
pected for $1.50.

On board the train at first it was warm, while
we passed through sparsely settled open country
or jungle, where gold-bearing streams flow among
drooping ferns and flowering trees. It was cooler
as we climbed higher and higher among wooded
hills up to Limon, where for many years the
up-going train dumped passengers and freight
to be carried over the five thousand-foot moun-
tain by a road on which 25,000,000 pounds of
coffee were yearly brought out. A pleasant ride,
no doubt, in cool fresh air, but it is cool enough
in the tunnel, which it took many years to bore
perhaps from scarcity of funds. It now saves
great expense to many, and time and trouble
to thousands. We emerge into the cool, moun-

34 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

tainous country of the Central Cordillera, passing
tidy villages and farms; a very pleasing land-
scape.

The Andes, coming from Ecuador in a single
range, soon divides into three. But no simple
ranges are these with broad valleys between.
The hills and mountains cover the entire country
except the great almost uninhabited region east
of all the mountains, a few sabanas, and the
lowlands near the coast west of the Magdalena.
The Central Cordillera, containing several snow-
capped peaks above eighteen thousand feet,
occupies all the space between the Magdalena
and the Cauca Rivers.

It was dark, 740, when we reached Medellin,
capital of Antioquia, a ^ Department with the
largest, most enterprising, and prosperous popu-
lation. It leads in mining, in industries, and in
educational facilities, and has, in great part, a
temperate climate. It would be extravagant to
say that the streams are full of gold, but the
majority carry enough to make dredging worth
while. Medellin, with 120,000 inhabitants, has
been called the wealthiest city in South America
in proportion to its size. While young women
go about more freely than in Bogotd, the code
of etiquette is strict, and it behooves men of
affairs to be supplied with evening clothes if
they wish to make a favorable impression.

After a long fatiguing day I was soon at rest

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA 35

in the Hotel Europa, and on the morrow merely
wandered around the pretty town full of pleasant
homes even in the poorest quarters, a river
rippling through the center, overhung with grace-
ful trees. I first made a call on our Consul, who
later kindly arranged for me a drive on the
Carretera al Mar; a second call on the Super-
intendent of the Railway, from whom I learned
that I could take a train the next morning over
to the Cauca River, The condition of the rail-
way made this journey somewhat of an adven-
ture. Leaving Medellin at six, an hour or two
out the train halted, the single track being
blocked by a locomotive half off the track with a
very long train behind. We must perforce de-
scend and trudge alongside, for at least an eighth
of a mile, where no path existed and hardly
space to walk between track and steep hillside;
then we climbed into another train, where we
waited while the employees, traveling back and
forth, brought baggage, freight, and mail.

As we rode on, we passed an occasional station,
near one of these seeing in the distance the town
of Amagci, where the railway a long time halted.
Farther on came the announcement that we
must take another walk. This was on account
of a landslide from a perpendicular cliff of soft
earth, disintegrated by continuous rains. This
walk was worse than the other. We could choose
between keeping on the track and climbing over

36 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

slippery balls of earth and at last a barrier six
feet high, or climb to a bank at the side, and on
through damp grass over rough, uneven ground.
Men were working to clear the track, but when
we returned, hours later, no progress was visible.
The delays having made our train an hour
and a half late, I decided to pause at Bolombolo,
a village on the bank of the Cauca River, where
a respectable hotel provided a better luncheon
than might have been expected. The hospitable
proprietor afterwards came out to the veranda
and insisted upon my having something to drink;
whatever I chose. Here in the valley it was warm,
but not too much so for me to take a walk across
the river and note that a fairly good road went
on beyond, as did the hardly completed railway.
The return by rail, beginning late, was worse than
the ride out, so far as the walks were concerned ;
it was quite dark when we passed the stalled
train, with only a locomotive headlight to aid
us. A kindly Colombian took my arm as I
was stumbling along, which made the going
better. It was nine o'clock before I reached the
hotel for a late dinner, where I learned that
someone would call for me at seven the next
morning for a drive on the Carretera al Mar.
Please note that my visit was in November,
1929. By the time any of my readers reach
Medellin, the railway beyond will be in better
case, and they will find this excursion worth

HOTEL EUROPA, MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA

BARRANCA BERMEJA

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA^ 37

taking for the unusual and most interesting
scenery.

Still more delightful is the drive on the Car-
retera al Mar, which no one should miss, even
though flying to Medellin and Buenaventura.
This splendid road I might call it a boulevard
also goes to the Cauca River, which it reaches
much farther down, at the town of Antioquia,
passing through a very different type of country
from that on the railway. The road winds in
great curves along the sides of steep slopes
clothed with luxuriant verdure, the angles vary-
ing from twenty to seventy or more degrees.
Occasional villages and attractive haciendas,
splendid trees and grassy or cultivated slopes
engage continual attention. So scarce is land
even moderately inclined that one sees with
astonishment corn growing and cattle grazing
where one would be loath to walk. White specks
on slopes of sixty degrees must be goats, one at
first supposes; but no! they are white cattle. I
wondered if my eyes deceived me, if the slopes
were less steep than they looked; but I was in-
formed that even on slopes of seventy degrees,
corn is planted and cattle graze: a special breed,
gradually inured to the conditions, and so do-
mesticated that they die when taken to the
flat pasture lands near the coast. -They have so
acquired the skill of goats as to footing that
rarely does one slip. If that does happen, there

38 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

is no recovery. One rolls hundreds of feet down
to a speedy end.

The Carretera, built by the R. W. Hebard
Company, is a splendid piece of work, with
fine stone bridges and easy grades, but alas, at
the moment too expensive for Colombia. One
man asserted that it would be better to build
cheap dirt roads; but another, better informed,
declares that only a good macadam road in a
region with excessive rainfall and soft earth
would stand the heavy traffic for which this
thoroughfare is especially designed: the carriage
of goods for export and import to and from a site
on the Gulf of Urabd near Turbo. In Medellin
'To the Sea! To the Sea! ' has long been the cry.
It is hoped that presently, in better financial
conditions, the extension of the road to the
Gulf will give Antioquia a direct outlet, in place
of the roundabout way by the Magdalena River;
a fine boom to this enterprising section will
follow. Each trip to the Cauca River was a
revelation of the beauties and difficulties of
Colombia.

An interesting feature of the journey was meet-
ing Americans and others en route; one American,
who had lived fifteen years in this Department,
was engaged in platinum and gold mining,
mostly by dredging in the rivers. He was evi-
dently prosperous, now enjoying a visit from a
daughter, just graduated from a college in the

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA 39

States, while his wife was making a visit here.
Another man whom I met later had reorganized
the tobacco business in the country, until a
grade, equal to the fine Havana, he said, was
now ready for export. Still another, whom I
met in an airplane quite a young man was
engaged on his own account in the lumber
business with a chum of his own age. He was on
his way back to the States to make a contract
for mahogany and other choice woods that he
was getting out of the jungle east of the Mag-
dalena River.

Returning Monday, December 2, to Puerto
Berrio, I spent the night there; but, not having
been warned to look out for them, I missed
seeing the swallows that come every night by
thousands, says Blair Niles, to roost in three
palm trees close by. At nine the next morning
I embarked in the airplane from Girardot for the
short flight to Barranca Bermeja, three-quarters
of an hour. One must arrange his stop-overs
with care, for some river ports receive calls but
once a week, others three or four times each
way.

At the landing at Barranca Bermeja, I was
met by the local agent of the Tropical Oil
Company, who drove me about the place, where
there is a refinery, and many storage tanks.
After luncheon, I went by rail seventeen miles
to El Centra, where the oil wells are, and was

40 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

driven to the home of the Superintendent, where
I was delightfully entertained for two days,
Though I had written and lectured about oil
wells, especially on my tour of South America
in 1915-16 when I gave lectures in Spanish and
Portuguese on the United States and some
American industries, I had never seen one. It
was, therefore, an especial pleasure to drive
about the next morning to see wells being drilled,
others flowing, and the homes and a clubhouse
of the residents. A few may be interested to
know that the oil production here, second in
South America to that of Venezuela, was over
20,000,000 barrels for 1930, 2,000,000 less in
1931. My impression of El Centro may be
summed up in a dedication which I was con-
strained to write for their new autograph album:
'Not an oasis in a desert, but a clearing in a
jungle: a hive of industry, where contented
people in pleasant homes enjoy their labors;
their happiness enhanced by the watchful care
of the Jefe, Mr. Myers, and the delightful hos-
pitality of his charming Senora.'

From Barranca Bermeja one may fly over
mountains to Bucaramanga, capital of Santan-
der, and thence down to the river at Puerto
Wilches; but the trip would have delayed me too
long. At Barranca it was necessary to spend a
night at the pleasant guest-house of the company,
in order to take the airplane Friday morning

REAR VIEW OF HOTEL DEL PRADO, BARRANQUILLA

BARRANQUILLA, COLOMBIA

OTHER SCENES IN COLOMBIA 41

to Barranquilla, where I arrived about three.
I went to the Hotel Moderno, very comfortable,
a room with running water, electric fan and
good light, the table better than at Puerto
Berrio. Now, however, the Hotel del Prado is
open, the newest and one of the finest in the
Tropics of the Caribbean. It is on the highest
part of the city, a little out from the center,
so commanding a fine prospect of ocean, river,
and distant mountains. Every room has a bath,
and windows on each side; hence always a
breeze. On the American plan prices are from
$4.50 to $6 a day. In this section are fifteen
miles of avenues and boulevards, and most of
the fine residences of the city. Within three
blocks is a modern country club, which I had
the pleasure of visiting, equipped with tennis
court, golf links, and the customary appoint-
ments of such places. It is open to hotel guests.
I give these details, thinking that some per-
sons who may not care to fly may like to know
about a new winter resort, which in 1932-33
will be accessible, not only by several other lines
of steamers, but also by the new ones of the
Colombian Line equipped with all the latest
devices for comfort and luxury. Here at the
'El Prado' one may enjoy a more quiet, restful
time than at some of the ultra-gay resorts, or
may join in sports and social life, make excur-
sions by air or steamer to Santa Marta and

42 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Cartagena, sail up the river to Calamar and
beyond, perhaps even be tempted to fly when
convinced of the absolute safety of the service
here.

With 140,000 inhabitants, the second city in
Colombia, Barranquilla is one of the most
healthful, and important industrial and com-
mercial cities of Northern South America. The
development of the suburb El Prado is due to
Mr. Karl Parrish, of Iowa, who has spent many
years in Colombia, first as a mining engineer,
later connected with various commercial de-
velopments. At the time of my visit in 1929, the
streets of Barranquilla were in poor condition;
but through the agency of Mr. Parrish complete
systems of modern waterworks, sewers, and
concrete roads have been installed in the town.
The city is not altogether American; on quiet
streets, old Colombian homes may be found,
inhabited by cultured and gracious Colombian
families whom it will be a pleasure to meet*

CHAPTER V
CARTAGENA: ON THE WAY TO ECUADOR

CARTAGENA, a name known to all the world,
was for centuries the Queen of the Caribbean.
With a back country rich in gold and precious
stones, the city was long a seat of government,
of romance, and of adventure. The goal of free-
booters, it was so often attacked that it was
fortified by massive walls and bastions till it
was deemed impregnable. Six times besieged,
it was at last captured by Drake, who held it
only long enough to escape with a part of the
booty. Easily accessible by sea, its beauties are
well known and its tales of romance and ad-
venture; for some of which read Blair Niles.
It surely deserves a week's visit, as the air
service in 1929 required*

A night journey by sea from Barranquilla,
it is but an hour by air. The planes going daily
up the river started promptly at six; on Wed-
nesday and Thursday, one left for Cartagena,
five minutes later. The flight is especially de-
lightful. Sailing north above the river, we soon
turn to the left, noting Puerto Colombia with
its long pier. Proceeding southwest along the
shore, we admire the scattering green hills and
headlands. Before we are aware, Cartagena lies

44 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

below, rarely beautiful as seen from above, an
unforgettable picture of which one has no idea
who sees on the same level the city scattered on
islands and spits in a curve of the great bay.

On landing at seven, I found in waiting a
chauffeur with a car of Mr. Ince, in which I was
taken to Hotel Washington, the manager of
which, a genial Irish-American, was not brought
up, he said, to be an hotel man; just drifted into
it. Nor was the building made for the purpose,
an old Colonial mansion; though my room, com-
fortable enough, did have a shower bath. But
Cartagena, now increasing in population, busi-
ness, and tourist travel, greatly needs a new
hotel on modern lines, like that in Barranquilla.

Through the courtesy of the gentlemen to
whom I had brought letters, it was arranged for
me to go the next morning to Mamonal on a far
corner of the bay. By launch it is a pleasant
hour's sail to the place where a new town was
built by the Andian Pipe Line Company and the
Tropical Oil, while the pipes were being laid to
bring the oil produced at El Centro 350 miles to
the port. Here Americans and Canadians are
housed in pretty homes; Colombians too are
employed. Escorted about the place, I saw the
pumping machinery which aids the pipes to
bring daily 55,000 barrels of oil to the great
tanks holding 80,000 barrels each, or directly to
waiting tankers. Many other points of interest

30CA CENIZA, MAGDALENA RIVER

CARTAGENA

CARTAGENA 45

there are besides the fine new hospital with all
modern improvements, open to natives and for-
eigners. This work has been a real stimulus to
Cartagena's recent awakening to modern pro-
gress, aided also by other interests. Cattle-raising
has advanced; the sugar industry is important,
with a sugar mill at Sincerin; while invaluable
is the dredging of the Dique by the Foundation
Company, an old natural channel coming from
the Magdalena just below Calamar to the sea
twenty miles south of Cartagena. With the work
already completed, the Dique, sixty-five miles
long, allows passage of all steamers in use on the
great river.

After luncheon at Mamonal, I enjoyed a sail
across the bay to inspect the forts at the present
single entrance, Boca Chica, once guarded by
two forts; both now dismantled, one in ruins;
but the other, San Lorenzo, still with massive
walls and moat; a lighthouse too, is well worth
a visit. Here we landed, strolled around on the
broad walls, and peered into dungeons. Return-
ing, we pass by Boca Grande, a broader en-
trance, but for the greater protection of the
city in the stormy days of old it was blocked by
the sinking of ships and drifting sand. Now there
is talk of dredging it out, but that may wait for
better times. Nearer the city we passed a
lazaretto where lepers are well cared for in
isolation, and many are cured.

46 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA,

More perhaps than any other, Cartagena pre-
serves the aspect of a really old Spanish city,
with its narrow and crooked streets, its over-
hanging windows, its many churches, its in-
quisition, long fallen into disuse; but its ap-
pearance is modified here and there by modern
office buildings, especially a new and real sky-
scraper of twelve stories, erected by the Andian
Corporation. The Cathedral, and other churches
the San Pedro Claver, named for a famous
Saint whose body is there preserved, the Santo
Domingo these may appear of no great in-
terest unless one knows or would learn of the
memories which cluster about them. The mas-
sive walls and bastions along the water-front,
thirty feet high and forty thick, are an attraction
unusual. Here everyone will wish to promenade
by sunset glow or light of the moon. Curious
are the bovedas, no longer prisons, but housing
families. Outside the walls, along the sandy
shore, one may see an old woman digging for
water in a cacimba; for here in a shallow, tempo-
rary cavity will pure water be found.

Other scenes an automobile drive will dis-
close; the homes of leading officials of foreign
companies out on a narrow spit, or in the suburb
Manga, where are many pretty villas, and the
Miramar Clubhouse, built right over the water.
Tennis courts, too, may be seen. Farther out is
the Club de la Popa. Everyone drives up the

CARTAGENA 47

dominant hill, La Popa, as far as possible and
some may climb to the top to see monastery,
chapel, and the beautiful view, second only to
the one from the air, but better in that it is not
so fleeting. The market must surely be visited,
and the docks, unlike any others, where the little
sailboats come bringing fish and fruit, and where
hundreds of burros are seen.

One may meet pleasant people of varied
nationality in offices or hotel; one American, here
long enough to become acquainted with the
people, spoke of the poetic taste of chauffeurs
and fishermen; poor and ordinary they seem,
but perchance with a type of culture lacking in
some of their betters (?).

A delightful trip which I missed is the crossing
of the Central Cordillera by rail and automobile;
but in a limited time one cannot do everything.
Descending from Bogot& by rail or airplane to
Girardot, one may go forty-seven miles by
rail up to Ibague, a city of thirty thousand in-
habitants, a little above four thousand feet.
From ancient days there has been a much-
frequented mule trail over the Quindio Pass, the
highest point above ten thousand feet. Now
from Ibague to Armenia on the west side of the
range, there is an excellent automobile road over
or on which one may roll along in comfort, behold-
ing beautiful and majestic scenery: snow-capped
peaks rising above eighteen thousand feet, deep

48 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

gorges, and many accompanying splendors.
From Armenia a railway extends up the rich and
beautiful semi-tropical Cauca Valley to Call,
and on to Popayin, capital of the Cauca Prov-
ince, at the foot of an extinct volcano and but
seventeen miles from an active one. Here are
fine old buildings, a university; and some say
that here the best Spanish in America is spoken.

Call is a larger city, capital of El Valle, im-
portant commercially, with fine buildings old
and new, a modern hotel, a country club, etc.
From this city a railway goes over the West
Cordillera, with more beautiful scenery, to the
important Pacific port, Buenaventura. The
entire journey from Girardot may be made in
two days, with one night at Armenia; but better
with a day or two spent at Cali, if not elsewhere.
I regretted missing the automobile ride over the
mountains, which gives a finer and more in-
timate view than the broader one from the air.
From Cali or Buenaventura one may return by
air, so making a visit to Medellin on the way
back to Barranquilla.

After an interesting week in Cartagena, I was
ready to fly south to cooler climates. Although
right on the sea, Cartagena seemed warmer than
Barranquilla, a few miles inland, where a good
breeze generally prevails. The Scadta agent was
to send for me at 6.30 A.M., so I was up at 5 and
below at 6.20 all ready. A car soon appeared,

ON THE WAY TO ECUADOR 49

the chauffeur saying that he had been sent for
me. But he first took me to the railway station;
then at my insistence to the office of the com-
pany where the agent was not; next, to Boca
Grande, miles from the airport, so that only
after much wandering and excitement, as' I saw
the airplane from Barranquilla flying above, did
we finally reach the landing-place. The Scadta
agent, who had called for me just after my de-
parture from the hotel, flately refused to pay
the chauffeur or to allow me to do so, as I cer-
tainly had no desire. The man learned a lesson,
I trust, which may benefit others. In good time
on board the plane, I departed.

The nine-hour flight to Buenaventura was of
great interest, revealing scenes quite unlike
those along the Magdalena River. Our route
was down the coast, to Sautata, the plane keep-
ing most of the time over or near the water.
Crossing Morrisquillo Bay the land quite dis-
appeared. We had a little rain and more fog,
enough to shut off distant views. At first there
were occasional clearings, and fishing villages
among hills close to the shore, but later the
country was flat and all jungles. One rainbow
was promising, but followed by more showers,
afterwards sunshine and clouds. We crossed a
broad wooded headland to the Gulf of Urabi,
then sailing over water with unseen shores. A
short landing was made at the small but im-

50 , FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

portant town of Turbo on the east side of the
Gulf and at 2.30 a longer stay at Sautatd, on
the Atrato River, where planes to and from
Colon at that time called. Of course I landed,
"and the genial hotel proprietor offered an orange-
ade. Apparently few ladies had flown in this
region. We took on two passengers here, leaving
one. A Colombian inspector I forget what
he inspected was one of the new passengers,
a pleasant gentleman who lived at Quibd6, the
capital and chief city of this, the Choco Terri-
tory. He told me that the journey thither, which
we made in two hours, required by boat three .
days going up the river, two going down. So
great is the benefit of Scadta to Colombia.

I took a walk from the landing at Quibd6, a
town said to have a population of twenty-five
thousand, but appearing to have hardly half as
many. The ground was very wet; the way led
across a gully with a bridge of slats which I
passed; the gentleman who lived here had in-
vited me to go to his house, but I gave it up.
Quibdo, however, is a place of real importance,
a busy trading center for a large section, a head-
quarters for gold and platinum miners who find
in the streams hereabouts a rich store of these
metals; Colombia's production of platinum hav-
ing been for many years the second largest in
the world.

At Quibdo three men came on board to fly to

ON THE WAY TO ECUADOR 51

Istmina, a town on the San Juan River which
flows south into the Pacific, while the Atrato,
much larger and longer, flows north into the
Gulf of Urabci. West of both rivers is the
Baudo Range, not a part of the Andean West
Cordillera, as has been stated, but a prolonga-
tion of the North American system coming
down from Panamd and ending where the San
Juan turns west into the Pacific. To cross the
divide, our hydroplane must leave the water
for a while, but the elevation is so slight, twenty-
five hundred feet, and so gradual, that from
above, the region seems quite level with a few
hills here and there.

On our call at Istmina, as a fat woman, a
man, and a negress entered the plane, I decided
to abandon the back bench, where I usually sat,
for one of the armchairs in front. We took off
very well, but shortly turned back, as the pilot
had forgotten to deliver a package. This time
the mechanic had to work hard before our ship
could rise. The San Juan Valley, in contrast to
the Atrato, is quite narrow, the latter being
broad with forested flats.

Where the San Juan turns west, we left it to
fly some miles over land to Colombia's most
important Pacific port, Buenaventura, on an
island at the head of a bay. As we flew over it,
the city, of ten thousand people, looked very
pretty, with its new mole, docks, and fine ware-

52 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

houses, plenty of trees, and pleasant homes.
Since the dredging of the harbor, a canal per-
mits the approach to the docks of ships drawing
thirty feet or more. It is claimed that the
construction of this port placed Colombia at
the head of South American countries in respect
to the reception of deep-draft vessels. A rail-
way bridge connects the city with the mainland,
and there is said to be a new and excellent
hotel; but I deemed myself fortunate in being
invited to stay at the hangar on the mainland
with the nice boys who form the tripulantes, as
they are called, many of whom I had met in
previous flights. Thus I was saved the trouble
of going over to the city in a boat and returning
early the next morning. I had a quiet, restful
time, pleasant chat with the boys, and cool
fresh air instead of the sultry atmosphere of the
city.

After a good night's sleep, I was up at 5.20
in time for coffee, bread, and jam before going
on board the plane. One of the best pilots,
Boyd, who during the night arrived by train
from Cali, now took charge, and under clear
skies we set off about seven- The mountains of
the West Cordillera, which farther north are
inland between the Cauca River east and the
San Juan and Atrato Rivers west, are here
close to the coast, with a height in places of
eight or ten thousand feet. The entire west

QUIBDO, COLOMBIA

BUENAVENTURA, COLOMBIA

ON THE WAY TO ECUADOR 53

coast of Colombia has very great humidity and
slight population. Farther down, the visible
coast is low, the mountains concealed by clouds.
A small rainbow appeared without rain, but rain
soon followed, with heavy clouds. Keeping near
the land, in pleasant weather we arrived at
Tumaco, Colombia's other Pacific port. I had
forgotten to get a visa for Ecuador, but, in-
formed that one could be obtained here, I gave
Boyd my last three pesos for the purpose. We
had landed at a float, but someone going ashore
kindly arranged the matter for me. Tumaco, a
small place with houses on stilts, offered no
temptation to land.

Here at the last coast town I bade good-bye
to Colombia,, hoping some day to revisit the
country so full of charm for the lover of scenic
beauty or romantic history, a country which we
may hope will -preserve its own type of civiliza-
tion while it advances in certain lines of progress
and presents to business men and capitalists op-
portunities of widely varied character. With
the recent development in transportation by air,
rail, and roads, and new hotels in Barranquilla,
Bogot4, and Buenaventura, Colombia becomes
extremely attractive for tourists. By rail and
air one may reach Bogota in four days from
New York. Flying from Miami, after a night at
Kingston, one arrives at Barranquilla at noon
the next day, and on the morrow may reach

54 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Bogot& at 345 P.M. Or, arriving on time at
Barranquilla, one may in good weather by air-
plane express reach Bogota the same afternoon,
in three days from New York City.

CHAPTER VI
ECUADOR

ESMERALDAS, the first town in Ecuador at
least for us we reached an hour and a half
after leaving Tumaco. The mountains here lie
farther from the shore; one sees only small green
hills, no houses, or rarely one alone. Esmeraldas
with six thousand inhabitants has importance,
receiving calls from small steamers on the way to
Guayaquil. Farther on, a steep bluff shows some
trees or is bare; again all is green. Now conies
a broad bay, and we halt at Bahia de Car^quez,
coming down to a float, while a launch brings out
needed gasoline. In the town the houses are on
stilts, and men and horses are seen along the
shore. After a while we make a wide sweep
around another bay and over a larger town,
Manta, where, without a pause, we merely drop
a mail bag. The shore becomes more varied. We
fly through a narrow passage, seeming little
wider than our wings, between a rocky bluff on
the mainland and the cliff of a rock island. Some
hills are bare, others green. We fly fast and
straight, at times a thousand feet up, and now
quite low; but thirty feet above the water, said
the pilot. At length we leave the shore and fly
over barren country, a short cut to Guayaquil;

56 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

for to go around the corner of the Cape Santa
Elena and up the Gulf of Guayaquil would add
a hundred miles to the journey. In the distance
on our right we see the derricks of oil wells near
Santa Elena, from which a million barrels have
been produced in a year. A half-hour more and
there is the city, over which we soon fly in grace-
ful salute and land in the broad Guayas River,
where a boat comes out to meet us. The Scadta
agent, Mr. Chanange, bids us welcome, escorts
us to the shore, to the custom house, and me to
the Hotel Cecil; this, the Ritz, and the Tivoli,
being called the three best.

Travelers by air or by sea, if they have time to
spare, will be glad to spend a few days in Guaya-
quil. Those appreciating splendid scenery may
enjoy an excursion to the capital, Quito, famed
as the city on the Equator, of which it lacks but
a few miles. Guayaquil, stretching two miles
along the river front, Ecuador's only port of
importance, is a pretty place. With the yellow
fever eradicated it may now at any season be
safely visited.

At the Hotel Cecil, American plan, I had a
comfortable room with shower bath and salon,
on the principal street at right angles to the
Malecon. The city, with 300,000 inhabitants,
seemed busy and prosperous, carrying on various
improvements, widening streets, erecting new
buildings, etc. Of course there is a cathedral and

ECUADOR 57

other churches, and good public buildings; sev-
eral clubs, one of which, the Union, was called
by a globe-trotter the second best he had seen in
the Tropics. But that was twenty years ago.
There is a handsome municipal library and
museum, also pretty plazas with rare and luxuri-
ant vegetation, a great hospital on the hill above
the town, fitted with modern appliances, a park,
monuments to Bolivar, Sucre, and others, and
a notable centenary monument to the Heroes of
the 9th of October, 1820.

The swift current of the river is noticeable,
a strong tide running up and down, six hours
each way. By its help small boats may go in
either direction with no trouble, but against the
current with hard labor. Native balsas made of
tree-trunks lashed together may be observed,
many with small houses upon them occupied by
the family. Of purchases to be made, Panamd
hats are the most important, the best called
Montecristi, for which a good price will be asked;
but the sale may be for less. Similar hats, made
in Peru, are bought to the best advantage at
Paita, but are sold also in Lima.

As I had never been in Quito, I now took the
time to make a hurried visit, a two days' journey
by rail, though distant but 297 miles. At present
Ecuador has military air service only, and that
of the Pan-American Grace Airways along the
coast. They hope to inaugurate service to Quito

58 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

as soon as times are better. Going some miles up
the river in the early morning by what is called
a ferry, one boards the train leaving Duran at
6.30. The journey is slow, even across the low-
lands through tropical vegetation interesting in
character, and past sugar estates. At the sta-
tion, Bucay, fifty-seven miles from Dur&n, the
steep climb begins, 10,628 feet in the next fifty
miles, a stiff grade with sharp zigzags. The
scenery is of real grandeur, utterly different
from the mountain railway to Bogotd, or from
others farther south. All who love mountain
scenery will greatly enjoy comparing the different
types seen among the ranges of Colombia, Ecua-
dor, Peru, and Chile; not with the purpose of
proclaiming the superiority of one to another,
but with admiration for them all. The diversity
in contour, the vegetation or the lack of it, the
snow-fields or the rock cliffs, the beauty or the
grandeur displayed among them, all are of in-
tense interest, as is the contrast between Mont
Blanc and the Matterhorn.

Between four and five thousand feet the way
seems barred; but the American engineer cut
a path, by means of four zigzags rising to nine
thousand feet. A similar cul-de-sac is surmounted
to reach the Pass of Palmyra. Before sunset
and our arrival at Riobamba, where the night is
spent, I was fortunate in having a fine view of
Chimborazo, altitude 20,498 feet, a splendid

ECUADOR 59

mountain, if not so high or steep as Huascarin.
First ascended in 1880 by the noted English
climber, Edward Whymper, it was once supposed
to be the loftiest of the Andes: a great mistake,
as a dozen peaks farther south are higher.

One does not see the town of Riobamba, some
little distance from the station, for too near this
are the two hotels where travelers spend the
night, distracted and to some extent sleepless
from the tooting of locomotives and the rumbling
of cars. Leaving Riobamba, altitude 9177 feet,
at 6.45 A.M., I enjoy another splendid view of
Chimborazo before reaching the highest point
of the railway, 11,841 feet, at the Chimborazo
Pass. Thence a descent of two thousand feet is
made to Ambato in a pleasant valley, where
a famous 'Fair' is held, attended by throngs of
picturesque Indians. Later we should be admir-
ing the famous rows of volcanoes on each side of
the Machachi Valley; but alas! they were veiled
by clouds on the way up and down. Not even
the beautiful truncated cone of Cotopaxi was
visible except in part: the highest active volcano
in the world, said to be smoking continually.
I thought I recognized the Inca's Head, as it is
called, a huge mass of rock (the story goes) torn
from the top on the day of the execution of the
Inca, Atahuallpa. After crossing a compara-
tively level and barren section, about 4.30 P.M.
we reach a charming green valley, where in

60 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

a cone-shaped basin lies the city of Quito. Others
who left Riobamba by automobile an hour or
two after the train, arrived, I learned later, two
hours earlier.

The best hotels, the Metropolitano and the
Savoy, are similar to those in Guayaquil, suf-
ficiently comfortable for a few days; but seven
sucres was enough for an inside room, even
though real bathrooms with hot water were near.
Desayuno was sixty centavos, luncheon and
dinner each 2.50; the sucre is worth about twenty
cents. Sight-seeing will include the principal
plaza with the Cathedral and the Government
buildings on the sides, the Jesuit church in scarlet
and gold, and of course the market; but of
greater interest is the town itself, with the charrn
of antiquity, narrow and steep streets much as
in colonial days, though sanitary and other im-
provements have been installed: cars, concrete
pavement, automobiles, etc.

The hills look tempting for a climb, especially
the real mountain Pichincha, sixteen thousand
feet, which may be ascended on horseback in
a very long day. It has even been done on foot
by a ' young Ecuadorian who, setting out at
3 A.M., was back at nine in the evening, having
seen, he said to me, twenty-two snow-capped
peaks from the summit: a splendid panorama,
well worth a horseback ride, but possible on foot
for few. On the other hand, a half-day's journey

ECUADOR 61

will bring one down to a sultry valley, with rich
tropical vegetation. Christmas Day I spent
quietly, but called the next morning at the Lega-
tion, when I was invited, by the Charge d' Af-
faires, to return for afternoon tea, as I was leav-
ing the next morning to descend to Guayaquil.
Unhappily all of the mountains were invisible
on the way back.

For the ordinary tourist, the charm of anti-
quity, the splendid mountain scenery in good
weather, the strange people, the Indians, llamas,
etc., may not atone for the fatigue and slowness
of the journey, with unconscionably early hours,
the nightly din at Riobamba, etc. They will be
happier in making the trip by air a little later.
The energetic few will enjoy it now. Already,
indeed, there is opportunity by another route.
The motor road from Quito to Riobamba has
been prolonged to the town of Babahoya, far
down in the coastal zone on a branch of the
Guayas River. Going up or down on the west
side of the Andes the scenery must be magnifi-
cent in splendor and variety. Babahoya, thirty-
six miles from Guayaquil, is accessible from that
city by river steamers, which, on a strong flood
tide, ascend in eight hours.

CHAPTER VII
FLYING IN PERU: LIMA

AFTER six agreeable weeks among unwonted
scenes in Colombia and Ecuador, traveling
chiefly in charge of the genial Scadta pilots,
welcomed by the President of Colombia, and the
recipient of kind attention from officials of State
and of companies of importance, on a pleasantly
cool morning of the second day of the year 1930,
I embarked at Guayaquil in a Panagra plane for
my ninth visit to Peru.

It was almost like a return to my native land;
for here in 1904 I was first offered a genuine home
in the Casa Vinatea at the foot of that glorious
mountain Huascardn, highest in Peru, towering
fourteen thousand feet above the city of Yungay
and twenty-two thousand above the sea. The
headlines in our daily papers, which had declared
before my departure from New York that I was
going to fly over or around my mountain, alas!
could not be realized; since the Panagra planes
fly along the coast, the route to Iquitos lies far
in the interior, and, as I foresaw, no especial
plane and pilot were available for my service.
The best I could hope for was a glimpse of the
almost as lofty Coropuna, two peaks of which.

FLYING IN PERU 63

21,250 feet high, I climbed in 1911, when sixty
years of age.

Two miles upstream is the Guayaquil port for
hydroplanes, near which a field for landplanes
was being prepared by the Ecuador Government.
A waiting-room is convenient, but the attraction
outside is greater on the banks of the Guayas
River, where the tide is ever fighting for control.
A plane floating at the bank is not for us, but
soon after nine the Panagra arrives from Talara.
Quickly passengers, mail, and baggage are dis-
embarked and the two travelers going south are
on board.

As the plane ascends, we have a fine view of
the broad river, here two miles wide, the city on
the right; its old churches, new buildings, and
plazas, conspicuous from above. Beyond are low
forest-covered banks, though in places a blight
has left little in the way of green. Thirty miles
downstream we pass the large island of Pund,
quarantine station for ships, beyond which the
Guayas River is lost in the broad Gulf of Guaya-
quil. Flying near the left shore, which for a time
continues green, we soon reach the real desert,
which in Peru extends twelve hundred miles
along the coast. At once I begin looking for oil
wells, knowing that there are thousands within
a stretch of sixty-five miles.

From a passing steamer years ago, I had seen
in the distance derricks close to the shore and

64 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

some, strange to say, actually in the water. Yes,
there they are oil still rising out of the sea.
The wells, I hear, were not drilled in the ocean,
but the receding coastline left them out in the
shallow water, where the rich petroleum is still
secured. This field, the Zorritos, dating from
1883, the oldest in Peru, was opened and is
operated by Peruvians. A short distance beyond
is the larger British-owned Lobitos field.

After a three hours' flight we descend to the
fine harbor of the oil port, Talara, and are soon
on shore. A landplane is waiting, to which my
companion repairs for his journey to Lima, while
I am escorted to the city. One may be surprised
that hydroplanes are not employed along the
Peruvian coast as in Colombia. The explanation
is simple. The ocean along this coast is too rough
for a plane, and good harbors are few. To fly
over land is the safe and proper course. On the
coastal desert a good field is easily prepared, and
almost anywhere a landing may be made in
safety. Twin-motored Sikorsky amphibians are
in use between Panam4 and Talara.

It is a pity to fly along the coast without a
pause, for every landing-place has points of
interest. The wide horizon, the broad outlook, is
superficial unless supplemented by a nearer view
of details. In Peru passenger and airmail service
was inaugurated by the Panagra Company June
28, 1928. Since January 15, 1930, it has operated

FLYING IN PERU 65

for both passengers and mail to Colon. The flight
from Arica to Colon occupies three days, instead
of the eight or nine by steamer.

In Colombia, at Barranca Bermeja, I had seen,
not an oasis in a desert, but a clearing in a jungle.
What a contrast is Talara! Is the desert hot?
Certainly, in the noonday sun; but with a cool
breeze from the sea, the average temperature is
lower than at the oil field in Colombia. In spite
of this, Mr. Myers, who had previously lived at
Talara, preferred his present location in the
jungle section of Colombia.

Talara, twenty-five years ago a fishing village,
now a city of five thousand people, leads all the
ports of Peru in the value of its exportation.
'Petroleum' tells the story. Water from the
River Chira, supplied in ample measure, is sold
to passing vessels at two dollars a ton. Pleasant
houses (for married foreigners), with cheery
flowering plants in front, are high above the
water; the busy town is below. Enlightening
was the sight of a thousand oil wells in a long
drive through the centers of Negritos and
Lagunitos to the latest development at La Brea,
near the mountains. A diversion was a side-trip
to Point Parifia, the western extremity of South
America, where seals should have been disporting
on the rocks, but in the mid-afternoon were not.

On Sunday at ten, I left Talara for Trujillo in
a Fairchild monoplane accommodating six pas-

66 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

sengers. Twenty minutes later, we reached the
airfield of Paita, in 1903 the first port in Peru
visited by steamers from Panarni. 'This/ said
the Captain, 'is the driest place on earth/ Its
appearance did not belie the statement; not
a scrap of green was visible; but having heard
that in Paita it rains once in seven years and in
Iquique never, I inquired how this could be.
'That is easy/ said the Captain. 'In Iquique
there are heavy dews; here none at all; and now
it has skipped one shower and it is fourteen years
since it rained.' This was no idle jest. The next
shower occurred after seventeen years of drought.
But in 1925 came more than the usual shower.
The coast of Peru was drenched all the way
down, bringing serious injury destruction even
to houses, roads, crops, and railways, and
immense financial loss to the country. Too much
rain in a dry land is as bad as elsewhere a pro-
tracted drought. Another downpour has oc-
curred more recently.

Piura, a larger city, though not a port, we
reach half an hour later. The landings are a
mile or two from the cities, which we see, if at
all, only from above. Passengers arrive or depart
in automobiles, while others gathered at the
fields on foot or in cars to watch the arrival and
departure of the planes, then somewhat of a
novelty; not so any longer; and excellent waiting
stations have been provided. The city of fifteen

FLYING IN PERU 67

thousand inhabitants, capital of the Department
Piura, is a pretty picture, conspicuous in a broad
strip of green: an irrigated section, noted for the
production of a special and valuable variety of
cotton resembling wool. With this last it is
generally woven; thereby, for many purposes,
improving the fabric.

A few miles distant may be descried the town
of Catacaos, where most of the twelve thousand
people are engaged in making Panam& hats;
some of these so fine in quality as to be called
' Montecristi ' by a New York dealer, a well-
deserved compliment to one I had bought in
Paita. Such hats, sold in New York for one
hundred dollars or more, are purchased to the
best advantage in Paita or Piura. They may
also be obtained in Lima, varying in quality and
price. The finest of all are doubtless made in
Ecuador.

Forty minutes are required to reach the desert
landing for the city, Pimentel, again a port. The
halts, please note, are made on schedule time,
more punctually than on some of our railroads.
Gasoline taken on here gave time for a hasty ride
to the city, and a call at a fine mansion close to
the sea. At i.io P.M. we pause at Pacasmayo, at
2.05 at Trujillo, where I descend for a few days'
halt.

This flight is of greater novelty than might be
supposed. On the right one sees the curving

68 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Pacific shore, bluffs and beaches with the break-
ing surf; on the other side mountains: at first low
and distant, presently higher and close at hand.
Amazing is the contrast defined by a sharp line
between the yellow barren desert and the beauti-
ful green of the irrigated lands: a broad belt
greatly varying in width along the course of the
winding rivers. The plantations of cotton, rice,
1 or sugar, and other products present tints of
diverse colors; many cattle also are raised,
Interest was heightened by the knowledge that
the 162,000 acres of land already cultivated in
the State of Lambayeque, where Pimentel is
located, were to be tripled through a great irriga-
tion project inaugurated by President Leguia.
In 1930 it was well under way when the project
was abandoned. An American engineer, Charles
W. Sutton, long in the service of Peru, was add-
ing to his fame and usefulness by undertaking to
bring from the Huancabamba River, tributary
to the Amazon, by means of a tunnel through the
mountains, water to supplement the service of
the coastal streams, A large landholder of
Lambayeque was later reported as a leading
conspirator against President Leguia, doubtless
preferring to employ Indians and half-breeds at
fifty cents a day rather than to risk the purchas-
ing by some of them on the installment plan, as
proposed, small tracts of land which they could
cultivate for themselves. Leguia's idea of build-

THE GREAT WALL OF PERU

RUINS OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHAN CHAN

FLYING IN PERU 69

ing up a middle class was not popular with some
of the aristocrats.

From Trujillo may be visited the famous ruins
of the once rich city of Chan Chan, ruled by the
Grand Chimu prior to the Inca dynasty, but
overthrown by them four centuries before the
arrival of Pizarro. With an area of fifty or sixty
square miles, once no doubt the largest city of the
New World, it now presents a sorry spectacle.
Plundered by the Spaniards of gold and silver
treasures worth many millions, it proved a store-
house also of pottery and textiles, etc., of amazing
excellence. Formerly the plan of the city could
be traced to some extent, but the great downfall
of rain in 1925 left the then existing walls and
palaces practically ruined; hardly worthy of
a visit from the ordinary tourist.

In striking contrast, a drive on a fine road up
a splendid valley, in places almost a gorge, to
Samne, altitude five thousand feet, and Quiru-
vilca, fifteen thousand, will give intense pleasure
to all lovers of scenic beauty. Monday I spent in
looking about the important city of Trujillo, and
in making calls which resulted in a delightful
drive to Samne oo. Tuesday. There I was enter-
tained in a charming home where no comforts
were lacking. Still more enjoyable was the drive
Wednesday morning up to Quiravilca, where
are copper mines and a smelter. Here is a point
from which Mount Huascar&n is sometimes

70 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

visible. Of course I wished to have a look. As
I was about to ascend a ladder for the purpose,
an attendant in tones of horror said, 'You are
not going up there?' I responded that I certainly
was, and promptly did, with no ill effect; but
unhappily the snow-covered range at the south
was concealed by clouds. A tenderfoot, going so
high in a single day, might well be cautious of
such exertion. I once heard of a man who,
journeying by rail to Oroya, was dared (crim-
inally) at the highest point, 15,665 feet, to ascend
a longer ladder. He foolishly did so, but on
reaching the foot again he dropped unconscious.
If his heart had not been sound, he might have
died.

In this mountainous section are some of the
richest properties of gold, silver, and copper,
found in all Peru. A few miles from Quiruvilca is
the La Guardia silver mine, developed, as they
say, 'on a shoe-string/ by the Boza brothers
of Lima, who are reported to have taken from
the mine four million dollars in five years. It
is now operated by the American Smelting and
Refining Company.

Returning from Quiruvilca in the afternoon,
there was time for me to go for the night to
Cartavio, one of the large sugar plantations in
the vicinity belonging to the W. R. Grace Com-
pany. It was dark long before I arrived, and the
automobile ride along the beach, much of the

Copyright, 19(19, by Awnie S. Peck

HUASCARAN FROM TEN THOUSAND FEET ALTITUDE

The North Peak (21,812 feet), at left, was ascended by the author in 1908 and

has been named by the Lima Geographical Society ' Cumbre Ana Peck '

SAMNE, NEAR TRUJILLO, PERU
Quimvilca, reached by a lower road, is out of the photograph, to the right

FLYING IN PERU 71

time in shallow water where the tide seemed to
be coming in, was not altogether to my liking.
Doubtless the chauffeur could make better time
on the hard beach than on the poor sandy road
at the right, but I confess to feeling more uneasy
on this spooky, watery drive than in any other
part of my trip of twenty thousand miles. At
Cartavio the Superintendent and other Ameri-
can officials have comfortable homes in separate
dwellings, while the laborers, Indians or half-
breeds, are better housed than in their own
chacras, small farms. In a village of several
thousand they have permanent homes if they
wish to remain, as, on account of even climate
and irrigation, the cane here may be cut all the
year around. Thus far less labor is needed,
though the production per acre is double that of
Cuba and is equaled only in Hawaii. In the
morning I visited the sugar mill, where one year
thirty-four thousand tons of sugar were pro-
duced; from the roof there was an interesting
view of the village and the cane fields. A closer
inspection of these followed when returning to
Trujillo, where I was to set out for the airfield
at one.

The flight of three and a quarter hours,
Trujillo to Lima, was made with the same pilot,
Moore, who had brought me from Talara; but
in a well-filled Panagra Ford trimotor plane, ac-
commodating thirteen passengers. The crew,

72 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

besides pilot and mechanic, included a steward
who provided luncheon and cold drinks for the
hungry and thirsty, also newspapers, magazines,
and writing-paper as desired; all free of charge.
But the scenery demands the watchful admira-
tion of all save the hardened traveler. We fly
over low mountains as well as near them, some
showing a little green, while others are brown or
gray. All rise abruptly from the desert. A
writer who recently flew along here speaks of a
'painted desert.' As in my nine visits to Peru
I never saw or even heard of anything of the
sort, I conclude that perhaps the gentleman has
a good deal of imagination. A veil of delicate
mist soon blankets the sea, gradually fading out
over the land; but I had a glimpse of the familiar
port of Chimbote, the finest on the entire coast,
from which a railway now departing penetrates
the Black Range by a wonderful canon into the
Huailas Valley. Unless delayed by financial
considerations it should shortly arrive at Yungay
at the foot of the great Huascarin, when tourists
in throngs will visit this wonderful valley,
hardly equaled in splendor on this hemisphere,
on one hand the Black Range with peaks rising
fifteen to eighteen thousand feet above the
sea, on the other the White Cordillera with snow-
clad peaks twenty to twenty-two thousand
feet.
Just beyond Chimbote is Samanco, a port

FLYING IN PERU 73

with a few houses only, where I usually debarked
to ride up and over the Black Range to the
Huailas Valley by a pass above fourteen thou-
sand feet. At Samanco I was met by a man with
animals to take me to the sugar plantation,
San Jacinto, for the night. Several days were
spent with the hospitable Brysons, their home
at twelve thousand feet, their rich silver mines
two thousand feet higher. Then I went over the
pass, down to the city of Yungay at the foot
of magnificent Huascardn, where for weeks the
house of the Vinateas was my home, and head-
quarters for my several attempts on Huascaran,
concluding with its conquest in 1908. A single
expedition would have sufficed if adequate
funds had enabled me to procure competent
Swiss guides in 1904.

All the way to Lima are marvelous combi-
nations of light over the mist-clad sea, the
cloudy sky, the rugged shore; and the buttresses
of the Black Range, ever concealing the mag-
nificence of the loftier White Cordillera. Ancon,
a fashionable watering-place, and seat of the
Naval Aviation School, will be noted if clouds
permit; at Callao, the great docks, constructed
by the Snare Company, the finest and most
extensive on the West Coast below Panama.
If the plane does not move too swiftly, La Punta
will be observed at the right, a well-equipped
bathing-resort with a good hotel, and the edifice

74 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

of the Naval School. At the left is the new
slaughter-house and cold-storage plant, and the
port of Callao; the sights of that city require a
special visit by trolley or motor car from Lima.
Now we fly over the old and new city of Lima,
far surpassing its former limits, to the landing-
place at Las Palmas where many automobiles
are in waiting as we descend promptly at 5.20.
Cordially welcomed by Captain Grow, of the
Peruvian Navy, also Inspector-General of Aero-
nautics, we drive through the beautiful suburb
of Miraflores, residence of many foreigners, and
up the splendid Avenue Leguia (its name re-
cently changed to Arequipa), lined with hand-
some new dwellings, to the stately Hotel Bolivar.
This, with splendid salons for dining, banquets,
and dancing, two hundred suites or rooms, each
with bath and telephone, has been pronounced
by an enthusiast equal to anything in Europe or
America.

The unhappy custom of tourists, who, voyag-
ing thousands of miles, pass Lima with a hasty
glance, would not prevail if they knew what
they miss. The charming old capital advanced
at high speed in an era of wonderful progress
under the inspiration and guidance of the cul-
tured, democratic, able, and efficient President
Legufa, who, in a Limanian magazine, was de-
scribed as 'Restorer of the Ancient City, Creator
of Modern Lima. 1 In spite of partial trans-

ANCON, PERU: WATERING-PLACE AND NAVAL AVIATION SCHOOL

CALLAO: PORT WORK IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION

FLYING IN PERU 75

formation by the construction of new avenues,
parks, and plazas; attractive six-story buildings,
office and residential, with elevators and all
modern conveniences; up-to-date sanitation, and
important public edifices, the best remaining
from ancient days has been preserved.

The old Plaza de Armas retains its air of dis-
tinction. On one side stands the great Cathedral,
founded by Pizarro, largest in South America
save the incomplete basilica in La Paz, and con-
taining important works of art. Adjoining is the
new Palace of the Archbishop, whose elaborate
balcony windows bear witness that the ancient
art of wood-carving, exemplified in the old
Torre-Tagle mansion, is by no means lost, the
Quichua Indians preserving their remarkable
skill in this and other handicrafts. On another
side of the Plaza, site of the Palace of Pizarro,
where he was murdered, is the notable though
not imposing Palace of the President, covering
a whole block. Here are residential quarters for
His Excellency, reception and banqueting halls,
patios, and barracks for the guards, ever in
attendance.

Americans who still arrive with the idea that
the Peruvians are half-civilized and largely
Indian would have been amazed, if admitted in
1924 to the Centenary Ball in the Palace, which,
in illumination, decorations, refreshments, gowns,
and jewelry, could be surpassed in few cities of

76 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

the world; in elegance and good taste in none.
That a young American was refused admission
because he wore a black tie instead of a white
one indicates their extreme punctiliousness in
matters of dress and etiquette.

The other two sides of the Plaza preserve the
fascinating old portales, back of which are some
of the principal shops and restaurants, and on
the floor above one or two of the principal men's
clubs.

The new Country Club, of course, is else-
where, delightfully situated on the sea side of
Avenue Legufa, which extends four or five
miles to the fashionable suburbs of Miraflores
and Chorrillos. Called by some travelers the
finest country club in Latin America, it is
equipped with every desideratum: an eigh teen-
hole golf course, polo ground, courts for tennis,
squash, and racquets; a swimming-pool, library,
ballroom, billiard and game rooms, dining-room,
bar, and forty bedrooms. Windows look out on
the ocean; the grounds cover one hundred and
fifty acres.

Not far away is an institution quite different
in character, perhaps also preeminent: the
Magdalena Hospital for the Insane. This es-
tablishment, due to a millionaire philanthropist,
Don Victor Larco Herrera, is a model of its kind;
in style, equipment, and management leaving
nothing to be desired. The estate, covering more

LIMA

The large building in the middle of the foreground is the Palace of Congress
on the Plaza de la Inquisition (with trees)

MIRAFLORES, SUBURB OF LIMA

FLYING IN PERU 77

than sixty acres, has above twenty different
pavilions and departments. Torture and violence
are entirely suppressed, and the proportion of
cures is large. Many patients are maintained
free of charge; others pay twenty to fifty dollars
a month.

A more attractive institution, dedicated dur-
ing the Centenary, is a new Museo Arqueologico.
With a fagade in the style of Tiahuanaco, the
salons, finished in magnificent detail, contain a
vast number of valuable historic treasures.
These, classified by epochs, begin with Chimti
relics, long antedating those of the Inca period,
and follow with objects from other sites: many
pieces of gold and silver, pottery, weapons,
cloth, utensils; four gold ceremonial vases and
sixteen of silver of extraordinary beauty and
value, lately discovered, with wonderful textiles,
resembling if not surpassing in beauty the
finest of India cashmere, still wrapped around
mummies of the earliest period, thousands of
years B.C.

Time fails to enumerate, much less to de-
scribe, the several other museums, the Uni-
versity, nearly a century older than Harvard,
the National Library, the Torre-Tagle mansion,
two centuries old, a gem of colonial architecture
now occupied by the State Department; the
various monuments, many presented by foreign
colonies to commemorate a Centenary: a clock-

78 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

tower by the Germans, an art museum with
Italian paintings by the Italians, a statue of
Washington by the Americans, etc. Moreover,
scenes of awe-inspiring grandeur and visions of
fascinating beauty may be admired, the first in
a single day, both in four, and a glimpse of the
real jungle in five, as I shall now relate.

CHAPTER VIII
A VISIT TO IQUITOS

MY FIRST duty, after my arrival in Lima, was to
arrange a new flight, omitted by those aviators
who, proclaiming a good- will tour, speed around
South America to advertise a special airplane or
engine, or to make a new record. My tour was
not so announced. From my previous visits and
writings, my good will is recognized there. To
make a flight to Iquitos, it is necessary to go by
rail up to Oroya, down in an automobile to San
Ram6n, and there take an airplane to Iquitos.

Setting out from Lima by train early Monday
morning, I enjoyed, as several times before, this
railway ride, matchless in grandeur on this
hemisphere. Persons not sure of their hearts
would do well first to have them examined. At
least they should stop over a day or two at
Matucana, eight thousand feet, so becoming
wonted to this altitude, then proceeding with
less danger of soroche, mountain sickness. Ex-
cept in airship or plane, no one in a few hours
can rise so high as by the Oroya or* Central
Railway of Peru, which from Lima follows up
the Rimac Valley, in places a real canon. One
may look up at magnificent perpendicular cliffs
rising three thousand feet, dash through sixty-

8o FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

five tunnels, cross sixty-one bridges, tremble at
overhanging rocks, or great boulders half out of
steep inclines, apparently ready to roll down
upon the passing train, and in seven hours attain
almost the altitude of Mont Blanc (or on the
branch line to Morococha surpass it), an hour
or so later arriving at Oroya three thousand feet
lower. To Oroya, every tourist with a sound
heart should proceed; others may go part- way.

The daily train reaches Oroya about three,
in time for one to drive over another range and
down to Tarma to spend the night. But ar-
rangements had been made for me to set out a
day earlier, and remain overnight at Oroya.
Here I was entertained in a pleasant home,
where several others were invited to meet me
at dinner. Tuesday forenoon I proceeded in
automobile over the cumbre, one thousand feet
above, and down to Tarma at ten thousand feet,
where I spent the night in a rather poor old-
fashioned hotel. The town of five thousand is
well situated in a good-sized basin, where
eucalyptus and other trees grow and agriculture
flourishes. In the swift descent beyond, the vege-
tation rapidly becomes tropical. The road over
the ridge and down to Tarma is a good one, as is
that to San Ram6n, except when in the latter
section landslides are caused by heavy rains.
But most of the way is so narrow that general
traffic is permitted in only one direction at a

A VISIT TO IQUITOS 81

time. Even so the drive is sufficiently awesome
to the timid; the curves are extremely sharp,
the slopes below are long, and at angles terrify-
ing to many. But no matter! the drivers are
skillful; they must be. I would trust no New
York chauffeur on his first drive down this valley.
About 7 A.M. begins the ride to San Ramon.
Not far below Tarma the valley is almost as
narrow as the gorge of the Rimac River; but
instead of sublime rock cliffs, the almost per-
pendicular walls are somehow clothed in beauti-
ful green, large trees growing on slopes of more
than eighty degrees. The stream falls so rapidly
that the road at times is a thousand feet above,
and climbs down in long zigzags on the face of
an extremely steep incline. Feathery streamlets
from side valleys fall from great heights. Some
slopes have lost their verdure for a space, and
when there is rain, perhaps the night before,
earth and stones perchance come down and
block the way. Ahead, three large cars are stand-
ing. Can we pass? Are they pausing for break-
fast? Ah, no! A small landslide is the trouble.
A wait of ten minutes and all proceed with care.
Farther on is a longer line of vehicles and a
longer wait, while men shovel the wet and still
moving gravel to make at last a stretch barely
wide enough to permit passage, hardly an inch
to spare. A few dwellings and small hamlets are
scattered along the way, the former occupied by

82 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

laborers for the continual repair of the road.
Whatever the conditions, it is a most delightful
drive, well worth taking even for one not going
farther.

Very different was my ffrst journey down this
valley, and in truth still more enjoyable: from
Oroya to La Merced, a little below San Ramon,
it was a three days' ride on muleback, with time
to enjo^ to the full the delightful scenery along
the way. Bleak, brown, and bare is the cumbre
above Oroya, and steep at first was the way
beyond. (I remember how my miserable mule
slid on his hind feet, and how on level ground far
below he would stumble over his own feet with
no stick or stone in the way.) But soon came
green, then trees growing of their own accord,
which rarely happens along the West Coast;
then a rippling stream with calla lilies growing
wild along the banks. (I saw none from the
automobile.) The first night was spent at
Tarma; the second at Huacapistana, a solitary,
romantic hospice, almost over a gurgling river;
now visited by muleteers only, though seen at
a distance from the new road passing high above,
on the side of the valley. San Ramon was our
halting-place for the third day's luncheon, La
Merced for the night. At the Perene plantation
the next day I had my first sight of Indians of
the forest: tall, fine-looking, with a proud and
stately bearing, garbed in their native dress,

FOOTHILLS OF THE ANDES IN PERU

SAN RAMON, PERU, WITH FIELD AND HANGAR ACROSS THE
RIVER ON THE LEFT

A VISIT TO IQUITOS 83

flowing robes for both sexes. Good people all,
unless they have been ill treated by white men.

The opportunity to fly from San Ramon to
Iquitos, the great outpost and port of Peru on
the Amazon River, twenty-three hundred miles
from its mouth, is indeed a boon to residents of
the latter city, to those who have occasion to
go there on business, and to the increasing num-
ber of colonists along the rivers. The swift
carriage of mail only would be a blessing, and a
financial benefit to the country. In addition, the
possibility of making the journey in two days
from Lima (often longer in the rainy season,
December to April inclusive) instead of eighteen
to thirty, is of great value to all whose time is
money, and to those who would not enjoy riding
seven or eight days on muleback through the
forest, sailing a day or two in a canoe, and six to
ten in a launch (for which a wait of some days is
frequent) down the Pachitea, Ucayali, and
Amazon Rivers to their goal. Welcome is the
service of the airplane in such a region.

San Ramon is a town with a single long
street, a hotel similar to that at Tarma, clean,
and well enough for a single night. Passengers
arriving from Tarma, perhaps at ten, may have
time for a simple luncheon. The flying-field is
half a mile away. In wet weather it is difficult
to make a prompt start. ^Besides myself, two
gentlemen were also on the way to Iquitos: a

84 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Mexican experienced in the lumber business,
mahogany, about to engage in it with an Iquitos
company; the other, Colonel Lopez, of the
Peruvian Army. The Colonel and I were as-
signed to the first plane; the Mexican would
come later with the baggage, but I never saw
him again.

This plane was the first I had seen with an
open or roofless cabin, if that is what they call it:
a Keystone carrying two passengers, the pilot
sitting behind. A Abroad good-sized strap was
buckled around each of us, and at about eleven
we departed, circling over the town and among
the surrounding hills to get sufficient height
to proceed. Soon we were above beautiful
green mountains, but the view on each side was
impeded by clouds. Not until my return did
I fully realize the picturesque beauty then re-
vealed. An hour or more was enjoyed with moun-
tains below and around, before we gradually
came out to the enormous plain, covered with
real jungles, interwoven by many rivers.

Puerto Jesup, at the end of the Pichis Trail, is
pointed out, where a canoe is taken to Puerto
Bermudez, which we see some minutes later. To
this point, when the river is high, a steam launch
comes with passengers and mail from Iquitos.
Puerto Leguia, a half-hour beyond, is a flourish-
ing settlement on the Pachitea River with about
five hundred people, a school, church, doctor,

A VISIT TO IQUITOS 85

etc., developed by an American from California,
Mr. TomenottL As in smaller colonies seen
farther down, the jungle is cleared, houses are
built, cattle raised, and many varieties of agri-
culture and fruit-growing are practiced. In this
and many other parts of South America with
a comfortably warm and healthful climate, per-
sons unemployed, willing to lead a simple life,
may establish themselves. There is a landing-
field for planes, which occasionally call. The
concession extends across to the Ucayali River
into which the Pachitea soon flows, both streams
with many windings. The river, lost behind the
trees, again appears ahead. It is often difficult
to perceive which way it flows.

About two, we descend to a broad field at
Masisea on the Ucayali. The village has twenty
or thirty dwellings and a small store; other
houses are scattered farther along the bank.
We should meet a seaplane here to carry us on to
Iquitos, but unfortunately, delayed by bad
weather in the morning, it did not arrive until
five, too late to embark on a five-hour journey.
There is no hotel at Masisea, merely a house for
the pilots, where the travelers must be accommo-
dated, though room and meals leave something
to be desired. This, the most beautiful part of
the flight to Iquitos, the wonderfully picturesque
view of the mountains and valleys until they
flatten out to the plains, with a glimpse of the

86 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

real jungle beyond, may in the dry season be
enjoyed in a single day from San Ramon by re-
turning from Masisea the same afternoon.

Happily the next morning was favorable, and
about eight o'clock the Colonel and I embarked
in the plane, which was floating on the water.
The landplane had been housed in the com-
modious hangar. The seaplane, like the other,
had no covered cabin: a seat for two passengers
with the pilot behind. Again we were belted in,
but with a single strap confining us both; less
agreeable, especially in a warm climate. After
a while I unbuckled the strap and, as the Colonel
did not object, it so remained through the rest
of the flight; in my opinion safer in case of a too
swift descent to the water, as well as more com-
fortable. The plane rose easily, and our flight
to Contamana, capital of the Province, an hour
away, was soon accomplished. This is a regular
halting-place for gas, giving us time for a stroll
on the shaded parkway along the river, where
the Mayor, well attired, gave us cordial greeting,
manifesting much interest in the mountain-
climber whose fame had reached even the inte-
rior jungles. A wide difference in the garb and
complexion of the residents was noticeable, as
also at Dos de Mayo, where we landed soon after.

The windings of the Ucayali are extraordinary,
much worse than an 'S.' A short distance below
Masisea the river wanders so far and returns to

AIR BASE AT MASISEA, PERU, ON THE WAY TO IQUITOS

THE RIVER PACHITEA, PERU

A VISIT TO IQUITOS 87

>>-

a point so near where it was before, that the
plane cuts across in five minutes, the natives in
a few hours, while a launch requires a whole day
for the journey. An unexpected and irregular
descent at Dos de Mayo was explained by our
cautious pilot, saying that a bank of clouds in
the direction we were tending betokened storm,
and a wait of an hour was desirable; though to
a novice there seemed no real threatening. We
were cordially received in a home near the shore
by the lady of the house and others. Time passed,
the sky was brighter, but as luncheon was being
prepared for us, we must needs wait. When this
was over and payment offered, the hospitable
hostess declined all recompense. 'A pleasure to
entertain us/ she said.

The need of a mechanic or a local helper was
now apparent. For fear of rain the plane had
been covered with canvas. To unfasten the
lacings was a long job in which neither the digni-
fied Colonel nor any bystander offered to assist.
I should have given aid myself had my apparel
and the position of the plane permitted. At last,
in haste to be off, we bade farewell to the as-
sembled crowd. More clouds were in the offing
than earlier. We had not gone far before we saw
at the left a dark one approaching, obviously
pouring water upon the already damp forest.
From a good distance it was advancing rapidly.
We were going at right angles to its course, per-

88 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

haps faster; and though it drew near and nearer,
we were well beyond its track before it crossed
our trail. Soon a similar cloud was seen, still
another ahead at the right. We sped onward,
deviating slightly from our course, and passed
them by. Later, four showers were advanc-
ing; one at the left, two ahead with small
space between, and a fourth at the right. That
we could dodge them all we hoped, and not in
vain.

The view below of the curving river and the
continuing jungle was less exciting than watch-
ing the showers. This was the time when a
nervous person might have had thrills. Happier
those without them, though, on the other hand,
their stories, too, lack thrills.

I had told the pilot of my desire to see the
junction of the Maranon and Ucayali Rivers to
form the mighty Amazon. The Ucayali is the
larger stream, but the Maran6n, rising farther
west, nearer the Pacific, is considered the pri-
mary river. In 1906 I had stood upon a glacier
seventeen thousand feet above the sea, the ulti-
mate source, feeding Lake Santa Ana, from which
a streamlet flows; and in several places I had
observed, even crossed, the river a few thousand
feet lower. At last the pilot touches me, points
to another stream at the left, and says, ' Mara-
non.' A few minutes later, we see in front a sharp
forested point, at the end of which the waters

A VISIT TO IQUITOS 89

partly mingle; and a narrow island, beyond which
the union is complete.

Sailing then over the Amazon, the forest at
the north appears unlike the jungle earlier seen
bordering the Ucayali. The woods are denser,
the trees seeming all of the same height, a solid
mass which few would care to penetrate, or
could without a sharp machete. It grows dusky,
but we are nearly there. Houses are seen, and
lights; then a real city of fifteen thousand in-
habitants. Flying over it, we light upon the
water close to the dock, and walk up a steep in-
cline toward a welcoming crowd. It was as-
sembled especially to greet Colonel Roberto
Lopez, well known in Iquitos as chief of the Com-
mission which, in accordance with a recent
treaty, had been engaged in definitely marking
the boundary line between Colombia and Peru.
A few were also interested in the arrival of 'the
heroine of Huascardn,' they said. Especially
a young lieutenant who, in addition to the cordial
words and hand-shakes of the rest, gallantly
impressed a kiss on the top of my head, a polite
gesture duly applauded by the others-
Arrangements for my entertainment by Mr.
and Mrs. Israel were suspended for an amicable
discussion between them and Americans, Mr.
and Mrs. Ker, whose telegraphic invitation to
me at Masisea had not been delivered. It was
finally agreed that I should go to the pleasant

90 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

home of the latter, facing the principal square,
where my expected stay of two or three days was
prolonged to six awaiting the weekly air service.
Due to the cordiality of my hosts and the atten-
tions of leading citizens, the time was agreeably
spent. Numerous calls were received, among
them one from the Prefect of the Department,
Loreto, by far the largest of them all, but mainly
forest, with less than one inhabitant to a mile.
Several cards bore the inscription 'Bienvenida,'
or 'Welcome/ Reporters came, too, and my
gentlemanly pilot in quite different garb, an army
officer, to whose collection I must add my auto-
graph.

Invitations to luncheon and dinner followed,
and to a formal tea. On two of my return calls
I listened to fine classical music, excellently
rendered by lady pianists. A drive was enjoyed
about the town; and in the outskirts, past a
pretty lake, a park where tennis was being
played, and through the forest; for not merely
street cars but thirty-six automobiles are here
in the wilderness, after journeying twenty- three
hundred miles up the great river to a place but
356 feet above the level of the sea. As yet the
roads do not penetrate very far into the jungle,
but they were soon to be extended many miles to
reach a town (or hamlet) in Colombia. In the
cool afternoon it was a pleasure to walk past the
docks for ocean steamers, which regularly if not

CALLE PROSPERO AND PLAZA PRINCIPAL, IQUITOS, PERU

HOUSE FACING PLAZA, IQUITOS
Where the author was entertained

A VISIT TO IQUITOS 91

often call, and to gaze across the mighty river
a mile and a half wide, not counting the long
island midway.

Especially interesting was a dinner visit at the
home of a bachelor, an oil prospector and geolo-
gist, living happily in his small zoological garden,
with a tapir, a variety of rare monkeys, and other
animals and birds, gorgeous macaws, etc., all of
them real and especial pets. Hundreds of miles
of the jungle on both sides of the Ucayali had he
explored, where some of his subordinates were
then engaged, finding indications of petroleum;
with no expectation of early drilling of wells,
but with an eye to the fairly remote future. No
fear of Indians had he. Friendly persons ac-
quainted with their customs find no occasion for
alarm. Not entirely flat is the country near the
Ucayali River, but the low hills or mountains are
hardly discernible from the air.

In spite of the collapse of the rubber trade
(now slightly reviving), which was thought to
put a finish on Iquitos, the city is again fairly
prosperous; the entrepdt for a thousand square
miles, in which diversified farming and other
industries are being developed, it is a distributor
for a large section of Peru, Ecuador, and Colom-
bia. The hospitality received I did not regard as
altogether personal, as even with the present air
service the town is not thronged with visitors.
It is not strange that Dr. Charles H. T. Town-

92 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

send, scientist and explorer, called Iquitos a de-
lightful little city, quite cosmopolitan. There is
air service now from Iquitos to Moyabamba,
capital of San Martin, in a more mountainous
section, which a few persons may like to visit.

CHAPTER IX
RETURN TO LIMA

IN THE midst of the rainy season, the weather
was bad for flying, but on Tuesday it cleared,
and Wednesday I repaired to the docks in good
season for the flight appointed for seven. There
were three passengers, a lady and an army officer
besides myself. The officer and I were seated in
one plane, the lady in the other. I regretted that
the nice boy (twenty-seven, married, and with
three children), my pilot from Masisea, was not
allotted to our plane; but I was surprised when
at Contamana he exchanged with the other
pilot and brought us to Masisea, where we ar-
rived about one. The next day he remarked in
Spanish, 'I should like to have you for a pas-
senger all the time/ at which, considering my
age, I was much amused. ' Usted muy fuerte^
he said. Other ladies and some men 'nerwosos?
and if so they<made him nervous as well. Fuerte
literally means strong. He doubtless meant to
say that I had good nerves, was calm and cool.
Apparently some others show fear. But if you
are afraid, why fuss?* You can do nothing about
it and may better stay quiet; in readiness to act,
jump if occasion demands, spring out in case of
fire on landing, or if down on the water.
Though the weather had been favorable for us,

94 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

the planes from San Ramon had not arrived at
Masisea. None appeared that afternoon or all
the next day. On Thursday about two, a heavy
storm suddenly broke. To me in my room it
came without warning and poured in the window
to which I hastened in order to close the shutters.
A stream from the passageway was running
under the door. I was glad not to be in the air
just then. Later I inquired of my pilot what he
would have done had he been out at the time.
He said, go quickly down to the water (of course
he would have seen the cloud coming) and get
close to the shore, in the lee if possible. Evi-
dently all would have been drenched, even if the
plane were lucky enough not to be sunk. I prefer
not to be fastened in when sailing over the water,
or at any other time.

On Friday we had given up the idea of depart-
ing that day, when I heard a familiar sound, ran
out, and saw a plane circling above. We watched
it light and wheel toward the hangar, but at two
o'clock I had small hope of leaving. Then came
the Agent saying, 'You can go in half an hour/
Hastily and gladly I packed my few belongings
while the pilot took his luncheon. At 245 the
Captain and I entered the plane and were off for
San Ramon. Two planes, the pilot said, had set
out that morning for Masisea, but when sepa-
rated in the clouds the other evidently turned
back.

RETURN TO LIMA 95

Our pace was good, and soon after five we
settled on the San Ramon field, though the pilot
said afterwards that at one time, when approach-
ing the mountains, he thought of turning back.
He probably would have done so if his passengers
had shown alarm ; but as we both sat quietly, he
continued. A rather strong wind shook the plane
a little, we had some sudden drops, and there
were heavy clouds; but these sufficiently broken
so that the pilot could see the way. Once I had
feared that we were turning back, but the pilot
only circled to gain height to pass over the
mountains.

The clouds were beautiful, mainly white,
heavy on one side but leaving mountains visible
on the other; often dense ahead, but broken,
some down below, but also broken there. The
varied contours, the changing mountains, the
forested hillsides, the narrow gorges below, were
a continual source of delight. In the distance
I saw a river which I recognized as the Perene,
making a long circle before it joins the Ucayali,
which we had so recently left. Then it was
nearer, the plantation, Perene, with its million
coffee trees came in sight; a few minutes later,
La Merced, in a narrow gorge a little below San
Ram6n; then our landing-field there and our
flight was over.

Unfortunately, we arrived so late that the
waiting chauffeurs in San Ramon had on ac-

96 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

count of the clouds concluded we were not com-
ing and had departed with their cars for Tarma.
We were obliged, therefore, to stay overnight
at the hotel and all the next morning, as we
could not leave to go up until after half-past
one, when all coming down the valley had ar-
rived, or passed on farther. In spite of the very
narrow road, our ride up to Tarma was at an
extremely rapid rate. We whisked around sharp
corners where the slightest blunder would have
sent us over the edge, practically a precipice,
to land hundreds of feet below. It was useless
to worry. The drivers are accustomed to the
road, and have no more desire to go over the
brink than the passengers. Accidents have hap-
pened, but not often.

We reached Tarma by five o'clock, when I at
once made an effort to continue the journey,
preferring to pass a more comfortable night in
Oroya. On inquiry, I learned that I must first
obtain a pass from the Mayor of the city, whom
I found with some difficulty at his home. Cour-
teous and agreeable, on learning who I was, he
willingly gave me a permit, with the under-
standing that I must not set out until after
seven, as cars were now coming down.

After some trouble I finally secured a driver
and car at a good price (paid in advance), though
less exorbitant than others had demanded. It
was already dark when we left, two men besides

RETURN TO LIMA 97

the driver, one on the rear seat with me. It
did seem a little weird, but I concluded that
the men must realize that as I was well known
they would get into trouble if I disappeared, so
I did not worry about that. The road though
narrow was good, and there were no more prec-
ipices at the side, merely steep slopes here and
there. Lights appeared in the distance. We
must halt at the first place possible for an auto-
mobile to pass. Again and again we halted to
let other cars go by. Some distance from the
town my pass was examined. The man at my
side apparently had none, and he was obliged to
stop. As we went higher to pass over the cumbre
three thousand feet above, it seemed to me very
cold; it was cold (it generally is above thirteen
thousand feet, especially at night) ; but the man
by the driver in front kindly lent a coat which I
put over my knees and feet. It seemed a long,
long way. The driver had promised that we
should arrive by 9.30. It was more than that
when, after crossing the bleak and level cumbre,
we saw the lights of Oroya a thousand feet
below. The driver had said that he knew where
my former host lived, who had invited me to
stop there on my return; but only after several
inquiries, and driving around and around, did

I at last find myself at the proper place. No
light was visible, but I was safe in a home at

II P.M., chilled through and through. Cold and

98 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

hungry I went to bed, supposed, of course, to
have had dinner in Tarma; but I had been too
busy to dine. In spite of splendid blankets, it
was long before I was warm and comfortable.

I had a good rest the next day, with a late
breakfast in bed. A doctor made an unnecessary
but interesting call, during which he took my
blood pressure and tested my heart with a
stethoscope. He then asked, 'How old are you?'

I returned, 'How old do you think?' After
gazing at me intently for a moment, he said,

I 1 can tell your age within a year.' Quite sure
that he could not, I retorted, 'Do so!' He re-
sponded, 'Sixty-four!' 'You are only fifteen
years out of the way/ said I. 'I don't believe
it!' he emphatically declared; but I think I
convinced him of my veracity, though when my
eightieth birthday was to be celebrated in New
York nine months later, it appeared that many
had shared his opinion.

In spite of the ever cool climate at 12,178
feet, some persons might like to spend a day
or two at Oroya, a much larger and busier
place than in 1903 when I made my first visit.
For in recent years the Cerro de Pasco Company
has transferred the smelter from near Cerro
to this place; the larger new one, capable of
treating three thousand tons of ore daily. The
whole, with up-to-date equipment including
power plant and a great reservoir with capacity

RETURN TO LIMA 99

of a million gallons, is said to have cost fifteen
million dollars.

I should have been glad to go south from
Oroya to Huancayo, seventy-eight miles, long
the terminus of the Central Railway, and to
Huancavelica beyond, famed for rich mines of
quicksilver. Cerro de Pasco, ninety miles to the
north, site of the world-famous copper mines, I
had visited in 1906. Traveling in either direc-
tion one would see hundreds of the plateau
Indians, Quichuas, who perform most of the
labor in the mines of that region, as well as in
the haciendas, great estates or plantations along
the coast. These Indians, of course, are of an
utterly different type from the various tribes
in the low country east of the mountains. But
my trip to Iquitos had occupied two weeks, and
I felt that I must hasten my return to Lima; so
on Monday I once more enjoyed the splendor
of the Oroya Railway, the majesty of whose
cliffs is beyond compare. On the way down,
perhaps when above fifteen thousand feet, the
train conductor politely inquired how I felt. I
promptly replied that I was all right, which he
seemed to think remarkable, as young women,
he said, were flopping. I enjoyed a good meal
at luncheon, and pleasant chats with several
traveling men on the way, as well as the familiar
scenery of which I should never tire.

Happy again to be in Lima, I repaired to the

ioo FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Hotel Bolivar, where I was glad to spend some
time, and to renew my acquaintance with
President Leguia, whom I first met in 1904,
when he occupied the post of Minister of
Hacienda, the Treasury. Through his prompt
interest in my purpose to ascend Mount Huas-
carn I was favored with entertainment at the
sugar plantation, San Jacinto, on my three jour-
neys over to the Huailas Valley. To his initia-
tive as President in 1908, I owe the honor of the
very beautiful heart-shaped gold medal, twenty-
two carats fine, bestowed upon me by Govern-
mental Decree. On one side is a representation
of the mountain, on the other the inscription,
1 Nadie llego antes que ella a la cumbre del Huas-
cardn' in English, 'No one arrived before her
at the summit of Huascar&n' a prettier phras-
ing than to say as we might do, that she was the
first to reach the summit. It may be added, as
a paper in Rio stated, that ' No one has arrived
there since'; also, that no other American has
attained so great an elevation on this hemisphere,
the record of 21,812 feet, made in 1908, unbroken
after twenty-four years.

During my interview with President Leguia,
I remarked that very likely I should not see
him again; another visit was doubtful, since I
was now in my eightieth year. 'I don't believe
it ' ! he exclaimed ; but I assured him that it was
even so. I did not, however, dream that after

RETURN TO LIMA 101

his election in 1929 for a third consecutive term,
and the wonderful service he had rendered to
his country, he would in a few months be ex-
pelled from office and confined in prison in-
comunicado until his death in January, 1932.
In spite of his tragic and unmerited fate, I
dare to repeat the final words which I wrote in
a beautiful album, presented to him as a souvenir
of the Centenary of the Battle of Ayacucho:
'When the next Centenary comes around, with
those of Bolivar and Sucre, the name of Leguia
will be honored as that of the great President
who first set Peru on her forward march to the
place she will rightfully hold as one of the lead-
ing Republics on this hemisphere/

One night in the Centro Naval during a
Venetian fiesta on the Bay, Seiior Leguia said
to General Saenz Pefia, 'You Argentines are
proud that your capital is a great port. Within
fifty years we shall have the satisfaction that
Lima is united to Callao and is a great port like
Buenos Aires/ The General replied, 'It is very
possible that it be so/ Eighteen years passed.
The fine Avenue Progreso connects the two cities,
buildings were going up between, splendid docks
have been constructed. Now there is a pause; a
setback even. But some day the dream of
Leguia will be fulfilled.

Engaged while in Lima in writing and in
procuring data for revision of my earlier books,

102 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

I regretfully resumed my journey, fidelity to
what I had undertaken preventing the renewal
of delightful acquaintance with the many charm-
ing people, society leaders, and women promi-
nent in club life and in educational and philan-
thropic work, from whom I had received at-
tentions on previous visits. Of my old friends
I met only the Brysons, now living in Lima,
who, on my several mountaineering trips, had
been my hosts above, and Victor Pezet (brother
of the late Ambassador Adolphus Pezet), whom
I first met in 1906 in Chimbote as American
Consul. He was now greatly interested in having
my 'Industrial and Commercial South America'
translated into Spanish for circulation on that
continent.

The condition and prospect of aviation in
Peru may be of interest. Commercial service
along the 'coast, begun by Panagra in June,
1928, is carried on by the Panagra and Faucett
Companies, both American. The Panagra planes
included .twin-motored Sikorsky amphibians for
four passengers, with a crew of three, and three
trimotor Fords for thirteen passengers, with a
crew of four; all of these affording service by
radiograms; also six Fairchild monoplanes for
six passengers, with a single pilot. Mail is now
transported twice a week between Montevideo
and Panamd. Passengers have been carried be-

RETURN TO LIMA 103

tween PanamS, and Arica, but in September,
1931, international passenger service was in-
augurated between Cristobal and Montevideo,
4545 miles. In the other countries there is no
restriction, but, as Chile has local Government
service, Panagra is restricted to carrying pas-
sengers through Chile, leaving them at any
station in the country or taking them from
Chile to a country outside. Local service is not
permitted. The Faucett Company, with four
Stinson-Detroiter planes for five to seven pas-
sengers, provided service twice a week from Lima
to Talara, and once from Lima to Arequipa.
Both companies supply special service as may
be convenient.

The Government had a Minister of Marine
and Aviation with, early in 1930, an Inspector-
General of Aeronautics, Captain H. B. Grow, of
the Peruvian Navy, Commander in the Naval
Reserve of U.S.A. His first work, 1924-25, was
the development of the Ancon Naval Flying
School, then counting thirty-two flying officers
including seven students. In 1928, a similar
work was undertaken for the Military Flying
School at Las Palmas, which in 1930 had thirty-
two officers with twelve students. In February,
1930, eighteen planes were in Government serv-
ice, six of these in the mountains; and new
planes had been ordered. The first service opened
by the Government, January, 1928, was the San

104 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA '

Ramon, Masisea, Iquitos, operating weekly in
the rainy season, December to April; the rest
of the year twice a week, when fine weather
usually permits through service in a single day.
From Iquitos there was a service twice a month
to Yurimaguas, important port on the Huallaga
River, and to Moyabamba on the River Mayo.

Another line was to be established from
Pacasmayo on the coast to Chachapoyas in the
Maranon Basin; to be continued to Moyabamba,
thus forming a second route to Iquitos. In a
very different direction a line was proposed to
Puerto Maldonado with a population of two
thousand, capital of the Province, Madre de
Dios, and on a river of that name, tributary
to the Madera. Far to the southeast, six hundred
miles south and two hundred and fifty miles
east of Iquitos, so remote as to be a fortnight's
journey from anywhere, this town would then
be four hours by air from Masisea and two or
three days from Lima. By this plan of Leguia's,
the outermost edges of Peru would be connected
with the capital city, colonization speeded,
Indians attracted to civilization, and progress
of all kinds advanced.

CHAPTER X
SOUTHERN PERU

IN ACCORDANCE with my plan to make use as far
as possible of all the different air lines in South
America, I desired to go from Lima to Bolivia
where such service had been established for
several years. If proceeding directly to Chile, I
should have continued with the Panagra to
Arica, in order there to transfer to the Govern-
ment Line, the only one then allowed to transport
passengers in the country. There was no air
service to Bolivia. The best I could do was to fly
to Arequipa, thence travel to La Paz over the
familiar route by rail to Puno, steamer to
Guaqui, and rail again to La Paz. Desiring, as
I said, to try all the various lines, I flew to
Arequipa with the Faucett, which has a field in
the vicinity of the Country Club. It was a gray
morning, February 21, when a little before ten
I arrived at the field. Unusual weather had pre-
vailed in this the Peruvian summer, which is
generally warm and dry (not too warm, in spite
of being in the tropics), with no fog. This season
mist had been frequent and even light showers
were occasional. Fog is expected along the coast
of Central and Southern Peru from May to
October, but not in the summer.

io6 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

At the field, the morning was said to be favor-
able for flying, with mist in evidence only along
the shore. A good view was had of Miraflores,
Barranca, and Chorrillos, Lima's beautiful coastal
suburbs, although some clouds already appeared
beneath us. Presently we fly over low mountains,
green at the top, but brown toward the base.
At first the scenery resembles that at the north,
but it soon changes. Instead of a sandy desert
little above sea-level with single detached hills,
or an occasional range coming down to end in a
coastal bluff, there lies, between the mountains
and the sea, a desert elevated three or four
thousand feet, broken by canons in which rivers
come down, serving to irrigate lands near the
shore. This plateau from above appears to be
bare rock with slight irregular depressions,
rounded curves, and strange markings; some of
these as if made by rivulets, others queer, look-
ing like corrals, or a hacienda, a house and
grounds, but with no speck of green or soil.
; A large tract of green fields with scattered
houses now appears: Cafiete, no doubt, a section
where agriculture has lately been extended
through an irrigation project executed by Presi-
dent Leguia; the land thrown open to purchasers
on the installment plan for the benefit of com-
mon laborers. At first we fly near the shore,
then farther back, The plane shakes and dips,
more than before, with slight drops. The moun-

MOLLENDO, PERU

FOOTHILLS WITH CHACHANI AND EL MISTI IN THE DISTANCE

SOUTHERN PERU 107

tains are near. Now descending to a very large
green valley, we make our first call near the city
of lea, very pretty from above, with good houses
and many trees, sixty miles by rail from the
port of Pisco. The Province is famed for pro-
ducing fine grapes and wine, with a variety of
other products.

Near the coast town of Camand, where we
make our second call, I had hoped to see in the
distance the splendid snow-covered Coropuna
(climbed in 1911, 21,250 feet, when I was already
past sixty), Peru's second highest mountain;
but adverse fate willed otherwise. There was
only gloom, clouds concealing the entire range.
Ahead, too, dense clouds were lying across our
route, for Arequipa is by rail one hundred miles
inland. The weather is unprecedented. The
plane aimed straight for our goal, but when
neither the ground below, the city in front, not
even the volcano El Misti, 19,200 feet high at
whose base Arequipa lies, nor the mountains,
Chachani and Pichu Pichu, on either hand, were
visible, advance was impossible. Our pilot
turned west; but still hoping to find a loophole,
he curved again toward the city. In vain! With
no desire to dash against a mountain, he again
flew west, where the skies were clear, and sur-
prised us by landing in sight of the ocean on the
field of Mollendo at half-past five. Terminus of
,the South Peruvian Railway, it is noted as the
worst port in Peru.

io8 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

The hotel where we spent the night I was
happy to find enlarged and greatly improved
since the time in 1904, when, after spending a
few days there, I called it a wretched little place.
Now there is far more travel. The rooms are
clean, the dinner was unexpectedly good, and
the service satisfactory. The next morning at
ten, in spite of dense clouds concealing the steep
rocky slope which leads up to the plain above, a
desert, famous for the beautiful curving sand-
dunes twenty feet high which ever move slowly
over it, we began climbing, climbing, till we were
above and over the thick white tufted spread
covering the plateau, at first from three to four
thousand feet above the sea. No land was
visible; merely a dark shadow toward which we
fly, doubtless veil-covered mountains. Presently
the clouds beneath were thinner, there were
glimpses of brown earth, then more; but we have
missed a sight of the gracefully curving sand-
dunes observed from the train, as they traverse
this portion of the desert. Now we see green
grass, houses, and trees. Soon 'Arequipa!' is the
cry. Hardly half an hour had passed when we
descend to the field on the lower slope of El
Misti, at a shojrt distance below the city.

Near the hangar automobiles were in waiting,
one of which I entered, and I was soon on the way
to Quinta Bates, a hotel-pension of which I had
long heard and written, but never before enjoyed.

EL MISTI AND THE CITY OF AREQUIPA

THE CRATER OF EL MISTI

SOUTHERN PERU 109

Its popularity is so great that few casual tran-
sients are able to secure accommodations. This
time, having telegraphed of my coming, I was
cordially welcomed by the genial American
hostess, 'Tia' ('Auntie') Bates, as she is called,
being 'Aunt' to all the English-speaking folk
who frequent this section.

I might have taken the night express to Puno,
but our failure to penetrate the fog and the
forced visit to Mollendo prevented this. The
Panagra pilot chanced to find a loopholo, so that
a passenger who was eager to go on caught the
train at Arequipa. It is, however, desirable for
the ordinary tourist to pause a few da} s at this
delightful spot, both to visit an interesting city
with a day climate of perennial June (the nights
more like November), and to become wonted to
the altitude, about seventy-five hundred feet,
before going up to Bolivia.

The second city in Peru with a population of
sixty thousand, the place, having an ample
supply of water from the Chili River, is a garden
spot in the desert. On the lower slope of El
Misti, it is sheltered from the winds by this
mountain and its neighbors, which in every
direction provide delightful vistas. To Arequipa,
seldom visited by rain or mist, in the wonderfully
clear atmosphere the beautiful cone-shaped Misti
presents an admirable picture, with the loftier
Chachani on the left and Pichu Pichu on the
right; by moonlight a scene of rare loveliness.

I io FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

A favorable view of Misti is enjoyed from the
principal plaza, which has on one side the Ca-
thedral, more imposing within than without.
On the other three sides are stone portales, called
the finest in South America. Among other ob-
jects of interest are several churches, a fine mar-
ket covering two and one-half acres, a splendid
hospital to which the Goyeneche family donated
more than half a million dollars, a picturesque
garden, etc.

A unique possibility is the ascent of El Misti,
the summit, 19,200 feet, probably the loftiest
height in the world to which one could ride on
muleback. Years ago, when the Harvard Observ-
atory here had a station, a bridle-path was made
to the top, where observations were taken. In
1903 I made this ascent, and went to the bottom
of that half of the crater which was not smoking.
Part of the way down I slid on the ashes, and
pocketed some pure sulphur crystals which I
still have somewhere. After climbing the wall
between the two parts not so easy as sliding
down I had a good view of the slightly smok-
ing crater. It would be more difficult to ascend
the mountain now, as the pathway, no longer in
use, may have utterly vanished. It would be no
joke to walk up. It is much less fatiguing,
though more dangerous, to scale rock cliffs or
steep slopes of snow.

Happy to have enjoyed for a few days the

SOUTHERN^ PERU 1 1 1

hospitality and good food found at Tia Bates',
I went on to La Paz by the route I first followed
in 1903. Had I not (in 1908) visited the ancient
Inca capital, Cuzco, which should be omitted
from no one's itinerary, I must have spared a
few days for the trip. The hotel at the station is
called good, the location of the city is said to
surpass in beauty other world-famed sites, while
the wonderful ruins with their historic associa-
tions cause some persons to consider their visit
to Cuzco the high light of the entire tour. The
opportunity now opened to visit easily the ex-
traordinary remains in the neighborhood, in-
cluding Machu Picchu (discovered by Hiram
Bingham) amid scenes of incomparable loveli-
ness, is an additional incentive to the traveler.

CHAPTER XI
BOLIVIA

THE sail at night across Lake Titicaca, twelve
thousand feet above the sea, from Puno, Peru,
to Guaqui in Bolivia, is especially memorable
for the morning view of the hundred-mile stretch
of the magnificent snowclad 'Cordillera Real,'
from Mount Illampu to Ilimani, the range also
visible at times in the railway ride across the
desolate plateau. Then comes the astonishing
spectacle of the unique city of La Paz, as seen
from above, a strange but fascinating place in
a canon more than a thousand feet deep, yet
twelve thousand feet above the sea: the highest
capital city in the world. Two railways from the
'Alto' now descend the walls of this canon,
which in many places are far too steep to climb.
From the Hotel Paris on the principal plaza,
the Murillo, one may see on the opposite side
the Presidential Palace, where in 1908 I attended
a grand ball, the elegance of which would surprise
those who see the queerly costumed Indians
and Cholos on the streets or at the market-
place: ladies gowned in the latest Paris modes,
refreshments most elaborate; with dancing from
eleven to seven in the morning. Across the cor-
ner at the left is the newer Hall of Congress*

A PART OF LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, \VlTH MOUNT ILLIMANI IN THE
BACKGROUND

ANOTHER VIEW OF LA PAZ

BOLIVIA 113

Next to the Palace is a great cathedral long
In construction, capable of seating twelve thou-
sand persons, and designed to be the largest and
most expensive basilica erected in South America
since the Independence. Other attractions there
are, but the llamas, the Indians and Cholos in
their quaint costumes, with queer customs, and
the scenic splendors, the strangely carved canon
walls above which, farther down, looms the
magnificent snow-crowned Ilimani, must long
be the chief sources of interest.

Knowing that Bolivia had for several years
possessed an airplane service, as one had been
installed as early as 1925 between Cochabamba
and Santa Cruz, I had hoped that it might be
available for me. I soon learned the difficulties.
I must first go by rail two hundred and fifty miles
to Cochabamba, headquarters of the company.
Service in the then rainy season was likely to be
delayed either by storm or soft ground. With
the greater part of my air journey still before
me, it seemed inexpedient to run the risk of
being detained a week or two in a jungle or in
some other out-of-the-way place. Accordingly, I
concluded to be satisfied with a promised flight
in a Government plane over the great and
splendid mountain, Sorata or Illampu, over
twenty-one thousand feet high, whose summit I
almost reached in 1904, and might have quite,
had not my companions refused to proceed

H4 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

when we were but a few hundred feet below the
goal.

But the complications In celebrating Easter
created delays. Government permission was
slow to become action. In the end, the day
arrived when I was to leave by rail for Arica.
A person who was to call at ten o'clock to take
me to the field on the Alto, to which there is
now a motor road as well as the two railways,
failed to arrive. Finally, the Englishman author-
ized to pilot me on the flight, who was then at
the hangar above, telephoned that after several
trials he had found it impossible to get the heavy
trimotor Ford off the ground, which had been
softened by a shower. The flight must, therefore,
be abandoned. This was a bitter disappointment.

Bolivia really has now an extensive air service
by the Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, which has a work-
shop and a school of Commercial Aviation at
Cochabamba. The service includes semi-weekly
flights Cochabamba to Santa Cruz and Cocha-
bamba to Sucre; a flight weekly from Cocha-
bamba to Todos Santos and Trinidad at the
north, liable to suspension during the rainy sea-
son; and further a service twice a month from
Santa Cruz to Puerto Suarez, on the Paraguay
River, and to Corumb& in Brazil. Connection is
thus made with steamers on the Paraguay River
to Buenos Aires and with the Brazilian Railway
to Sao Paulo.

CHAPTER XII
CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA

WITH the greater part of my flight still before
me, it seemed necessary to depart from La Paz
by the weekly train to Arica, Thursday after-
noon, March 8, thence to observe Chile from the
air. Being happily immune to sudden changes
of altitude, I found the journey very comfortable,
including a good dinner and morning coffee.
Ordinary tourists I advise, if convenient, to avoid
this night journey, the shortest to the coast,
whether going up or down, as the drop or ascent
of fourteen thousand feet in a few hours is to
the majority more unpleasant by night than
by day. However, oxygen is always at hand if
needed. An offer was made to . an American
lecturer coming up from Santiago to travel by
air. Although he had flown across the Andes, he
declined, and made the ascent by rail, but he
gave the lecture with difficulty. It is probable
that he would have been in better condition
had he made the trip by air.

I should have been grateful, indeed, for such
an opportunity; for in addition to a magnificent
view of the deep canon of La Paz from a height,
and of the great snow-capped peaks at the east,
I might have had a glimpse, west of the western

ii6 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

range, of a practically unknown cafion, the
Jamiraya, said by two English explorers whom
I once met to have walls rivaling in height those
of the Yosemite, and in gorgeous tints those of
the Colorado.

At Arica one may recall the long controversy
between Peru and Chile over its ownership, the
unfortunate and fruitless mandate of our Presi-
dent for a plebiscite, and rejoice that at last
the long-standing imbroglio was settled through
the cooperation of the Presidents of the two
countries, Leguia and Ibafiez, whose great serv-
ice in this direction seems hardly to have been
appreciated. Close to the splendid hotel, the
finest on the coast except the Bolivar, is the
famous great rocky Morro, where June 7, 1880,
seventeen hundred Peruvians, surprised in a
land assault by four thousand Chilians, perished
after a heroic defense. Colonel Bolognesi, having
used his last cartridge, was killed, and many
soldiers leaped over the edge of the cliff, pre-
ferring this death to slaughter.

Arriving at Arica soon after nine, I was happy
to find the hotel Pacifico fully up to its reputa-
tion. Pleasant calls were made on the Governor
of the Province and the Superintendent of the
Railway to return thanks for courtesies rendered,
and arrangements were made during a stroll
about the neat and attractive town for my
departure the following morning by air. The

CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA 117

passenger air service in Chile has been a Govern-
ment monopoly. Foreign lines were welcome to
bring passengers into the country at Arica or
Santiago for transfer to Chilian planes, and were
allowed to continue with mail if they so desired,
as the Panagra Line had been doing since De-
cember, 1929. Now, however, Panagra may bring
passengers from other countries to any point in
Chile, or take them out, but may not engage in
local service.

It may be noted that Chile is regarded as the
foremost flying nation in South America. Her
Military Air School was founded in 1913. Chile
is the only one of the countries in which general
service is maintained by the Government and
carried on by its own citizens. Colombia, on
the contrary, is famous as having the first per-
manent air and passenger service established
anywhere in the world, beginning in 1920, but
carried on by foreigners.

On Saturday morning the weather was fine,
and driving to the field, I soon embarked in a
Fairchild monoplane, expecting to arrive in eight
hours at Copiapo, and on Sunday at Santiago
after a flight of five hours and a half. Alas, I
was sadly disappointed, as I shall now relate.
The plane was comfortable, with a single pilot
and room for four passengers; there were two,
gentlemen, besides myself. All of the country
is desert: the plain over which we fly, the high

u8 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

mountains, hardly visible at the left, and the low
hills concealing the ocean on the right. The
nitrate section begins a little farther down, in
the Province of Tarapac4, Arica containing none
of this rich fertilizer.

Our first call was made in an hour and a half
on the field near the city of Iquique, where one
passenger departed. The city was long noted as
the leading nitrate port, a position now held by
Antofagasta. This desert region differs from the
Peruvian coast in the fact that Peru needs only
water to make the land blossom like the rose;
but in this region it is necessary to provide soil
as well as water in order to have grass and trees
for their parks and plazas. Formerly water was
conveyed to Iquique by ships. In those days
they had their little joke by saying that people
drank champagne because water was too expen-
sive, at times two dollars a gallon. It is reported
that two miners of that period, once making a
feast, sat down with two cans of pcit6 de foie
gras, a loaf of bread, a bottle of brandy; and two
cans of condensed milk which was eaten with
spoons as a dessert. Now water comes down from
the mountains one hundred and fifty miles by
a ten- or twelve-inch pipe, enough to have
flowers and even small fountains in the plazas,
and in a few private patios.

The city has a pleasing aspect from above, and
Is a more agreeable place than one might suppose

HOTEL PACIF1CO, ARICA, CHILE

i^.:' : ^!iP

COPIAPO, CHILE

CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA 119

for a brief visit from the tourist, or for residence;
as there is a large colony of British who engaged
in the nitrate business here, before it was en-
tered by Americans. Proceeding in the airplane,
one may descry a collection of buildings on the
gray desert, the establishment called an oficina,
where the Superintendent and the employees
live who are engaged in operations by which
the nitrate is obtained from the deposits in the
desert; sometimes on the surface, but usually
a few feet below. Iodine, too, is a very valuable
article obtained from these deposits. It must
be rather dull living in this desolate region,
though the Superintendent and other officials
receive good salaries and have as many comforts
as possible.

Three hours from Iquique we reach the land-
ing-field of Antofagasta (seven or eight miles
from the city), where I am requested to descend
from the plane. I had been informed at Arica
that I might have to change here, but what was
my astonishment and dismay to learn that the
small plane in waiting, to which the other pas-
senger at once repaired, accommodated but a
single person besides the pilot, and that, instead
of proceeding to Copiapo for the night according
to schedule, I must go to Antofagasta, there to
remain until Friday, six days, before going on
to Santiago. I at once protested to the officers
at the hangar, who were indeed polite and

120 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

sympathetic, but without authority to do any-
thing. Orders were orders. This one had come
by wireless from Santiago. I explained to them
the situation; that I was flying around South
America as rapidly as possible, with pauses at
important cities for observation and fresh in-
formation. I had been in Antofagasta before. I
was in particular haste to arrive in Santiago, as
I had long been cognizant of the unpleasantness
between Peru and Chile and was delighted with
their peace- making; I was most eager to be in
Santiago when a section of the Peruvian Navy,
making a friendly visit to Chile, would on Thurs-
day visit the capital city.

The chief officer courteously declared that he
would do his utmost in the matter; he would at
once send a wireless to his chief in Santiago, and
he hoped that some arrangement could be made
so that I might arrive in that city before Thurs-
day. The hangar is on the plain in the midst of
the nitrate region which in a stretch of three
hundred miles extends from Pisagua, a little
north of Iquique to Chanaral. The section, with
a considerable upward slope to the east,Js some-
times called a plateau, and also a central valley.
The Cordillera of the Andes is at the east, while
along the coast is an older, lower range ; the latter
is highest, ten thousand feet, back of Valparaiso,
but lowering in each direction till it practically
disappears. The range at this point does not

CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA 121

look like much from the higher interior; merely
a few hills, but on the sea side it is much steeper
and appears more like real mountains.

The other passenger meanwhile had departed
for Copiap6. An automobile, long waiting, now
carried me, together with the pilot from Arica, to
Antofagasta. The drive seemed more dangerous
than my journey by air, for the pace was swift,
regardless of sharp curves, over an uneven hilly
road, with many ups and downs; but there were
no precipices, and if we did tip over, the sandy
hillsides may have been moderately soft,

Antofagasta, with a population above sixty
thousand, is larger than Iquique, but similar
in desert conditions: an important port, shipping,
besides nitrates, copper from Chuquicamata, and
traffic to and from Bolivia by the Antofagasta
and Bolivia Railway. I went to the Hotel
Londres, recommended as the best (though on
this point opinions differ), remaining there
through several days of uncertainty and eager-
ness to depart. At the last moment, Tuesday
evening, the news came that I could leave
Wednesday if I would go in a small plane with
no baggage to speak of. I was ready to agree
to anything, and packed accordingly, putting
a dress with a few other articles In a hatbox
which could go in a compartment for the mail,
and a little more in a flat pasteboard box to be
carried in my lap. A large and heavy black

122 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

suitcase containing most of my clothing and
papers, I left at the hangar with the promise
that it would surely be sent on the Friday plane
and delivered at the Hotel Mundial, Santiago,
by 6.30 P.M.

Wednesday morning about nine o'clock I em-
barked at the hangar on my ride. Aware that
the plane was for a single passenger, only then
did I discover what it was like. It was a Haviland
Moth, a name familiar as that of a good and
popular machine. Now I learned more. I had
been told that it was an open plane and I might
find it cold; so I wore all the clothing available:
my heaviest underwear, a closely woven woolen
suit with a sweater under the coat, and in ad-
dition my old long coat; also a woolen scarf
around my neck and over my close-fitting felt
hat. I hoped this would be sufficient. Before
entering the plane, I was surprised to be halted
and harnessed, so to speak, with canvas straps
and buckles; and, after being seated in the plane
on what seemed to be a cushion, to have these
straps buckled on to others in such a way that
I could hardly move- I wore my heaviest gloves
and carried the pasteboard box on my lap.

I was very uncomfortable, but there was no
help for it. We were off! This was different, in-
deed, from the open planes in Peru, where the
pilot sat behind. Here he was in front, con-
cealing the view, though I was able to look up,

NITRATE WORKS, CHILE

ANDEAN PEAKS

CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA , 123

and over the high sides, so that I could glance
around occasionally. But first I tried to make
myself more comfortable. I began to unfasten
all the buckles I could reach. Though it was a
little bumpy, the way did not seem very rough,
and I thought I could easily stay in this small
cabin by taking hold of the sides if necessary.
On account of the box in my lap, for which there
was no space elsewhere, I was unable to unfasten
all the straps, but presently I could squirm
around a little. I had no fear of accident, but
felt cold, uncomfortable, and nervous. The wind
was so strong that I held my head down as much
as possible. It was a very disagreeable ride. I
began to wish that I had remained in Anto-
fagasta, and wondered if I could possibly endure
going all the way to Santiago in this manner,
completely chilled through, a nine hours' journey.
On the left are fairly high and barren mountains,
a desert below. The sun heats the desert; cold
winds come from the mountains and the sea, so
that the air is apt to be bumpy from the currents
up and down. It was later that I heard the story
of an accident which occurred on this route some
months before. On this occasion the pilot ap-
parently was not, like the passenger, fastened
in. Perhaps he never is. By a particularly heavy
bump when at no great altitude the pilot was
thrown out. His parachute opened so late that
he struck the ground hard enough to be made

124 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

unconscious, though he soon revived, unharmed.
But the passenger? He may not have seen the
pilot go. In any case, what could he do? Noth-
ing, unless he jumped. The plane, unguided,
flew on and dashed against a mountain. Not
until afterwards did I learn that I was sitting
on a parachute, perhaps of a kind that opens
itself. At all events, I received no instructions
as to using it.

If I had heard this tale in advance, it would
not have mattered. I wanted to go, and I
minded the grave discomfort more than the
possible danger. I never like to give up what I
have undertaken. It is not my custom. But
when we arrived at Copiapo, I had not decided
whether I could endure to continue in this
manner five and a half hours more. What, there-
fore, was my joy, when, as someone came to
help me out of the plane, I saw close by a larger
cabin plane, which, I was informed, would carry
me on to Santiago!

Although discomfort had prevented my taking
much note of the scenery, I had observed here
and there a nitrate oficina and verified the al-
most total absence of verdure; but Copiap6
presented a pleasing aspect from above. Sit-
uated on the bank of a stream, with some green
in the city and an irrigated district around,
it forms a real oasis in the desert. The city is
important, being at the end of the nitrate section

CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA 125

and at the beginning of the mineral region, with
gold, iron, copper, etc.; and there is a little
agriculture. Worthy of mention is the fact
that the first railway in Latin South America
was constructed to Copiapo from the port of
Caldera, fifty miles, by a Bostonian, William
Wheelwright, who later organized the Pacific
Steam Navigation Company, the first line giving
service from Europe to the West Coast of South
America.

According to the regular routine, travelers
come from Arica in a single day and spend the
night here, though the accommodations are
called rather primitive. But with a morning
flight from Antofagasta, I was glad to proceed
as speedily as possible in the larger plane at my
disposal. The desert region continues until we
pass from the Province of Atacama, into that
of Coquimbo, where the rich agricultural valley
begins, extending south nearly thirteen hundred
miles to Puerto Montt. Three hours from Co-
piap6 is our next landing-place, Ovalle, a city
beautifully situated in a fertile valley, with a
population of ten thousand, I judged, as we saw
it only from above. Near the hangar fine auto-
mobiles and well-dressed people were standing,
persons of evident culture and style. Several
of these soon came forward to enter the air-
plane; a gentleman, his wife and daughter, and
a young man who was going to Santiago to
pursue his studies in the University.

126 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

After taking gas, we sped on our way south.
I began to look eagerly for the great mountains,
of which in clear weather one must have a
splendid view. Below, one sees a fertile, varie-
gated valley, narrower than farther north. On
the east are some of the loftiest peaks of the
Andes, including the highest, Aconcagua, 22,800
feet; on the west, the Coast Range, with summits
up to seven or eight thousand feet. But un-
fortunately, fog, mist, or clouds prevented clear
vision, and with the coming of additional pas-
sengers I could not skip across often to look
out on the other side.

AH the way in Colombia and down the West
Coast I preempted the left back corner to have
the best possible view of shore and mountains,
or of mountains only, the higher ones being
always on the left, as later on the East Coast.
Near the end of this journey the clouds separated
for a space, and at last I saw splendid mountains,
partly snow-covered; one of them perhaps Acon-
cagua. But the majestic vision was brief. It
may seem strange that in the temperate zone, so
much farther from the Equator, the mountains
should have much less snow and fewer glaciers
than many in the torrid zone in Peru and Bolivia,
and are therefore much easier to climb. The
reason is clear. It is due to the fact that the
precipitation on the mountains is far less here.
At a height of twenty thousand feet, it is cold

VALLEY OF ACONCAGUA WITH MOUNT ACONCAGUA IN THE DISTANCE

VALPARAISO

CHILE: ARICA TO ANTOFAGASTA 127

enough anywhere to keep a great part of the
snowfall in position .

Twilight is approaching when our plane in
good time descends to the field of Los Cerrillos,
where many persons are waiting. A car quickly
carries the passengers to the city and to their
respective destinations.

CHAPTER XIII
SANTIAGO AND VALPARAISO

HAPPY to arrive once more in the splendid
capital city of Chile, I was delighted to be in
time to witness a little of the visit made by a
contingent of the Peruvian Navy to their long-
hated Chilian enemy. Both navies had fought
valiantly in 1879 a nd ?8o > but the Chilians, finally
victorious, seized and occupied Lima, which they
refused to evacuate until a treaty was signed sur-
rendering the rich Province of Tarapac& and per-
mitting for ten years the occupancy of Tacna-
Arica by Chile. At the end of the decade a p!6-
biscite was to decide which country should have
permanent possession of this Province; but as
agreement on the conditions of voting proved
impracticable, no plebiscite was taken; and for
forty years ill feeling existed between the coun-
tries, which at times seemed on the verge of war.
The well-intentioned but unfortunate ordering
of a plebiscite in 1925 increased the bitterness.
To persons familiar with the facts, it seemed
wonderful that after all that had passed the
Presidents of the two countries should get to-
gether in spirit if not in person, arrange a com-
promise and a treaty, and that less than a year
later two ships of the Peruvian Navy were

SANTIAGO, LOOKING EAST

CERRO CRIST6BAL WITH OBSERVATORY AND COLOSSAL STATUE
OF THE VIRGIN ON THE SUMMIT, OVERLOOKING SANTIAGO

SANTIAGO AND VALPARAISO 129

making a week's visit at the port of Valparaiso,
during which a contingent was coming to San-
tiago to be reviewed by the President and
royally entertained.

So, on the morning after my long flight from
Antofagasta, I betook myself from the Hotel
Mundial to the Plaza Moneda near by, facing
which is the Palacio de la Moneda or Presidential
Palace, from which His Excellency, President
Ibafiez, was to review the procession. After
a long and tiresome wait, during which I gradu-
ally edged my way through the large crowd to
the barrier rope, a military and naval escort
approached, followed by one or two hundred
Peruvian officers, cadets, and sailors. My plea
to get nearer so that I could take a photograph
at the last moment was granted, and I slipped
under the rope to a point where I could get a
snap-shot. The throng that had patiently waited
was a trifle less cordial in greeting than I had
expected (the Chilians are less demonstrative
than Americans): I heard later that this was
because of proximity to the President and the
Palace, and that farther on, the greatest enthusi-
asm was manifested. All kinds of attentions
were showered upon the guests, banquets, lunch-
eons, and dinners, though the sailors in the late
afternoon returned by rail to Valparaiso.

A pretty little incident, noted next day in the
Mercuric*) seems especially characteristic of a

130 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Peruvian. In the crowd assembled near the sta-
tion to bid farewell to the departing sailors, one
of these respectfully approached a lady with
several daughters and said, 'Would you like to
do me a favor?' Smiling, the lady assented.
The sailor then quietly kissed one of the young
ladies and vanished in the crowd.

Every tourist arriving in Chile should spend
a full week in Santiago, if not more, in addition
to a few days in Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
(Please note that the name of the port should be
pronounced Valpar^ysso, the s as in sing.) The
air tourist may like to fly from the capital to the
port, though the journey by express train, a trifle
over three hours, will afford some worth-while
glimpses of the country and the people. I recall
the agreeable sight at one of the stations of
a row of women garbed in white, sitting on the
floor, with baskets in front, containing an assort-
ment of delicious fruit and other eatables.

To one arriving by sea, Valparaiso, a city of
more than 200,000, presents a view of the largest
and most picturesque port below Panamd:
a semi-circular bay, the city hugging its shores
and climbing up the hills and cliffs at the back,
presents a unique and attractive picture. On
landing at the new and modern docks, one per-
ceives the bustling activity of a great center of
commerce. In the Plaza Sotormayor, close by,
stands a monument to the Heroes of the 2 1st of

SPORTING CLUB OF VINA DEL MAR NEAR VALPARAISO

JOCKEY CLUB (CLUB HIPICO), SANTIAGO

SANTIAGO AND VALPARAISO 131

May, surmounted by a statue of Arturo Prat,
recalling the noble death of the hero, whom the
Peruvians, at whose hands he fell, on their recent
visit fifty years later, honored by placing a wreath
at the base. A deputation also paid a sympa-
thetic visit to his aged widow, presenting flowers,
and when about to board ship at the close of the
week's visit, the entire squadron halted and
stood a moment before the statue. The ships on
which the Peruvians came recalled the names of
two heroes who also perished in battle, the
Bolognesi and the Admiral Grau. The tales of
heroism on both sides are told in many books.

The city looks rather new, as it is, on account
of the terrible earthquake in 1906, when a large
part of the business section was laid low; but
staid, middle-aged women still are active con-
ductors on the double-decked street cars. In
a busy day, one may visit the fine Naval School
on a bluff overlooking the sea, to which one may
drive, or ascend in a steeper place in an ascensor
drawn by cable. An excellent luncheon may be
enjoyed below at the Hotel Royal (the lobster is
fine), a dinner and a night's lodging as well. The
Astur is well spoken of, but the Royal, with its
genial, English-speaking hostess, is the one
I have always patronized.

No one omits an excursion to Vina del Mar,
a fifteen minutes' drive along the shore, by motor,
car, or tram: a notable and attractive shore re-

132 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

sort, called by the Chilians the finest in South
America. Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil make
similar claims for theirs, thus showing some
resemblance to us. Truly, each has its special
merits. Vina is more of a residential section than
the others, containing the permanent homes of
many business men of Valparaiso, especially
of the English; the summer residences of others,
as also good hotels, clubhouses, a hippodrome
among the hills, with golf, tennis, cricket, and
football grounds, all patronized by Chilians,
British, and the fewer resident Americans.

CHAPTER XIV
SANTIAGO

THE capital city naturally has greater attrac-
tions than its port. First of all, its location is
described by many besides Chilians as the finest
of any capital city in the world. One or two only
may dispute this claim. Fully to appreciate its
beauty, one must ascend the famous rock for-
tress, Santa Lucia, converted into a unique and
most beautiful park, the perfect hour a little
before sunset, when, if fortune favors, the sunset
glow with gorgeous hues on fleecy clouds and
delicate tints on snow-capped mountains will
afford a truly enchanting scene. No other city,
extending widely on a broad plain, has at one
end so remarkable a detached hill, delightfully
embellished with vines, shrubs, trees, and monu-
ments; among them stairs, cliffs, and roadways;
walls, towers, and battlements. And at one side
is a still loftier hill, a mountain, some may call
it, rising nine hundred feet above the city, San
Cristobal, recently laid out as a park, a splendid
road leading to the observatory at the top, from
which a more extensive view may be obtained
of the surrounding country.

The city has the usual plazas, a cathedral,
and many splendid buildings; the Capitol, oe-

134 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

cupying a whole square, with Chambers for
Senators and Deputies like small theaters
steam-heated, too; many rooms for secretaries
and other officials, and some for discussion and
conversation. The Presidential Palace and resi-
dence is called the Moneda, the building around
two patios containing also offices for several
Ministers. This is no longer fine enough, and
an ambitious plan has been made for the erection
of a Palace and other buildings on the Alameda.
But the present hard times, enforcing economy
everywhere, will doubtless postpone its execu-
tion several years.

This Alameda, a block from the Moneda, is
properly the Avenida de las Delicias, the most
notable of the city, extending from Santa Lucia
four miles to the Central Railway Station:
a park-like promenade, three hundred feet wide,
adorned with monuments to generals, patriots,
and others who have well served their country in
science, philanthropy, and literature, a distinc-
tive feature, not found in any other city. Among
splendid buildings along the sides, are a great
library, new and thoroughly modern, containing
six hundred thousand volumes, the Chamber of
Commerce, and the wonderfully fine Union Club-
house. I was so fortunate as to be taken over this
building by the cordial Superintendent, after
which I enjoyed a luncheon of surpassing excel-
lence, including wine, all selected and prepared

NATIONAL LIBRARY ON THE ALAMEDA, SANTIAGO

ALAMEDA DE LAS DELICIAS, SANTIAGO

SANTIAGO 135

for my personal taste. The building was designed
to surpass any other, and from swimming-tank,
kitchen, cardrooms, etc., it appeared that nothing
better could be wished. A fine ballroom and
veranda for dancing are special features which
the celebrated Jockey Club of Buenos Aires,
I believe, does not share. Santiago also has a
Jockey Club with a splendid new clubhouse in
the city, the fine race-track and hippodrome on
the outskirts rivaling, they say, if not surpassing,
the world-famous race-course of Buenos Aires.

The Municipal Theater, though erected in
1873, has an exterior surpassing any in New
York, and the interior, recently remodeled and
improved, may be quite equal to our opera
house. An opera season is a brilliant social
feature, when society, in full evening dress,
gorgeous gowns, and jewels, presents a spectacle
of rare beauty. Art culture also thrives, as is
shown in the Palace of Fine Arts, containing
among works of old and modern artists, many
by native Chilians, who have a special talent for
statuary. The Palace is beautifully located in
a park along the bank of the River Mapocho; but
other parks are larger. The fashionable driving
is in the Parque Cousino between 5 and 7.30, this
park presented to the city, by one who was the
richest woman in Chile before she married the
richest man. And she managed her property so
much better than he did his, that when he died

136 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

he left it all to her. The palace which at the time
of her death she was building in Lota is said to
be superior to anything in Newport.

Among many other things worthy of notice
I mention merely the market, attractive for
luscious fruit and vegetables as well as unusual
curios; but above all the cemetery, unlike any
other, especially lovely in rose-time, the vines
climbing over the marble houses or chapels
making delightful floral bowers. Avenues of
cypress, magnolias, and orange trees are lined
with beautiful monuments, among which are
many pieces of exquisite statuary by artists of
Chilian birth.

CHAPTER XV
SOUTHERN CHILE

ARRIVING in Santiago Wednesday, March 12,
on Friday I made a hasty trip to Valparaiso to
see about the large black suitcase which, properly
tagged, was to be sent there from Callao by
a steamer which had already returned north.
The bag was not to be found at the custom house,
the resguardo^ or elsewhere. After many cables
sent to the steamer, and to Lima, I finally learned
that the suitcase had gone to New York. Six
weeks later, I received it in Buenos Aires. Long
ago I wrote, ' Cling to your baggage in traveling
anywhere/ but when making a tour by air, it is
often difficult to do so. The other suitcase, left
at the hangar of Antofagasta, promised to be de-
livered Friday evening at the Hotel Mundial, did
not appear. At the office next day, I was in-
formed that it would come on Sunday. Alas, it
did not. The next airplane would not arrive
until the following Wednesday evening, and
I had no change of underwear. A silk gown,
a hat for the street, etc., had seemed more im-
portant for a day or two.

I found the Mundial very comfortable, many
rooms with private bath, others with bath close
by, a satisfactory table, the location excellent.
The Crillon and the Savoy are more fashionable

138 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

and much more expensive. Not until I arrived in
. Santiago did it occur to me that now, March 12,
the summer season, as here September 12, was
about over and that the air service to Puerto
Montt, 660 miles south, might soon be discon-
tinued. After interviewing several officials Satur-
day and Monday to see about making the trip,
word came Tuesday noon that an airplane would
leave early Wednesday morning for the journey,
perhaps the last time that season. Now I was in
trouble.

My heavy woolen suit which I must wear for
the cooler southern climate had suffered hardship
on that Moth airplane and was really unfit to
wear. That very morning I had left it at a clean-
er's near the hotel and had paid an extra price on
the promise that it should be returned without
fail Wednesday evening. I immediately visited
the cleaners and told my troubles; that I must
have the suit that evening whether or no. If the
cleaning had not begun, they should return the
suit uncleaned. I must have it that night. After
much telephoning, the young woman said it was
all right. The suit would be returned about seven
o'clock. It came duly, and, when the box was
opened, to my great surprise, there was the suit
all clean, as good as new, and without any odor.
South Americans are far from being as slow as
some of us imagine. Of this, many of those long
In residence are aware.

CLUB DE LA UNION, SANTIAGO, WHERE MR. HOOVER WAS
ENTERTAINED

PRESIDENT-ELECT HOOVER AT THE CLUB DE LA UNION,
SANTIAGO, DECEMBER, 1928

SOUTHERN CHILE 139

Early Wednesday morning, March 19, the car
came to take me to Los Cerrillos, the commercial
flying- field, and a center for the Aviation Club.
In my favorite place, the rear left-hand corner,
I was soon seated in a comfortable trimotor
plane, with'two or three other passengers. I was
hoping for good weather and a fine view of the
lofty mountains at the east, as well as of the rich
plain and the cities along the route. It was clear
enough to enjoy a sight of well-cultivated fields,
occasional towns, and some forests below, but
fog or clouds prevented any real view of the
mountains. Some important places were passed
unseen; Rancagua, forty miles from Santiago,
a great copper property around the crater of an
extinct volcano, is second in output to the one at
Chuquicamata. t one time its product could
be placed in New York at a cost of 6.5 cents, but
not now.

Flying over that part of the Great Central
Valley, sharp eyes perhaps may distinguish the
great fields of wheat, barley, and oats, those
devoted to alfalfa or clover, the large orchards
of apples and other temperate zone fruits, and
the extensive vineyards raising luscious table
grapes, or those from which are made fifty-three
million gallons of a variety of wines, said to be
unrivaled in quality.

We have a fleeting glimpse of Chillin, one of
the chief towns of the Valley, famed for its fine

140 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

horses and cattle, and notable for its market-
place, visited especially on Saturday by the
country people, when tourists would enjoy the
rural sights. Sixty miles away, beautifully sit-
uated among the mountains at an altitude of
eight thousand feet are the popular baths and
hot springs of Chilian, curing a variety of skin
diseases.

From the air, there is no view of the port cities,
as these are hidden by the coastal range, several
thousand feet high. One or two may be visited
by rail, if one cares to return in that way. Con-
cepci6n, near the mouth of the Bio-Bio River,
with a population of seventy thousand, the
third city in Chile, is a pleasant place in itself,
and a center for several excursions. Its port,
Talcahuano, nine miles distant, is the largest and
best below Chimbote and hence the head-
quarters of the Chilian Navy. Forty miles south
are the coaling stations, Coronel and Lota, at
one of which many steamers from the north are
obliged to call, coming down from Valparaiso for
this purpose only. At Lota, Senora Cousifio, as
noted for her business acumen as Hetty Green,
but, unlike her, also for her extravagance, built
and furnished a palace fit for royalty, with
grounds of wonderful sylvan beauty: grottoes,
fountains, cascades, a park with deer and other
animals, an aviary, and stately trees, with all the
plants of the temperate zone* Unfortunately, she

LAKE AND PALACE OF FINE ARTS, PARQUE FOREST AL, SANTIAGO

PATIO OF THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS, SANTIAGO

SOUTHERN CHILE 141

did not live to complete the project, and the
place has diminished in grandeur. Unusual, too,
are her coal mines, nearly a quarter of a mile
deep and extending far under the sea. I regretted
that I had no time for a visit.

Our plane keeps steadily onward over varied
scenes of farming country and cattle ranches
until we arrive at the landing-field of Temuco.
Greeted by the local manager, we are soon driv-
ing in a motor car to the town a few miles distant
for luncheon in the best hotel. From the menu
we choose what we like from a number of courses ;
wine is freely offered and a liqueur in conclusion.
No one seems in a hurry, and I become a little
impatient, knowing that we have still a long way
to go, and I dislike the idea of possibly arriving
after dark. But it is not my business, so I keep
quiet. The other lady, however, is very chatty,
the wife of the pilot, and dawdles over her food.
Fully an hour and a half, if not more, has passed
when we take the car for the hangar.

The town of thirty-seven thousand inhabitants
is commercially important, but not notable ex-
cept for having a section where pure-blooded
Araucanians are living, through a street of which
we drove. They were of rather dark complexion
and seem to lead a simple life. This warlike tribe
gave the early settlers trouble for two hundred
and fifty years, killing the invader, Valdivia, and
controlling the South. But when the colonists

I 4 2 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

revolted against Spain, the Indians, never con-
quered, came to their aid. The two races then
largely amalgamated, so that the number of
pure Indians is small. Their principal settle-
ments may be visited from Temuco.

Again on board our airplane, we proceed at
a fine speed over a beautiful country, forest and
meadows, diversified by green hills, pleasant
towns, and distant mountains. We were due at
Puerto Montt, our next and only halt, at the
head of the Reloncavi Gulf, about six. What,
then, was our surprise, when flying at an altitude
of one thousand feet or more, to notice that we
were coming down, and a moment later, not
much after four, that we were landing on a broad
green field. We three passengers looked at each
other, and the lady said, as was obvious, 'Forced
landing!' The landing was as smooth as on any
regular field. We wondered what was the trouble
and were soon informed that there was a leak
somewhere. Of course we did not bother our
crew by asking many questions. We were not in
any danger.

Now there was real scurrying on the part of
the mechanic, who was aided more or less by the
pilot. The left-hand motor of the twins seemed
to be the one out of order. It was a question
whether repairs could be made in time for us to
reach Puerto Montt before dark. The lady was
positive that we could do this, for, she said, it

BEACH OF MONTEMAR NEAR VINA DEL MAR, CHILE

FALLS OF THE LAJA, CHILE
Sixty-five feet high

SOUTHERN CHILE 143

would be light until eight o'clock. In this I knew
she was wrong; that would be the case in the
middle of summer, but on the igth of March in
the temperate zone days and nights are practi-
cally equal in length and the sun would set about
six. However, it would be foolish to worry about
that. Now there was for me one of the most
interesting hours in Chile.

We had not been down five minutes when,
although I had seen no houses, people began to
gather around. Within half an hour from fifty
to a hundred persons had assembled; some on
horseback, the large majority on foot. It was
a real farming community, none too prosperous,
if one might judge from their appearance. Bare
legs and feet were the rule for the women as well
as the men, though the horsemen, except one or
two boys, wore shoes or boots. Such a scene
might have occurred in some parts of our West
forty years ago. A few girls wore pumps with
silk or cotton stockings. The small boys were
like those anywhere. Some of the men were on
fine horses. A boy of twelve rode a thorough-
bred bareback. They apparently had never seen
an airplane close at hand before, though they
had doubtless seen them in the sky. During our
stay, the attention of the crowd was withdrawn
from us for a while by the sight of another plane
flying high in the air at a distance. At first
I thought they had seen us and were coming to

144 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

our aid. Not so- It pursued its way, very likely
not observing us, and was soon out of sight.

I greatly regretted that I could not take a
photograph, but it is forbidden to fliers in Chile,
so my camera was packed away. I talked in
Spanish with several who approached my win-
dow, and had a long chat in English with a
Frenchman who spoke several languages. He
had married a daughter of a farmer there and
declared that it was a fine country with excellent
climate; but the people, he said, were lazy, in-
efficient, and without ambition; satisfied to live
in a primitive way, with plenty to eat and
clothes enough to keep warm; but he wished for
more: education for his children, etc. The cattle
and sheep, he said, were of poor quality. He
wanted his father-in-law, who was well able to do
so, to buy good stock for breeding and to in-
troduce other improvements; but he was not so
inclined. The man was hoping to be able to
branch out for himself soon.

Meantime, our men were working, with a little
assistance from bystanders. Once they thought
they could take off, but still there was difficulty.
They discovered that some welding must be
done. There was hard labor. Two hours passed ;
it was already a little dusky, before we could go.
With a wave and farewell to the now diminished
crowd, we took off, and had no further trouble.
Soon it was so gloomy that we could hardly dis-

SOUTHERN CHILE 145

tinguish objects, but presently I could see that
we were flying over water, evidently one of the
lakes, not far from our destination. Somewhat
later I saw artificial lights, those of Puerto
Montt, and about 7.30 we came down in good
form on the landing-field beyond, aided by a few
lights shown at the hangar.

There was cordial greeting, but as our arrival
had been despaired of, there was no automobile
to take us to town some miles away. They could
telephone for one, but rather than wait half an
hour we agreed to go in a sort of bus or truck.
We two ladies managed to squeeze in beside the
driver, while the men stood in the rear. It was
a rough road and a hard seat in a motor cart,
seemingly without springs. Never mind! It was
the more interesting. We enjoyed the scent of
the forest, the glimpse of the sea, and at last the
arrival at the city and the hotel; a little later the
dinner, with a good appetite.

CHAPTER XVI
PUERTO MONTT AND THE LAKE REGION

THE plane was to return Friday morning, so I
should have a whole day in which to see Puerto
Montt and make a visit to Lake Llanquihue.
The port is a pretty place, well located at the
head of the bay, an attractive island in front,
and green hills on the other three sides; low
mountains in the distance; a place of commercial
importance. Strolling around the next morning,
I chanced to meet a man who lived farther
south, on the way to Punta Arenas; at Puerto
Aysen, where the Government was constructing
a port, and a railway to the interior. Earlier
In the season the planes flew to that point, and
one trip had been made to the most southern
city in the world. We may leave out Little
America, as only penguins are there now.
Punta Arenas, long famed for its location, as a
coaling station (mines not far away) and now
headquarters of an important district for sheep-
raising, has recently had its itkme changed to
Magallanes (the name also of the territory), in
honor of the great sea captain who first sailed
through the Straits called after him, and on
around the world.
There is much worth seeing in this southern

LAKE LLANQUIHUE AND THE VOLCANO OSORNO

THE LAKE REGION 147

land, wonderful fjords, superior to those of
Norway, they say, because their splendid walls
are clothed in eternal green by splendid trees.
The nearer if not more famous section back of
Puerto Montt, with its picturesque lakes and
snowclad volcanoes, has been pronounced by
more than one distinguished globe traveler the
most beautiful part of the world. It may be so.
I have not seen the whole world, and I dispute
with no one. With so many delightful spots,
why insist that one is best? I once met an
American lady in Montevideo, who assured me
that Iowa was the nicest place in the world. I
am often asked which city or country in South
America I like best, but I decline to answer.
Each has its beauties, its merits, its opportuni-
ties. Why should I decide which country is the
best or where I should prefer to live until I have
an opportunity to go somewhere? Under suitable
conditions I could be happy in many places.
The man at Puerto Aysen had an excellent job
and good prospects; therefore the place was all
right for him, though it rains almost every day,
and often pours.

After an early luncheon I took a bus they
call them gondolas to Puerto Varas on Lake
Llanquihue, the largest of the group, connected
by boat and motor roads with many others in
the neighborhood. The bus climbs the hill back
of the town, with many windings and con-

i 4 8 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

tinually beautiful views of hillside, gulf, and
islands: a vista at every corner worthy ^of
camera or canvas. Beyond the brow of the hill,
we make a slight and gradual descent, passing
through pleasant farming country till after an
hour or so we come to the blue waters of the
lake and drive a mile or more along the shore.

I have two hours to stay; no time, alas, for an
excursion on the lake. To visit Lake Todos los
Santos, the gem of the collection, or the other
important sites, two days are required; though
one jewel, La Poza, may be visited in a few hours.
However, the view from Puerto Varas is suf-
ficient reward for the entire journey. Across the
beautiful blue waters with forested shores, one
beholds three lofty snowclad volcanoes, Osorno
directly in front, the loveliest frosted cone
imaginable, Calbuco at the right, which gave a
forceful eruption not long ago, and in the dis-
tance the mighty Tronador, the Thunderer.
Leaving Puerto Varas in the early morning, one
may sail in four hours to the foot of Mount
Osorno and after luncheon at Ensenada proceed
by automobile or horseback to the exquisite
little lake, Todos los Santos. From Petrohue
one sails onward to the foot of Tronador, arriving
late at Peulla, for the lake is not so small after
all, though frequently appearing so, as it is
comparatively narrow, though forty miles long.
One may return the next day, but Peulla is a

THE LAKE REGION 149

delightful place from which to make excursions;
or one may go on horseback over the pass, 3465
feet, to Lake Nahuel Huapi in Argentina. An
English couple whom I met at Puerto Varas were
about to do this. But in that case one would
miss the splendid crossing of the Andes from
Santiago, unless one, like the English couple, had
come from Buenos Aires. This region is some-
times called the Switzerland of America, but it is
quite different; more lakes and forests; more pic-
turesque and beautiful, but with less grandeur.

As to the comforts of travel in this region,
while the hotels in Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas,
and elsewhere are in local guidebooks called
splendid, even luxurious, and are said to be pro-
vided with all conveniences, such announcement
must not be taken too literally. Persons who
care more for luxurious accommodations, elabo-
rate menus, and French cooking than for beauti-
ful scenery should not in South America stray
from the regular route. In the large capital
cities are hotels providing luxuries. In Southern
Chile and in other sections, hotels have rooms
with running water and bathrooms near, but few
if any rooms with bath. The table is in general
good enough for a healthy appetite, even that
of a sensible millionaire; but not for a dude, man
or woman.

I had thought of returning from Puerto Montt
to Santiago by rail, as, after viewing the country

150 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

from above, it might be well to see it more in
detail, the farm lands, the dwellings, and the
people close at hand; also I might then stop off
a day at some important city. But express
trains do not run from Puerto Montt daily, and
after careful study of the time-table I found
I could do most in the least time by returning
with the airpjane Friday to Temuco, go by rail
from there to the important city of Valdivia, and
on Saturday take the train to Santiago which
would have left Puerto Montt that morning.

Accordingly, Friday about nine we left Hotel
Heim for the hangar, a pleasant ride through
wooded country, partly along the shore. A half-
hour's delay at the field, as earlier at the hotel,
was due to the fact that at Temuco, which lies
on the Cautfn River, a heavy mist is usual in the
morning. Hence we waited until news came that
it was lifting. Promptly seated in the plane, we
made a start with engines going well, but for
some reason stopped a moment on the field;
unluckily, as it happened, just where there was
a slight ridge. Power on again, but the wheels
would not surmount that little ridge two inches
high. Frantic gestures were made, till some men
came and gave the plane a slight push. Then we
were quickly off and going well. Soon we passed
over the lake, with a charming view of the snow-
clad volcanoes; following this a very pretty
country, with scattered farms and forests, and
the pleasant town of Osorno.

MOUNT TRONADOR, CHILE

LAKE TODOS LOS SANTOS

THE LAKE REGION 151

After flying an hour or two, I was surprised
when the mechanic came back into the cabin
and asked for my map, which they had seen; a
very good one on a tourist folder, by which I had
carefully noted our route. The man explained
that they had lost their map; blown away.
Pretty careless, I thought, but did not say, and
of course I lent him mine; I might say gave, for
I never saw it again, to my sorrow, nor was I
able to procure one like it, which I wish I had
now. A while after, when I thought it about
time to arrive, and observed that we were
descending, I was making ready to get out as we
landed, though I did not see the hangar or the
usual personnel. Another forced landing, I
found, probably due to the loss of the detailed
map, perhaps partly to the slight mist which
obscured the distant view, though it was possible
to discern contours and dwellings a mile or two
distant. One or two men soon approached and
informed our crew just where they were and the
direction of Temuco. In a few moments with no
difficulty we were again in the air, and ten
minutes later, a little after one, we came down
where we belonged.

We drove as before to the hotel in Temuco and
had a similar luncheon with the wine and liqueur,
On most of the air lines it seemed to be cus-
tomary to give passengers their meals en route*
but I believe this was the only place where wine

152 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

was supplied. In Chile, it is very cheap and also
very good. Our delay in setting out prevented
my taking the noon train I had planned, but
there was another at 3.39, on which I decided to
go. The others, continuing by air to Santiago,
at least a four hours' ride, dallied as if the whole
day was before them, leaving the hotel about
245. Doubtless they arrived safely, but not
before dark; I prefer to land by daylight unless
a field is well lighted.

At 3,39 I was on the way to Valdivia, the most
important commercial and industrial city of
Southern Chile, situated on both banks of the
River Valdivia which the railway seemed to
follow. The special industry of this region is
lumber; and vast piles of boards, drying or
awaiting export, were seen at all the small
stations. The houses were small, plain, and
mostly of wood, like those in Saginaw, fifty years
ago, or farther west on the then frontier. In
places the country resembled the poorer parts
of New England, many stones lying on the roads
and on dry beds of rivers; stones varying in size
from pebbles to large paving-stones. They also
lay in heaps, but, unlike New England, no rocks
were visible in the fields.

At 7.45 the train arrived at Valdivia. A taxi
carried me to Hotel Shuster (four pesos), where
the son of the proprietor speaks English. I had
a good room, an excellent bed with plenty of

THE LAKE REGION 153

covers, and a fair dinner at 8.30. In the morning
I enjoyed a pleasant sail down the river to the
pretty port of Corral, and on my return walked
about the busy manufacturing town Valdivia,
the same afternoon boarding the train for
Santiago, where I arrived the following noon.

CHAPTER XVII
CROSSING THE ANDES

MARCH was drawing to a close. It was high time
for me to depart from this beautiful and pro-
gressive city, Santiago, which I did with one
especial reason for regret. A week's delay would
have afforded me the pleasure of being received
by President Ibanez, whom I had hoped to
congratulate, not merely on the evident in-
dustrial development and indications of pros-
perity coincident with his administration, but
especially on the fact that through his personal
influence and the warm cooperation of President
Leguia the long years of hostile feeling had been
ended and a new era had been inaugurated of
friendliness between the two countries. The sug-
gestion that these two great Presidents should
receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their personal
efforts to this end was one which should have
been urged with enthusiasm in all quarters.

But it was important for me to arrive in New
York early in June. Furthermore it was already
autumn. Unsettled weather, high winds and
storm on the great Andes might delay the
operation of the air service over the range. It
seemed wise, therefore, to improve the con-
tinuing fine weather rather than to risk post-

CROSSING THE ANDES 155

ponement for a week. Some days earlier I had
met the pilot and the mechanic who formed the
crew, capable and experienced Americans, the
pilot said to have made the flight forty-five
times without the slightest accident.

The first crossing of the Andes at this point,
made in 1918 by the Chilian aviator, Lieutenant
Godoy, was a real event in airplane history.
The machines of those days were less powerful,
and skilled aviators few. The crossing, too, in
1921 by a Frenchwoman, Mile. Holland alone,
in a little plane of only 80 h.p. on the more
perilous journey from east to west, was also
notable. Now it is an old story, quite common-
place, though some writers today make it a
thrilling and terrible adventure either for them-
selves or others. For the crew it would be
trying if they were outside when the temper-
ature changes from ninety degrees to twenty
below zero; but this is not a regular occurrence,
and they as well as the passengers are enclosed
in the plane.

Of course, reporters like to make a good story;
so, having read such a tale written by a news-
paper man, though I said nothing of the sort,
they wrote that this was my experience: that a
change in temperature from ninety degrees at
Santiago and Mendoza, to twenty below on the
heights between, occurred within an hour and
a half. In the fall of the year the temperature on

156 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

the flying-field of Santiago was probably sixty
degrees and about the same at Mendoza. What
it was outside as we passed over the range I have
no means of knowing. The pilot, with a ther-
mometer among his instruments, might know,
but I did not inquire. In the cabin of the plane
it was so warm that I threw off the fox scarf I
was wearing and had no need for an extra coat.
To the air tourist the flight is a memorable
and delightful experience; the high spot of the
journey both literally and figuratively. To the
pilot it is all in the day's work.

I may here mention that, having been told
that I must bring my passport vised by the
Argentine Consul to the Nyrba Agent before
I could secure passage, I went on this errand.
At the Consulate I was informed that my
passport was insufficient, though with it were
certificates of health and vaccination. I must
get in addition some sort of verification from our
Embassy. Luckily the places were but a few
blocks apart, so I was able to return in a few
moments with the proper credentials, when the
Consul, though after office hours, for the proper
fee affixed the needful stamp.

In accordance with the general custom for the
air company to carry the passengers to the
field, on the morning of March 31 an automobile
called soon after seven at the Grand Hotel for
the purpose. Others were picked up later and in

CROSSING THE ANDES 157

due course we arrived at Los Cerrillos. At the
city office and at the hangar information as to
the weather is always received by wireless from
each side of the mountain before the take-off.
No unreasonable chances are taken. Pilots of
mail planes may feel obliged to go if the weather
is not perfect, but not those who carry passen-
gers. A Ford trimotor plane is the vehicle; a
better climber than some others of equal power.
When all is set, we leave the ground in half a
minute, I should judge, and then climb rapidly,
the wings with a very obvious incline. All
around are green well- tilled fields; but we soon
circle over the city where we can distinguish the
oval hippodrome, the cemetery, and San Cris-
tobal with the statue of the Virgin; but not for
long. On the right are now seen detached hills,
the river, and high mountains; several rows of
them, apparently, at the east and south, with a
slight haze. We are traveling north. Snow-
capped mountains come into view. We fly over
barren ranges, low in comparison with the
snowy peaks. Approaching the high mountains
I notice a green valley at the left. Now we turn
east for the real crossing, flying over the lower
sharp brown ridges, then over the Uspallata
Pass, at a height above eighteen thousand feet
among the loftiest peaks of the Western Hemi-
sphere. Six thousand feet below stands the
Christ of the Andes, symbol of eternal peace and

158 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

friendship between Chile and Argentina, but it
is as invisible to us as from the railway passing
through the tunnel two thousand feet lower.
If Irvin Cobb wanted a barrel of adjectives to
describe his journey by rail, he would need two
barrels to tell of the flight across. To what end?
A gentleman whom I induced later to go by air,
at least one way, flew both ways, and then wrote,
It was glorious!' What need of more? In the
group of mountains on our left stands Aconcagua,
with an altitude of 22,800 feet the reigning king
on this hemisphere, though surpassed by many
peaks on the other, despite a recent statement
that it is next to Everest. For beauty, as in
difficulty of ascent, it has many superiors on this
side of the ocean. One is not allowed to take
photographs from airplanes in Chile or in some
other countries, for which there appears no good
reason unless, as in Colombia, a company has a
monopoly of service and desires to sell its own
excellent photographs for its own benefit. Other-
wise the prohibition would appear to be a mis-
take, if good publicity for the country is desired.
If the idea is to prevent cognizance of fortifica-
tions, I am told that it is quite useless: that all
countries have blue-prints of the plans of all the
others' fortifications. Perhaps my informant
was wrong.

Argentina is less particular* Perhaps I was
over the line (as Aconcagua is) when I took my

ANDEAN AUTOMOBILE ROAD
strange effect of shadows cast by a low s

USPALLATA PASS AND THE CHRIST OF THE ANDES
The statue is near the center and just below the line of shadow

CROSSING THE ANDES 159

four photographs. I feared that my efforts would
be vain, as the views were taken through glass;
but as I took the precaution of holding my
camera square to the window-pane, happily the
negatives turned out well, especially one of them,
which luckily proved to be that of the great
Aconcagua, as I was later assured by an aviator
familiar with the mountain. Tupungato and
Mercedario, the next highest mountains of this
section, are at the south. Those I did not see,
as I was too busy photographing the north
peaks on my own side.

All too soon we have crossed and begun the
descent; in fifteen minutes we land on the field
at Mendoza, an hour and twenty minutes from
Santiago. Here we get out to stretch a bit, and
we take on more passengers. As we are standing
near the plane, one of the gentlemen who has
made the crossing inquires, 'Do your ears pain
you?* 'Not at all/ I replied. 'Mine do, quite
badly/ he said. It passes in a few moments, I
am told; more quickly if one tries to expel his
breath, with mouth closed and holding his nose.
I do not know whether the man had cotton in
his ears. I always have. It is generally provided,
deadening the sound a little. Some persons are
slightly affected in this way, many others not at
all. Apparently age has nothing to do with it,
as this man was probably thirty years younger
than I, and Mr. Gannett, who crossed when
seventy-six, had no trouble.

i6o FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

No one, young or old, who has journeyed to
Santiago by air need fear to make this flight on
account of going to greater altitudes. The sud-
den rise in an open plane might endanger many,
but in one that is tightly closed, much tighter
than most of the cabin planes, some of which
permit quite a breeze to enter at the sides, little
of the rarefied air leaks in; not enough to affect
most people, though I believe oxygen is usually
carried in case anyone is affected. As a rule
tourists are too much occupied enjoying this
magnificent experience to be thinking how they
feel, or to have any feelings except admiration for
this wonderful spectacle.

CHAPTER XVIII
ARGENTINA

IF POSSIBLE, one should stop a day or two in
Mendoza, where there is a fine hotel, then fly to
Cordoba, an interesting old city with a famous
university, and so go on to Rosario and Buenos
Aires. This detour was not then feasible, but
may be now. I had visited Mendoza earlier, a
city older than Buenos Aires, famed for a severe
earthquake in 1861, just three hundred years
from its founding. The place was totally de-
stroyed; as usual, promptly rebuilt, though some
of the ruins remained when I was there in 1911.
A milder shake occurred recently. The city on
the banks of the Mendoza River has been called
the most beautiful in the Republic. It has fine
avenues; and palms, and other trees border
miniature canals in which clear water is flowing.
, An extraordinary park of sixteen hundred acres
is at hand, adorned with flower-beds and various
novelties. At its edge is the Gloria Hill, sur-
mounted by a magnificent monument, one of
the finest in South America, of the great General
San Martin, who led an army across the Andes
to aid in freeing Chile and Peru from the Spanish
yoke. In the near and more remote neighborhood
are splendid vineyards, and bodegas where ex-

162 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

cellent wine is made. In 1911 I visited one of the
largest, was shown around by the Superin-
tendent, and of course treated to a glass of the
best. Over one hundred million gallons a year
are produced, none better of its kind; a variety
prepared for early consumption which does not
improve with age. It is much used in Buenos
Aires, being sold at a more reasonable price than
the imported article.

For some time after leaving Mendoza (we have
now eight passengers), the country was green
and fertile; great estates with vineyards. Later
there was a desert region on the south and
presently all was desert; not of sand like those
on the West Coast, but an arid region like some
of our Western plains, brown with dead grass or
other stuff. After two or three hours of rather
dull country, we pause for more gas and luncheon
at Mercedes, but far from the town. A cold
luncheon was brought, not very appetizing, but
a generous passenger shared with me some fine
grapes which were highly appreciated. Later the
plain was yellow, in places wavy, with spots of
green and small lakes near. After one passenger
had sat awhile by the pilot, I ventured to ask
the same privilege, which was granted. It was
Interesting to be in front, to see where we were
going, the broad outlook on earth and sky. For
a minute or two, when the pilot nodded assent,
I placed my hands on the wheel of the dual

GOVERNMENT PALACE FACING PLAZA AND AVENIDA DE MAYO,

BUENOS AIRES
Residence of President and offices of ministers

CONGRESS HALL ANI> PARK (MADE IN SIXTY DAYS), BUENOS
AIRES

ARGENTINA 163

control before me, so feeling the vibration, but
I did not venture, as I should have liked to do,
to ask him to take his off for a moment. We
were averaging from ninety to ninety-five miles
an hour, with an altitude of six hundred feet.
Heavy clouds in front soon caused us to fly lower.
It was hazy all around and below, the sun rather
dim. Then thicker haze, so the vision was
shortened. High above were cumulus clouds;
below them were others moving swiftly. The
strong east wind, the pilot said, was unusual.
Now large fields appeared, mostly brown. Blue
sky shows ahead, and more sun. Houses become
frequent, rectangular fields, green. It would
have been interesting to fly low enough to be
able to see distinctly the great fields of wheat,
corn, and flax for which Argentina is famous;
alfalfa, too, and many other products; also to
catch a glimpse of splendid cattle and blooded
horses (none better in the world) on great
estancias, many of them with British owners.

Queer places on the sand are seen, brown in
the middle; some round red buildings. We are
too high to tell what they are. After passing
Rufino, two hundred and fifty miles from Buenos
Aires, the scene is very attractive. One can per-
ceive that there are fine estates, clusters of
buildings in the midst of groves, surrounded, no
doubt, .by gardens; orchards with fruit trees, and
vineyards for their own use. Straight roads meet

164 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

at right angles or sharper. Rivers curve, but not
the roads, many of these lined with eucalyptus.
It is on this great plain that the Buenos Aires
and Pacific Railway has the longest straight line
in the world, one hundred and seven ty-five miles.
Cities, towns, and villages are now frequent. As
buildings become more and more numerous, we
realize that we are near or in the suburbs of the
great city, our destination, with over two million
population spreading over, it is said, double the
area of Paris.

About four o'clock we come down on a field
near a suburb with the fitting (?) name Moron
and are driven to a railway station, there to en-
train for the city. Our baggage was to be trans-
ported by motor car, and was promised for de-
livery that evening. Unfortunately, mine did
not arrive. It seemed rather humiliating, after
flying over the Andes and the broad plain, to be
traveling in an ordinary accommodation train
half an hour. We could have flown it in five
minutes. Even from the station it was two miles
by taxi to a hotel in the center of the city. I
chose, not the Plaza, half a mile beyond, patron-
ized by millionaires and those desiring to be
among them. My preference for location and
comfort is the Grand, near the practical center
of all things. On a corner of the famous Florida,
the fashionable street for shopping and for the
afternoon promenade, it is half a block from the

ARGENTINA 165

Avenida de Mayo. Within a block or two are
the American banks; the National City, and
the Boston First National, in the latter building
the American Consul and the Commercial
Attache; also the Prensa Building, the Plaza
de Mayo, etc, ; and yet the hotel is as quiet as one
could wish.

One week, two, or more will be enjoyed in the
city, in any one of a dozen excellent hotels. A
few attractions may be mentioned. The guide-
books and many pamphlets, several in English
published by hotels, a good one by the Grand,
will describe these and others.

In spite of the fact that Buenos Aires like
Chicago is not blessed with natural attractions,
it is a splendid, a beautiful city, and modern;
which to some may be regrettable. The only old
buildings, one says, are the churches, though the
narrow streets are also reminiscent of former
days. On this account the center of the city is so
crowded that, contrary to the ridiculous account
of a popular writer, the automobiles simply
crawl. Farther out, where the streets are wider,
they go no faster than in New York and slower
than in Rio. In the center, the Avenida de Mayo,
extending a mile and a half from the Presidential
Palace to the Capitol, is one hundred feet wide,
and broad diagonals are very slowly being con-
structed. Besides the two mentioned, there are
other fine public buildings: a splendid Palace of

166 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Justice, a beautiful new Post Office, and many
more; an opera house, beside which, as a for-
eigner said, ours would look like a garage.

But the parks and plazas are the real jewels.
There are seventy-four of these, not defaced like
ours with paper and garbage, nor even with
signs, 'Keep off the grass/ but the people do
keep off where they should, heeding the signs
in Spanish, These parks are for the recreation
of the people and are committed to their care/
The great Palermo Park, fashionable for driving,
has not the natural beauty of the Central Park
of New York, but is far superior otherwise. The
prettiest feature is the Rosedal, where thou-
sands of varieties are cultivated. Here also are
beautiful lakes, pagodas, restaurants, golf links,
etc. Close to the entrance are the Botanical
and Zoological Gardens, and the grounds of the
Rural Society, where the Cattle and Horse
Shows are held. Near is the Hippodrome of the
Jockey Club, each of world-wide fame. The
club, probably the wealthiest in the world,
hardly knowing what to do with the money it
obtains from the races, has luxurious quarters
on Florida, adorned with precious works of art.
Many other clubs there are, including one of
Americans, housed in the National City Bank
Building.

The Cathedral deserves a visit especially for
the splendid tomb of General San Martin. The

ARGENTINA 167

Recoleta Cemetery, famed for its magnificent
mausoleums, is crowded with statuary which
would embellish the finest museum. The remark-
able docks, receiving a visit, will excite astonish-
ment for their neatness, and for the manner in
which they are shut off from the rest of the city
by beautiful parks. Time fails. One will, of
course, go to see the boating on the Tigre, and in
the season may fly to Mar del Plata, called the
Queen of the seaside resorts of South America.
If there is air service to Cordoba, one should by
all means fly there also, for this city, older than
Buenos Aires, has many attractions. I greatly
regretted the suspension of service when I was
in the country. A hundred other attractions
must go unmentioned.

CHAPTER XIX
FLYING SOUTH

THE air service to Southern Argentina, con-
ducted by the French Aero-Postale Company,
was still operating; which gave me an oppor-
tunity to visit a section in which I had long been
Interested. When lecturing in Buenos Aires in
1916, I had the pleasure of meeting a South
African, owner of a large fruit-bearing ranch near
Comodoro Rivadavia, which he was then dis-
posed to sell for a reasonable price; or, as it was
on the edge of the Government-owned oil fields,
producing about three hundred tons daily, to
make suitable arrangements with a reliable
company for drilling on his land. For this reason,
and as I had later written about the oil fields, I
was especially glad to have an opportunity to go
down and visit the place.

It seemed that one could not fly directly from
Buenos Aires, but I must take a night train over
the Ferro Carril del Sud to Bahia Blanca, where
at the suburban station, Griinbein, I should be
met by someone who would take me in a car to
the air field. Accordingly, on the Thursday
evening following my arrival from Santiago
Monday, at 6.35 P.M. at Plaza Constitution, I
took a train for the trip: a long one with ten

CASA ROSADA, THE PRESIDENT'S PALACE, ON THE PLAZA DE
MAYO, BUENOS AIRES

THE NATIONAL PRISON, BUENOS AIRES

FLYING SOUTH 169

sleepers and a dining-car. I had a comfortable
stateroom to myself, supplied with bowl and
running water, good blankets, three electric
lights, etc. The road was smooth; the dinner for
three pesos (then about forty cents each) at
seven was excellent; including soup, an omelette,
chicken and fried potatoes, good roast mutton
with boiled potatoes, fruit of several kinds, coffee,
of course: surely enough for anyone. My room
was decidedly cool, and I changed to heavier
underwear, which I knew I should need on the
morrow, going into more wintry weather.

Called at 5.45 in the morning, I was ready for
coffee and rolls, fifty centavos, brought at 6.30.
At seven I descended at Griinbein, the chauffeur
arriving five minutes later. The field of Bahia
Blanca f ~as usual, was quite out of the city, of
which I therefore saw nothing until my return,
and not much then. There was one other pas-
senger and a great quantity of mail. As my
suitcase and extra coat had been put away in the
baggage behind, perhaps under the mail sacks,
the pilot lent me a coat, gave me a paper to read,
and another to put around my feet. At 745 we
took off, I was glad to find less wind inside the
plane than in most others; very little from the
window. There was an excellent hangar at
Bahia Blanca with good sanitary arrangements
not found everywhere.

The country seen from the plane is mostly

I 7 o FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

flat, some of it very fertile, especially between
the Rivers Colorado and Negro. At 945 we
halted five minutes at San Antonio, an important
port at the head of the San Matias Gulf, from
which a railway extends four hundred and fifty
miles across the country to Lake Nahuel Huapi
at Barilochi. As we flew on, the country looked
barren with a muddy shore along the Gulf; a
little bumpy. For five or ten minutes we flew
over the water, then near the land, now over it
along the shore; more bumpy, but not bad. We
see a few houses, no animals, no green. A
straight road is going somewhere. Now over the
land, away from the water, it is less bumpy.
Again there is water ahead, a sharp bend in the
road toward it, more houses, more bumpy,
various roads leading to a town on a corner of a
large cove, Puerto Madryn, where we do not
halt, but not long after call at the town and
port, Trelew. We landed straight and as before
left without making a halt, not the case pre-
viously. Usually the planes go half or all around
the fields after touching ground, and on leaving
do the same, mostly making a short halt and
then starting a second time. Trelew, where we
remain for fifteen minutes to take on gas, lies on
a desert, though with some little green near the
landing. I picked a little prickly branch, poor
stuff, but said to be eaten by sheep and guanacos.
This section, and all the way beyond, is famed

NEW DOCKS, BUENOS AIRES

The airplane base at the right is the largest in America outside
of the United States

COMODORO RIVADAVIA

FLYING SOUTH 171

for its vast numbers of sheep. I remarked at
Trelew to the pilot that I had seen few or none.
So for a long time he flew low, it seemed hardly
more than twenty feet above ground. I did not
like it and was glad when at last he flew higher.
He said later that he did it to let me see sheep,
but not one appeared all that time. Later, when
flying higher, I saw a good many. No difficulty,
if there were any to see. Now we fly far inland;
again at the edge of the sea, which earlier was
blue; here green near the shore. At the right are
brown hills, bumpy with gullies. The water on
the left is rippled, but there are no whitecaps.
Soon we come down at 2 P.M., for our flight is
ended, at famous Comodoro Rivadavia in the
Province of Chubut; but the hangar is several
miles 'out, as the country is too hilly, even
mountainous, for a landing-field near the city.
A drive over a good road brought us quickly to
the town and to a fair hotel which does not
mean rooms with bath. The drive was a sur-
prise. I had fancied this place with oil fields as
on a broad, nearly level plain, like those I had
seen in Colombia and Peru; but far from it.
Close to the sea in gullies, and on the sides of
steep hills, we saw derricks as we approached
the city; also in the city, on top of high hills, on
their steep banks, and down in hollows.

After luncheon I took a walk around the town,
a curious place; the business part, not very large

FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

and close to the water's edge. It is a very fair
port, to which come tankers to carry to the re-
fineries at La Plata, thirty-five miles from
Buenos Aires, the precious fluid, six hundred
thousand tons in one year, much needed in a
country practically destitute of coal Inquiring
about the Vissers, I learned that a married
daughter lived in town. On going there to call,
I met also Mrs. Visser, who told me that her
husband was ill in a hospital in Buenos Aires.
They live some miles out; but they had heard of
me, and the son-in-law would be happy to take
me the next afternoon to see his wife's estancia
and that of Mr. Visser.

Saturday was a busy day. In the morning I
went by bus to visit the headquarters of the oil
region, where I saw office buildings, the fine
residences of officials, pleasant homes for the
workers, school buildings, etc., as also wells and
oil tanks galore: from a scenic point of view, by
far the most interesting oil site I have visited.
The country looked pretty brown, but there
were green trees and many flower gardens; not
at all a bad place to stay awhile. I was, however,
reminded of an incident I heard some years ago.
One of our oil companies sent to an agent down
there, a town farther south of the Equator than
Montreal is north, portable houses with three
sides wood and one side wire screens. The agent
promptly wrote or cabled, 'The farther south
you go, the hotter it does NOT get. 1

FLYING SOUTH 173

The afternoon gave pleasure of a different
sort. At 1.30 I set out in a good car on a good
road for a drive, it may have been twenty miles,
with Mr. Visser' s daughter and her husband, to
her estancia. There, after entering the com-
fortable home, we walked about, surveying the
splendid fruit trees of many varieties, apples
such as never seen before: thirteen large ones on
a stalk hardly a foot long, closer together than
grapes; a knife would scarcely go between them.
I attempted a photograph, -but it was a failure.
The apples were the size of large California fruit.
Many varieties of pears there were; peaches,
plums, cherries, also; a garden with many
familiar, old-fashioned flowers. The Visser home
a mile away was larger. Mrs. Visser had returned
to act as hostess. Many trees surround the
houses, as often there are strong winds. For
this reason, no doubt, the fruit trees were mostly
dwarf, ten feet high or less. English walnuts
they had, too. On this ranch we saw many sheep
these the real business; some cattle and a
few horses. * Fruit trees flourish splendidly, but
unhappily there is no market aside from the
small town.

Departing, I was presented with a large bag of
apples, pears, and peaches, which I carried to
Buenos Aires. When a very large apple was In
fine condition, I gave a half to the Grand Hotel
manager to try. It was the best I have eaten in

174 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

many a long day, fragrant and juicy. The man
said it was fine (I never saw one from California
that could compare with it), but when I sug-
gested his ordering some, he explained that he
would be glad to, but it would cost more to
bring them than those that came from Cali-
fornia. So the fruit business is less profitable in
Comodoro Rivadavia than here. It would seem
that a small schooner that used to carry ice and
apples from Maine to Rio de Janeiro (I met the
owner of the schooner and his wife years ago in
Rio) or a small steam launch might find the car-
rying trade there profitable. Transport is the
desideratum.

To me it was a novelty to see one of the maids
call, not only turkeys but white leghorn hens, to
have their picture taken. Of course they had
something to eat, if I did not get their picture.
Surely I was invited to have afternoon tea in the
pleasant home, with toast, honey, and fruitcake;
very acceptable after the long drive. Their
hospitality is a pleasant remembrance. It was
dark when we reached the town, but the driver
was familiar with the road.

My greatest trial on the trip was getting up
early in the morning. We were to leave the hotel
at five. The night is too short when one retires
at 11.45 and has to get up at four. My little
alarm clock is more trustworthy than porters.
At 4.40 I was in the dining-room for coffee,

ESTANCIA NEAR MAR DEL PLATA
Estancia of Senor Don Miguel Martinez de Hoz

THOROUGHBREDS NEAR MAR DEL PLATA

FLYING SOUTH 175

which the proprietor was just making. At 4.55
I had a cup, and as the pilot was late there was
time for a little more. At 5.15 we departed in
real darkness, lights only at some oil centers.
At 540 we were at the hangar. Still dark. The
baggage was weighed and two other passengers,
one fat 135 kilos, about 300 pounds. He
should certainly pay extra. At six o'clock,
though still in the gloom, we made a start, going
slowly across the field where two men helped turn
the plane; then it went fast and quickly rose.
We flew at good speed; thirty miles, the pilot
said, in fifteen minutes. In the east the sky was
growing pink, later turning to gold. At 6.45 the
sun appeared to us, but it was after seven before
it shone on the ground, fifteen hundred feet
below.

It was a pleasant journey back to Bahia
Blanca. I had thought of stopping there a day
to see the port, but, as I had a fine view from the
air, of the city, the harbor, and the three dis-
tinct ports, when I learned that I could keep on
to Buenos Aires in another plane, I decided to
go. The city, including the ports, with a popu-
lation of one hundred thousand, has become the
leading exporter of grain, surpassing Rosario
and Buenos Aires. There are two commercial
ports, both belonging to the British Railway;
the third is the chief military and naval port of
the Republic. This has a dry dock and facilities

176 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

of all kinds. The port, on a large, well-protected
bay, naturally has a far better harbor than
Buenos Aires on a broad river. With direct
railway connection west and south to rich
farming and pasture lands, it is certain to grow
rapidly.

I was glad that I had decided to fly on to
Buenos Aires instead of stopping over and going
by train next day, for thus I gained a better idea
of the Province as a whole; though seeing many
things and people close at hand from the train
might have been equally interesting. Most of
the way we flew over what was clearly fine farm-
ing country. The fields were green, brown, or
black, some of them burning; the black already
burnt over. Soon mountains appeared in the
distance, quite high, one especially; then we ap-
proached a long range. I had known that in
this Province, so remote from the Andes, there
is a range of four thousand feet altitude, another
of twelve hundred feet, but I had not expected
to see them. Presently going east, we flew over
the lower one, where there was a good deal of
forest. Then the terrain was more level; cattle,
horses, and sheep were seen; fields, gardens,
trees along a winding river, with banks looking
twenty feet high. Now a high wind several
times tips the plane to an angle of forty-five
degrees; once it tipped the plane back. Is that
the way they go into a spin? I have wondered

FLYING SOUTH 177

later. We come lower and go more smoothly;
no more dips. Green alfalfa fields appear,
scattering pools of water; white birds fly around.
At the south it is cloudy, gray, and gusty. Again
the sun shines and blue sky appears. Now we
are low enough to see the cattle and horses run,
also sheep. Some, foolish, run, though far away,
while others, just below, remain perfectly quiet.
The coloring in various shades of green is
pleasing. We see fine haciendas, villages; on the
roads, automobiles. Flying still lower, many
animals run. Horses run to meet others that are
running away. It is amusing. Houses are fre-
quent, several towns, one very pretty. At five
o'clock we have two hundred kilometers still
to go, perhaps more. We see the sun set from the
plane, as we had seen it rise. But we are draw-
ing near; though it is quite dark, the pilot knows
the way, and about seven we come down near
the hangar after a long but very interesting day.
The landing-field is not so far out as that at
Moron; so, arriving by 8.30, I was in time to
enjoy a good dinner at the Grand Hotel, doubly
welcome after my slight and early breakfast
and a luncheon mainly of the fruit with which
I was fortunately provided.

CHAPTER XX
A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY

AFTER the luxury of morning coffee in my room
at a fairly late hour, I was glad to call at the
Aero-Postale office to express my gratification
that I had been able to enjoy the extremely in-
teresting trip to Southern Argentina. I was
sorry later that I had not improved the oppor-
tunity offered in Comodoro Rivadavia to go on
to Puerto Gallegos, about 375 miles farther, the
most southern port of the mainland of the coun-
try, from which a weekly steamer will carry
one in a few days to Punta Arenas; but I had
felt that I ought not to take the time. At the
office I learned that I might go to Asuncion on
Wednesday; a Brazilian ambassador would be
making the trip, so I should be sure of good
company. I should have preferred more time
in the interim, but it seemed wise to improve the
opportunity. Only one more good night's rest,
for at 3.30 A.M. Wednesday, a car would call to
take me to the field. Thanks to my little clock,
I was up at 245, and down at the door a moment
before the arrival of the automobile. I had not
even suggested that coffee be served at so un-
earthly an hour, though if I had thought of a
thermos bottle, it might have been supplied.

CUSTOM HOUSE, BUENOS AIRES

HARBOR-FRONT AND AVENIDA DE MAYO, BUENOS AIRES
In center the President's palace facing the Plaza de Mayo

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 179

I had, however, abstracted a roll from the table
at dinner, which with some fruit I carried to eat
later. First we drove to the Hotel Savoy, a mile
distant, from which, in a few moments, two
gentlemen entered the car. They had been in-
structed to be ready at 3.45. We then drove
back to the office near the Grand Hotel, and I
wondered why they routed me out first. After
waiting awhile for the mail, we drove to the
field, where we arrived before five, although the
hour for starting was six. Of course it was dark;
also cold and damp with a heavy fog. Some time
later coffee was served, a good cup. Others had
eggs. After a while a gentleman, who I sup-
posed was English, invited me to walk with him,
and for a long time we tramped back and forth
in the chilly dampness over a concrete path.
Hours passed. The sunrise, considerably after
six, made no impression on the fog, so heavy
that we could see but a short distance. It seemed
that we should never get away. About nine,
tired with walking, it was so cold that I took
refuge in the plane out on the field, as the
warmest place, the hangar being all open.
A while after, I perceived that the fog was
thinner. Slowly it dissipated, and at ten, after
more than five hours' waiting, we took off.

A straight run, and quickly we were in the air.
The plane had a single motor, a crew of two,
eight seats for passengers; at the rear a door on

180 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

one side, a W.C opposite. We pass over dwell-
ings, small farms, tilled land, cattle and sheep.
Here the cattle, evidently accustomed to the
noise, do not move. At first, a pretty country,
then swampy with streams; tall slim trees,
poplars or eucalyptus, also willows. Soon we
cross a great river. At Buenos Aires the Plata
is twenty miles wide. The stream which we have
crossed is the Parand above its union with the
Uruguay, the two forming the Plata. Now we
cross the Uruguay, a smaller river, but appear-
ing several miles wide, and we fly along the
east side in the country of Uruguay. All is green
except the few houses, and the red cattle with
white faces in the green meadows among the
scattered trees. Crossing a smaller tributary,
then the Rio Negro, on the latter, some miles up,
we descry the important town Mercedes; not
long after we pass, on the Uruguay River, Fray
Bentos, notable as the original home of the
Liebig industry, opening here in 1865. This
naturally is a great section for cattle-raising.
The river bends here to the east, so we cross it
and next pass Concepcion del Uruguay, the first
important port in Argentina on this river; a
stock-raising center surrounded by great es-
tanci&s, some of which raise full-blooded stock,
others cross-breeds. Crossing the river again,
we pass Paysandti, the second largest city of
Uruguay. Soon we notice two large towns on

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 181

opposite sides of the river, Concordia in Argen-
tina and Salto in Uruguay, the latter city just
below some falls which are the head of naviga-
tion. Ocean steamers of eighteen-foot draught
can and do come up to this point. Both cities
are important in commerce, especially for the
export of stock products. About noon we have
some fog and clouds and no sun. At 12. 15 we halt
fifteen minutes at Monte Caseros for gas, where
a cup of coffee was welcome, a small place.
Here we are only three hours late, having in rapid
flight gained an hour over the schedule.

Now we cross the river into Brazil, at 1.15,
leaving some mail at Uruguayana. From this
city, after crossing the river in a launch, rail
connection is made between the Argentine and
Brazilian railways. Not many miles from here
an international bridge connects the Brazil and
Uruguay railways.

Returning to Argentina, we note large hacien-
das with fine groves of trees. We have now
five passengers besides myself, all speaking
English; two of these Brazilians, my companions
of the early morning. It was later that I dis-
covered that the courteous gentleman who spoke
with the precise inflections of a cultured English-
man was after all a Brazilian. When we had
become better acquainted, he explained that he
had lived six years in London and taken pains
to acquire the perfect accent, which he had.

182 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

The other Brazilian had a perfect command of
English, but with the slightest accent, which
betrayed that he was not to the manner born.

The flight in Argentina had been rather bumpy
in several places, but not disagreeably so. Po-
sadas, where we arrived at 2.30, was our last
call in that country, a pleasant, growing town
on the bank of the Upper Parang important
for both river and rail traffic. The tourist going
to the Iguassii Falls must transfer to a small
steamer for a two days' sail up the river.

No one who arrives at Posadas, whether by air
or otherwise, or who even comes to Buenos Aires,
should fail to visit the wonderful falls on the
Iguassii River, flowing between Brazil and Argen-
tina into the Alto Parand, which separates both
countries from Paraguay. The Iguassii Falls,
higher than Niagara, more than twice as wide,
and most of the year with a greater volume of
water, if in low water less majestic than Niagara,
at any time are infinitely more beautiful Several
days should be spent in this enchanting environ-
ment, where there is an excellent hotel, an auto-
mobile road extending along the bank, paths
leading to delightful vistas, and in low water a
possibility even of crossing the river above the
falls, as I did, in a small boat, to enjoy their
loveliness and magnificence from each side. For
the through rail service from Buenos Aires to
Asuncion a ferryboat takes the train across the

IGUASSU FALLS FROM THE BRAZILIAN SIDE (A PART)

IGUASSU FALLS FROM THE ARGENTINE SIDE

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 183

river to Encarnacion in Paraguay. But we,
leaving at three, can fly more quickly.

The Paraguay country is similar to what we
have seen, but rather prettier; all green with
scattered houses, sometimes a dozen fairly near
each other; very pretty trees of varying height,
also thick bunches of forest, not of the jungle
type. As we sail quietly, smoothly, over the
apparently level country, suddenly we had a
drop; the biggest that I experienced in my entire
flight. Everyone looked up, astonished. We
had noticed nothing until the sharp bump when
our descent abruptly stopped. The pilot later
said that we dropped about five hundred feet.
One gentleman fell out of his chair, I was told;
he must have been sitting on the edge. I did
not bounce at all, but felt the strong jar, which
seemed queer over this sunny, pleasant country,
with little wind.

On the open ground I saw what looked like
tufts (I wondered what they were) near forests
into which a track led, perhaps for yerba mate,
the fashionable and wholesome drink of millions.
We pass a small town, well-tilled land, different
shades of green indicating a variety of cultures;
a small river, mountains in the distance. Farms
are thickly spread; a fine country. At 4.15 a
village appears. Soon after we descend at the
hangar, having made our flight in about six and
a half hours, instead of the schedule time, eight
and a half.

184 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

In a train the journey is made comfortably,
without change, in two days, four hours; and
unless in a great hurry one might prefer that
to rising at 3 A.M., an hour utterly without
reason. Leaving the field at nine, even spending
eight hours on the journey, one would obviously
arrive at five. This is especially desirable when
fogs are frequent, as in fall or winter, for a similar
delay had occurred at the hangar at Buenos
Aires the day before. Aside from the fog and
the early rising, the flight was most interesting
and agreeable: one which all should enjoy if
possible.

From the hangar, we drove to a comfortable
hotel in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, a pleasant
town of one hundred thousand population, on
the Paraguay River, tributary to the Paran&,
with an altitude of but two hundred and three
feet, though a thousand miles from the ocean.
Founded in 1536, in a wilderness near the center
of the continent, just a century before Roger
Williams began the settlement of Providence,
it is an interesting city apart from its historical
associations. The tragic story of its origin, of the
faithful Irala who here for months awaited in
vain the return of Juan de Ayolas from his heroic
journey through the wilderness and over great
mountains to Peru, is a tale worth reading; but
there is no space for it here. The country has
been called the most romantic in South America

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 185

from the viewpoint of both nature and history;
though the opinion might be challenged by
many. On the edge of the tropics, it has an
agreeable climate.

There was opportunity for the air tourist to
stay one day or four, as there was semi- weekly
service. Having visited Asuncion on my lecture
tour in 1916, one day was all that I wished to
spare. The chief points of interest in the city
are, first, the Government Palace containing
the residence of the President and offices for
the Ministers of Government. On a high bank
above the river the windows of the second story
afford a charming view of the winding river, and
on the opposite side the disputed Chaco region,
for many years a subject of controversy with
Bolivia. Below, close to the river, is the classical
new Custom House near excellent docks recently
constructed by an American company. There
is a fine Hall of Congress, a Museum of Arts
containing a Murillo and other works which
would adorn any art gallery, and a library of
the National Archives, with priceless documents
of the early history of the Plata region, the
largest existing collection; also Jesuit annals
from 1534 t 1600, and accounts of the socialistic
government of Paraguay inaugurated by Dr.
Francia.

Among changes since my earlier visit, I noted
that the streets were better paved, the place

186 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

seemed to have a little less of the air of 'dolce
far niente/ and new buildings of varied character
had been erected. Of these I visited the really
splendid edifices of the American Institute es-
tablished several years ago, coeducational, with
several hundred students, and highly prosperous.
The population has but a slight admixture of
Guarani blood, a more energetic race than is
usually found on the edge of the tropics; but
the people generally speak Guarani, as also
Spanish. The percentage of illiteracy is sur-
prisingly small, less than in some other countries.

I was interested in hearing from the American
agent about some colonies now being formed
in the Chaco: Mennonites from Canada, who,
becoming dissatisfied there, were gradually mov-
ing to the warmer climate of Paraguay. The
colonies already established were doing well.
An excellent idea had been adopted of placing
about twenty-five families in one community,
locating the colonies about twenty-five miles
apart. Thus there was less disagreement in one
place, a chance to vary the monotony by visiting
others, perhaps promoting a little rivalry among
them, and providing an opportunity to move if
one's neighbors proved less congenial than de-
sired. Several hundred families had arrived, and
more were coming.

There are no idle or poor in the country,
though persons may be seen barefoot and not

BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIACHUELO AT BUENOS AIRES, WITH NO DRAW
TO OBSTRUCT TRAFFIC

CITY OF ROSARIO ON THE PARANA RIVER

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 187

garbed in the latest Paris fashions which adorn
some of the others. This is one of many places
in South America where persons out of work
might go and be happy, if able to live contentedly
a simple life, in a mild climate, where few clothes
are needed and where plenty to eat may be
procured without hard labor. Opportunities for
greater advancement and prosperity may or may
not arise.

In pursuit as ever of information, I made a
call on our Consul and then went on to our
Minister's, with whom I had an unusually
pleasant chat before discovering that he bore
a name long familiar, that of Post Wheeler. I
may say, in passing, that on this tour I found
almost everywhere our representatives more
cordial and agreeable than when I was making
my lecture tour in 1916. The Wheelers were
especially so, with whom I much enjoyed an
informal luncheon. It is well that appointments
are now made as a rule with rather more discre-
tion than some years earlier. Mr. Wheeler, for
example, must have been a striking contrast to
one or two of his predecessors.

Let no one who goes to Paraguay on any ac-
count fail to buy some pieces of Nanduty lace,
which is made both of silk and linen and may
remind one of Mexican drawn-work, though it
is not such, but really lace. It may be obtained
where it is made, much more reasonably than

1 88 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

in Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. A woman is
likely to bring a variety of pieces to the hotel for
sale.

Most of the party that came up with me on
Wednesday also returned on Friday. Another
unnecessarily early start. They would call for
us at four, so we must arise at three. Coffee was
served at 340 and we left the hotel at 4.10, wait-
ing in two places for others and at the field a
half-hour. It was still dark when at 5.30 we
started, with no lights on the field. We got off
very well, saw lights in many houses, and later
mountains in the east. Farther on, we flew over
many round hills and some long ones all covered
with forest, many pleasant farms with trees
scattered or in clumps. Then fog below in streaks
and patches interfered. The rest of the journey
was similar to our flight up. On the way I
learned that the two Brazilians wished to go to
Chile in a hurry, but had been warned not to fly
because there had that week been a slight ac-
cident at Mendoza. I explained that that should
not deter them, for it was only that there had
been a heavy rain at Mendoza making the
ground soft, so that, although the plane from
Santiago made a perfect landing, it had sunk in
a little and tipped over, slightly injuring the
plane, but not at all the occupants ; I had crossed
with the same pilot and this was his first ac-
cident In forty-eight crossings; that it was a

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 189

magnificent experience and that they should
by all means go one way by air. We arrived in
Buenos Aires Friday afternoon at two o'clock.
What was my surprise to receive a note from
one of the Brazilians the following Tuesday
morning saying that they had been to Santiago
and back, flying over on Saturday, attending to
their errand Sunday, returning Monday; the
note written that afternoon saying, 'It was
glorious.' They were to fly the next day to
Montevideo, and after one day there continue
with the Nyrba Line all the way to Rio. A card
received June 9, 1932, from friends whom I had
urged to fly over the Andes said, 'We crossed
yesterday by airplane: a wonderful experience,
as you well know/

After so many strenuous days (in less than a
fortnight) flying from Santiago, March 31, then
with small intervals to Comodoro Rivadavia and
to Asuncion, I thought it wise to take life for a
while a little easier, enjoying a proper night's
sleep, morning coffee in my room about nine,
and not rushing about as incessantly as hitherto.
One man whom I met soon after my arrival
had said, 'You ought to be twenty-five!' I was
obviously much beyond that, but I doubt if
he suspected how much, and I did not tell.
One's age is really no bar to such a trip. Mr.
Gannett, having his seventy-sixth birthday on
the way, suffered not the slightest inconvenience

igo FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

anywhere. During the entire air tour I saw but
one person obviously suffering from air-sick-
ness. He chanced to sit facing me, but he^used
the bag provided for the purpose with discre-
tion, and in fifteen minutes, when all was over,
dropped it from the window.

There was, however, still plenty for me to do.
It was desirable for me to meet some of our
officials, to secure data for my several books, to
obtain photographs from the Air Companies
and from the Government, and to see for my-
self changes that had been wrought since my
previous tour in 1923-24. Reporters came, as in
cities previously visited, and I made a few calls
on old acquaintances. I was happy to see again
Dona Carolina Lena de Argerich, President from
its inauguration in 1903 of the Library of the
National Council of Women. I first met the
Senora in 1916 when I gave in Spanish a course
of three lectures in the hall of the Library,
Senora Argerich presiding. Since then they have
acquired a building of their own, where a great
work is being accomplished in the dissemination
of education and culture among the masses,
supplementing the excellent educational facilities
furnished by the Government.

Another person whom I was glad to greet was
Dr. Luis E. Zuberbiihler, who, as President of
the Bolsa in 1916, presented me to the great
audience of a thousand men to whom I gave an

NORTH BASIN, BUENOS AIRES

A FLIGHT TO PARAGUAY 191

illustrated address on some of our principal
industries. Later, as President of the Bank of
the Nation, he had, in 1925, sent me valuable
data for the revision of my ' Industrial and Com-
mercial South America/ A very able man, whose
death not long after must have been deplored by
many, his ability as a financier was evident dur-
ing the administration of President Alvear,
though under Irigoyen the position was held by
another, apparently with less success.

Although there were many places that I
should have been happy to revisit, I took time
for but a single excursion to see something new;
an afternoon bus ride, the route taking in,
besides the familiar Palermo Park, a drive along
the river-front past the new docks, and between
the North and South Basins the attractive new
bathing beach recently installed. Back of the
beach and bathing-houses are gardens with a
marble fountain, promenades, the driveway, re-
freshment kiosks, athletic grounds, a summer
theater, etc., especially frequented in summer.

CHAPTER XXI
URUGUAY

Two weeks quickly passed, and it was time for
me to speed on my way. The suitcase which
was to follow me to Chile had at last reached
me by way of New York. After removing the
needed articles, which were replaced by others, I
again consigned it to a steamer, really sending it
to New York (by the Munson Line which had
brought it down), where I regained it in due
season. With the rest of my baggage, the other
suitcase, hatbox, and parcel, I pursued my way
by air to Miami. To Montevideo I flew in a
seaplane, as in my first flights in Colombia, so
continuing through the rest of my journey by
air. At that time the Nyrba Company had be-
come so popular that they were giving twice a
day service to Montevideo and back, a conven-
ience highly appreciated by the business men of
both cities, who could thus spend a few hours in
either and return home the same day, an hour's
flight covering the distance of a trifle over a
hundred miles.

The Buenos Aires airport, naturally at the
river's edge, was at Puerto Nuevo, the new sea-
port, being a valuable and greatly needed ad-
dition to the harbor facilities, recently com-

URUGUAY 193

pleted. With regret I departed, as previously
from the other places visited, for all are full of
interest. The flight down the broad Plata
rather an estuary than a river, though the water
is fresh for some distance below Buenos Aires
affords opportunity to see a large island mid-
stream, but not much else until we approach
the capital of Uruguay, then observing a hill, not
very high, but notable as giving to the city the
name, Montevideo, 'I see a mountain. 7 More
remarkable than its being the first considerable
hill on the Plata is the fact that it is the last
seen for a thousand miles as one sails onward;
the next being on the Paraguay, just below
Asunci6n.

Descending into the harbor, a launch promptly
carries us to the dock, from which I repaired
to the familiar Hotel Lanata, not so grand as
the Urbano, but more convenient, being near
the business center on Plaza Constituci6n, of-
tener called by its original name, the Matriz.
On one side of the plaza is the Cathedral, well
worth a glance, opposite to which is the Cabildo,
formerly the Hall of Congress. Next to the
liotel is the Uruguay Club, a resort of the Mite
for many festivities. The English Club is on
the side opposite. The city has the usual at-
tractions, plazas, broad avenues, and in the older
part many narrow streets; it is a homelike town
with cordial people, not so gay as Rio or Buenos

194 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Aires, but as a city of half a million, the fifth
in population in South America, it deserves a
longer visit than many tourists make, who, re-
maining but a few hours, take a hurried drive
about the city while the steamer lies in port.

The splendid new Hall of Congress deserves
especial notice, one of the finest buildings in all
South America; there are museums of various
kinds, an excellent theater, the old Solis, educa-
tional buildings, and a prison, which would put
most of ours to shame; well-lighted cells, eight
by thirteen feet and over ten feet high, furnished
with iron folding-bed, book-shelf, bench, and
porcelain bowl and seat, opportunity for baths
in warm or sea water; and workshops of eight
classes, where the prisoners may work or learn a
trade.

Especially attractive are the parks, the finest
called the Prado contains the Botanical Garden,
a wonderful rose garden, more than 150,000
trees, flowering shrubs, vegetation of cool and
warmer climes, lakes and grottoes, hills and
hollows; for Uruguay, unlike the shores above
the Cerro, has plenty of hills, some even called
mountains. Another park, the Rodo, is a real
recreation ground, just back of the Hotel Parque
Urbano, preferred by many visitors. It is just
on the outskirts of the older business section,
has a casino, and faces the Playa Ramirez, a
popular bathing-resort, the beach in summer

INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE, ASUNCION

MONTEVIDEO

URUGUAY 195

thronged with men, women, and children. The
hotel is called one of the finest in South America.

Two watering-places, farther out or down, are
more frequented by the 61ite. Pocitos, hotel and
beach, with many fine residences near, is very
fashionable; still more so, Carrasco beyond, to
which leads a splendid esplanade along the shore.
This beach in extent compares with that of
Ostend, and in hard firm sand with those of
Florida. In addition, there is a casino, which,
though smaller, is said to equal in elegant
furnishing that of Monte Carlo. It is more fre-
quented, they say, by foreigners than by the
more sedate and sensible residents. Among the
surrounding hills many beautiful chalets are
located.

Two other resorts, not often visited by tour-
ists, but much patronized by South Americans,
really deserve mention, each established by a
wealthy Uruguayan. Punta del Este, at the
very southeast corner of Uruguay, is especially
favored by the British of Argentina, who find
invigorating the good sea air of the broad
Atlantic. Here also is a beautiful rose garden
and a wonderful park, with the finest collection
of eucalyptus found in South America; more
than a hundred varieties. Nearer Montevideo,
two hours by rail, is Piriapolis, a city and a
watering-place both, having a park with thirty
thousand rose trees, a grove with several million

196 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

trees, a fine hotel, and all modern conveniences.
Here, too, are real mountains, two thousand feet
high, veined with marble and superb porphyry;
one of rich granite; a grove of twenty thousand
olive trees, etc.

I was glad to spend a week in this friendly city,
where as usual I was visited by reporters, called
on our officials, and through their kind offices
had by appointment a pleasant chat with the
President in his private home. Uruguay has
been so well served by other companies that she
has felt no great need in her small territory
(well provided with railways) of airplanes except
for military service. Of these there were sixty-
five.

CHAPTER XXII
SOUTH BRAZIL

EMBARKING May 6 at Montevideo in one of
Nyrba's luxurious Commodores, I was happy
in the prospect of viewing some parts of Brazil
hitherto unseen, while on the way to delightful
Rio. Of course one sailing on an express steamer
from Montevideo to Santos views only the broad
ocean except for a few miles near the two ports*
I had, however, on a previous journey traversed
by rail the splendid country south of Sao Paulo,
passing through Parang, Santa Catharina, and
Rio Grande do Sul to the northwest corner of
Uruguay, and on to Montevideo, The rich and
often beautiful country of Southern Brazil, with
primeval forest, open grazing-land, cultivated
farms, occasional towns, and pleasant rivers, as
yet with scanty population, is likely to attract
many in the near future A journey by rail is
especially desirable for persons interested in the
possibilities for further development of this
region, favored with a temperate climate and
great natural resources. The airplanes give
another view; that of the section along the shore.
For once I did not have to rise early for my
sail, as the seaplane began its voyage at Buenos
Aires. So at a reasonable hour, about 9.30, I

I 9 8 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

took a taxi to the dock. There awaiting the
' arrival of the plane, we then went out in a small
launch to go on board. This was the most com-
fortable of all the planes used on my tour. One
descends from the roof or deck by steep stairs
to the large cabin, partially divided into three
compartments (I might really say six, on account
of the broad aisle through the center), with total
accommodations for a dozen. One of the large
compartments had, instead of two sofas facing
each other, a broad couch extending the entire
length, a boon for the lazy, feeble, or sleepy;
but somehow even on the many days of very
early rising I never felt the need of couch or
nap. I preferred to look out of the window when
there was anything to see, at other times to read
if book or paper was available.

As we began our flight, the view of the city
and the coast of Uruguay was less than I ex-
pected, as we at once bore out over the broad
stream soon absorbed in the great ocean. For
a long time there was no view of the coast which
later appeared in the distance, occasionally as
a low sandy shore or green banks and hills. A
while after noon we were favored with a good
luncheon, to my taste, the best of the journey.
A parcel for each person contained a variety
of excellent sandwiches, bread cut thin, cheese,
chicken, ham, and tongue, in ample supply,
enough to omit those you did not care for.

SOUTH BRAZIL 199

Fruit also was served, oranges, bananas, and a
very good apple; also a bottle for each, a choice
of beer or sarsaparilla; of the two, though an
' Anti/ I preferred the latter.

In the afternoon, nearing the shore, I noticed
the Lagoa Mirim, which extends far within,
dividing Uruguay from Brazil. The State, Rio
Grande do Sul, has for a long distance a very
fiat sandy coast, as we could easily see from the
plane. It was three o'clock or later when we
turned straight toward the shore, reaching which
we fly over a channel forty miles long which
leads to the Lagoa dos Patos (Ducks). This
lagoon extends north a hundred and fifty miles,
parallel to the ocean, from which it is separated
only by a broad sandy beach. Quite suddenly
we come upon the city, with the same name as
the State, at the south end of the lake, and after
circling over it land or settle on the water near
the docks, where we deliver mail and have our
gas replenished.

This city, with a population of fifty thousand
or more, is one of growing importance as a port,
the channel entrance being recently deepened
from eleven to thirty feet. With a mile of docks,
it is distinguished in other lines than commerce,
priding itself on the oldest newspaper in Brazil
excepting the Jornal do Commercio in Rio de
Janeiro; als*K<m an excellent library, and a
unique montuiient, the only one in the country

200 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

perhaps anywhere dedicated to the abolition
of slavery. The State is noted for its cattle in-
dustry, having much blooded stock and several
packing-houses, two American; agriculture flour-
ishes, and there are important coal mines. On
leaving, we make a large circle over the city,
which presents a very pretty picture : many white
buildings, picturesquely showing among the
green of trees along the broad avenues and in
the plazas. Then flying north over the lagoon,
thirty miles wide, it seems like the ocean, the
low dividing beach being hardly noticeable. The
days being short, as here in early November, it
was past sunset when we arrived at our destina-
tion, Porto Alegre, capital of the State. In this
we were fortunate, for it was one of the most
beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed. After
the sun had disappeared, there were red and
flame-colored bands in all parts of the horizon,
fading into long lines of pink, and with soft
pale pink above. Nothing more lovely could be
imagined. An airplane is surely the most favor-
able place from which to admire a sunset. Only
a mountain-top can be a rival, and not many of
these are as convenient for the purpose. I was
glad that there was some delay at the float, so
that we missed none of the fascinating spec-
tacle.

Previously to our descent we had circled over
Porto Alegre as we did again in the morning, a

SOUTH BRAZIL 201

polite gesture generally practiced, perhaps also
to give tourists an opportunity to see the place.
The city, not so fiat as Rio Grande do Sul, is
four times the size, with an enterprising popula-
tion largely German. Although so far inland, it
is an important port, now having a regular steam-
ship line to Europe. The city, of course, has rail
connection with the rest of the State and the
country and is a very important distributing
point as well as for export. A launch took the
passengers ashore, and a taxi carried us through
the well-lighted streets to the leading hotel,
where we found porters, elevator, everything up
to date, including a fine bathroom just opposite
my room. After dinner, I think most of us before
long sought a good night's rest.

In the morning there was considerable delay
after an early breakfast (not so early as some
before and after), waiting for a mail plane which
was to leave Buenos Aires at one that morning
and overtake us here, transferring to us the mail
in time for us to leave at seven. As it had not
appeared, our pilot waited awhile, but in vain;
at 8.30 we set off. This compelled the mail
plane to follow until It did overtake us, which
proved to be only after we had arrived in Rio,
in season to go on the passenger plane departing
from there early Friday morning.

Porto Alegre, at the northwest comer of the
lagoon, is many miles west of the ocean, but

202 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

our seaplane could go over land just as well, so,
instead of at once flying east and then along
the coast which here has a direct northeast trend,
we saved distance by making a more scenic
flight for a hundred miles over beautiful country:
woods, rivers, and farms; mountains, too, small
ones, for at the left is the Serra do Mar with
peaks rising seven thousand feet, a range near
the sea which extends along the coast a little
beyond Rio de Janeiro.

After an hour or so we reach the ocean, over
which we fly practically all the way to Miami,
though for most of the distance to Par4 near
enough to the coast to enjoy the scenery, always
interesting and generally beautiful. We miss it
here until we approach Florianopolis, though
on an island, the capital and largest city of
Santa Catharina, the next State north. Prettily
located on the landward side, it has a good har-
bor to which we descend. A high railroad bridge
connects it with the mainland. It now seemed
a good idea to try the luncheon, put up for us at
Porto Alegre, very fair, but not equal to the
one that came from Buenos Aires. It may be
noted here that the name for port is different
from the one used in Spanish America. The
Spanish is puerto, the Portuguese is porto; hence
we are wrong in saying Porto Rico, because the
proper name is Puerto Rico, as of course it is
called there. Our carelessness in such matters

OLD FORTRESS AT ENTRANCE TO HARBOR OF SANTOS

SANTOS

SOUTH BRAZIL 203

Is paralleled only by the English, whose faults
we are more apt to copy than their virtues.

I regretted that there was no halt at Parana-
guci, the chief port of the great State of Parand,
from which a railway runs seventy miles up
to the capital, Curityba, and on to the through
railway from Sao Paulo to Uruguay. The road to
Curityba is of wonderful beauty; some say that
in this respect it even surpasses the more famous
railway from Santos to Sao Paulo. The ascent
to three thousand feet in a few miles is made
without cogs or cables by means of high trestles,
bridges, and tunnels. Contributing to the pic-
turesque scenery along the gorge up which the
railway climbs is luxuriant tropical vegetation,
followed by pine forests and scenes of agricul-
tural and industrial development. Here is seen
the Araucanian or Parani pine, a tree of striking
character, a candelabra top ending a bare straight
trunk, averaging thirty inches in diameter and
one hundred feet tall. Parani is the largest
exporter of matte, and both States have fine
agricultural and forest products, excellent graz-
ing land, splendid and varied climates, tem-
perate and semi-tropical on account of varying
altitudes altogether a very attractive region.

Santos, our next halting-place, is a name
familiar to all as that of the greatest coffee
port in the world. Here everyone, not hurrying
home on account of death or other near fatality,

204 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

should by all means stop off till the next airplane
or steamer unless a visit has been previously
made, as in my own case. It is not absolutely
necessary, though desirable, to stay a day or
two in this warm city, which has many points
of interest. The splendid docks, seen from the
airplane, extend three miles along the water-
front, their granite walls rising five feet above
high-water mark. So busy is the place that a
Brazilian wrote, 'People do not run,^they fly.'
The unusual rush in a torrid city is because
hundreds of men daily come by train from Sao
Paulo, the cooler and larger city above, a two
hours' ride, returning at four.

Before going up to that city, an excursion by
no means to be omitted, one may like to spend a
night at the popular shore resort, Guaruja; not
so grand as Mar del Plata, but in a more pic-
turesque location. The Hotel Balneario on the
water-front, many rooms with bath, may be
preferred. The first real settlement made by
the Portuguese on this continent in 1532 at
Sao Vicente is worth a visit, but the majority
will at once climb to the plateau, three thousand
feet above, by a railway, from an engineering
point of view called one of the wonders of the
world. It is, indeed, a strange and wonderful
ride through tropical forests along the side of
steep slopes amid scenes of matchless beauty;
when the gully is shrouded with mist, a rift

SOUTH BRAZIL ' 205

often disclosing a tremendous chasm below. The
ascent of twenty-six hundred feet in seven miles
is made in an original manner by five inclined
planes, each a mile and a quarter long with
four intermediate levels. Each car has an engine
attached, which grips an endless chain run by
an engine at the top of each slope. A strange
feature is that the double track has but three
rails for the up-and-down trains, which there-
fore meet only in the middle of each section or
on the flats between, where are two full tracks.
There is another way now to ascend, for a splen-
did motor road has been constructed on the face
of the cliff; but this should be preferred for the
descent, affording magnificent views on the way
down.

CHAPTER XXIII
SAO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO

SAO PAULO, a city of nearly a million, capital of
a great State of the same name, though not to be
compared in beauty to Rio, is preferred for
residence by many foreigners for its cooler,
sometimes frosty, climate, and its varied business
activities. On account of the latter, it has been
called the Chicago of Brazil. More cosmopolitan
than other Brazilian cities, Italians are especially
numerous, forming about forty per cent of the
population. Active, even leaders in important
industries, one of them who came as a poor im-
migrant boy is accounted among the foremost
and wealthiest business men in all Brazil.

While the State is especially noted as the
greatest world producer of coffee, other forms of
agriculture are important (the finest kind of
cotton, sugar, a variety of cereals, etc.), as is
also mining and stock-raising. The large manu-
facturing industries include cotton and silk goods
and a great number of other articles: these pro-
moted by the vast water-power in the State,
which makes electricity available for their use.
All of these activities have together contributed
to make Sao Paulo the leading State in business,
in railways, and in educational facilities.

FISH-PONDS AND BUILDINGS OF THE DIRECTORY OF ANIMAL
INDUSTRY, SAO PAULO

' THE CITY OF SAO PAULO

SAO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO 207

The surface of the city is irregular with hills
and valleys, in consequence of which the blocks
in the business section are of all shapes, so that
the streets are about as crooked as those of
Boston. Gullies increase the picturesque ap-
pearance. One, where the raising of tea was
attempted, is now crossed by the Viaducto do
Cha, eight hundred feet long and fifty wide,
which leads to the commercial center and to the
Largo de Palacio, around which are the fine
Government buildings.

The tourist usually patronizes the excellent
and well-located Hotel Esplanada, from which
he may first visit at least notice with admira-
tion the imposing Municipal Theater near
by, said to surpass any in the United States; and
then walk across the Viaduct to see the section
containing the Government and the business
buildings, the activity there displayed, the
shopping district, and the oldest and best of the
churches.

The fine avenues and the greater distances, on
the other side where the Theater is located, will
tempt one to a drive, though buses and tram
cars are available. One should pass Mackenzie
College, founded by Americans forty years ago,
and affiliated with the University of the State
of New York. It is said to have served as a model
for Government Schools. Among the many
miles of asphalt avenues, lined with handsome

208 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

residences and large trees, the finest is the
Paulista, a boulevard with a shaded parkway
along the center. One will, of course, include
a visit to the Ypiranga Museum, erected on the
spot where Brazil's independence was proclaimed
in 1822 by Dom Pedro, who thus became the first
Emperor. The Museum contains treasures of
historical and scientific interest, paintings by
Brazilian artists, and valuable relics.

The beautiful park, Jardim da Luz, opposite
the Luz railway station, should not be over-
looked, and sortie persons would be interested in
the Hotel of Immigrants, where thousands have
been welcomed, entertained, and sent on their
way rejoicing. More exceptional, indeed, is the
Butantn Snake Farm, a little outside the city,
which no one should miss, even though like
myself he or she has no fondness for snakes.
Founded by the late Dr. Vital Brazil, it is now
a Government institution. Housed in little
stone coops, within an enclosure made secure by
moat and smooth stone walls, are specimens of
the ten venomous snakes of Brazil. Sometimes,
for a crowd of visitors, an attendant picks up
a squirming creature by the nape of his neck,
which he then squeezes, so extracting one or two
drops of venom which fall into a glass held by
another. Serums made from the venom of these
snakes have reduced the mortality from snake-
bites in Brazil from ninety per cent to three.

RAILWAY FROM SANTOS TO SAO PAULO

HIGHWAY FROM SAO PAULO TO RIO DE JANEIRO

SAO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO 209

The serums are sent on request to all parts of the
world.

One variety is especially cultivated, a large
black snake called Mussurama, harmless to
people, but not to his poisonous relatives, which
he swallows for a real meal. On my own first
visit to Brazil in 1912, Dr. Brazil paid me the
honor of allowing one to perform for my benefit;
but it is not often done for the casual visitor.
Snakes of this variety are occasionally sent to
a section where poisonous ones abound to
diminish their number; a praiseworthy work.

If one has time to spare, a trip by rail or motor
to a coffee plantation orfozenda near Campinas,
fifty miles out or more, will be a pleasure. The
owner of the one which I visited, with half a mil-
lion coffee trees, has a magnificent residence, and
gardens with rare orchids and eight hundred
varieties of roses. The rows of coffee trees or
bushes, seeming infinite in number, many bear-
ing white flowers and red berries at the same
time, form a pretty picture. A family of three or
four can take care of ten thousand trees, and,
cultivating other products meanwhile, is able to
live on the proceeds.

It would be well to postpone the visit to the
Ypiranga Museum to the day of departure, as
the site is not far from the point on the cliff where
the motor road begins the wonderful descent to
Santos. From the port oae should take a steamer

2io FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

in the early evening which will arrive at Rio
about dawn, if he desires to see it first in all its
glory, as he will if Heaven is kind,

Rio DE JANEIRO, capital of the great State of
Brazil, which covers about two fifths of South
America and is a trifle larger than the United
States proper, is generally conceded to be, as
many besides Dr. Saville have remarked, 'the
loveliest place in the world.' The city now con-
tains nearly two million inhabitants. Whether
arriving by airplane or by steamer, one lands at
the foot of Rio's magnificent chief business
avenue, Rio Branco, lined with splendid build-
ings of varied architecture, in front of which are
the broad and widely famed mosaic sidewalks.
But it is by sea that the approach to the city in
early morning is most delightful, when the light
from the east on the hills in and behind the city,
in perfect weather enhances the ever-charming
scene to a vision of unparalleled loveliness.

Favored by nature above all others, Rio pos-
sesses the most beautiful site in the world suit-
able for a great city; together with a harbor
which is nowhere surpassed, or, I believe,
equaled, for ease of entrance, size, safety, and
depth of water; with docks but two miles from
the broad ocean. While the city's greatest attrac-
tions are thus a gift of nature, its officials during
the last thirty years have endeavored, not in

SAO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO 211

vain, to make the city worthy of its surround-
ings. That, as a Brazilian once wrote, has been
'the work of an enterprise/

Among the splendid hotels I choose the Gloria,
though some Americans prefer the Copacabana,
four miles out, facing the broad Atlantic and
harboring a gambling casino, but to my mind
inferior in prospect and convenience. The
Gloria Hotel, hardly ten minutes from the city's
center, five by motor car, fronts on the beautiful
Beira Mar, a boulevard four miles long, unrivaled
even on the shores of the Mediterranean. Pages
of a guidebook are needed to enumerate, much
more describe, half of Rio's glories, a few familiar
to many who have seen them in pictures only.

Such is Corcovado, a peak twenty-three hun-
dred feet high, almost in the heart of the city; to
be ascended by cogged-wheel railway at the first
moment when a clear view of the extraordinary
sea- and landscape is probable. See Naples and
die? No! See Rio and live! to go again and
again. The conjunction of city, pellucid bays,
rugged cliffs, higher peaks, and tropical vegeta-
tion seen from above, is enchanting. The view
from Tijuca more beautiful? 'Impossible!' says
one at Corcovado. But in any case one must
take that long automobile drive of four hours;
five, if you pause at the proper outlooks for the
varied views along that mountain road, coming
down to return, after passing stately Gavea, by

212 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

the avenue along the sea and Beira Mar: un-
questionably the most magnificent four-hour
drive in the world.

Everyone goes in a car swung on a cable to the
top of the Sugar Loaf, Pao de Assucar, at the
harbor entrance, preferably about sunset, not
only to see that, but also the twinkling lights
gradually coming out on the hills above the city's
center. Petropolis, the city's summer capital,
three thousand feet above, is another delightful
excursion by motor road of recent construction;
and a sail on the Guanabara Bay is a pleasure
unalloyed.

On the main avenue, Rio Branco, one can but
notice the splendid Municipal Theater, perfect
with all mechanical and electrical devices; the
National Library nearly opposite with probably
the most valuable collection of examples of all
schools and periods of typographic art to be
found in South America, with many of the choic-
est rarities. Next door is the Fine Arts Museum,
in which will be found many works of the old
masters. The various parks everyone will enjoy,
especially the Botanical Garden with its rows of
superb Royal Palms, and hundreds of other
interesting examples of Brazilian flora; also the
Quinta de Boa Vista containing the National
Museum, formerly the Winter Palace of Dom
Pedro II.

The Avenida do Mangu6, a drainage canal

THE CORCOVADO
Colossal statue of Christ on summit in process of erection

PRACA FLORIANO, RIO DE JANEIRO

Theater at the right; Monroe Palace in the background;

the Sugar Loaf in the distance

SAO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO 213

a mile and a half long, with massive stone em-
bankments, two rows of palms on each side,
paved ways for wagons, and asphalt for auto-
mobiles, is an example of how useful things may
be made ornamental Churches and palaces
there are, deserving attention, and the narrow
world-famed street Ouvidor, on which no vehicles
of any kind are allowed, the ultra-fashionable
street for shopping. Specialties in jewelry of blue
butterfly wings, the really excellent Brazil dia-
monds, emeralds, and semi-precious stones may
be better purchased elsewhere in the city, as also
native laces and other interesting souvenirs.

Important clubs, three of which may be men-
tioned, should be visited if possible: the Jockey
Club, which has lately constructed a hippodrome
and race-course out near Mount Gavea, to rival
that at Buenos Aires; also near Gavea a football
club with athletic fields of all kinds, and a
modern country club of still more recent date.

The many little peculiarities of the place and
the people, of much interest to one wishing really
to be acquainted with them, may not be given
here. By all means go and see for yourself; by
boat> tourist class, or airplane, according to the
length and fullness of your purse; and you will
ever after cherish visions of delight.

CHAPTER XXIV
NORTH BRAZIL

UNLESS expecting to return soon, most persons
will leave beautiful Rio with regret, however
eager they may be to reach home. I should have
been glad tp remain a month or two longer, but
to carry out my plans it was needful to hasten
to New York. In a direct flight from Rio to
Miami, little could be seen of the cities en route
beyond the picture from above. To wait a week
for the next airplane, however agreeable in
Bahia, Pernambuco, or Pard, was out of the
question. But on investigation I Hiscovered that,
by leaving Rio on Wednesday in a plane of ^ the
Brazil Condor, I might have two days ii^Per-
nambuco, continuing my flight northward in the
Nyrba Commodore which would leave Rio on
Friday. Thus I should have, also, two days'
respite from excessively early rising; and it was
so arranged.

Accordingly, June 4, I rose at 3.30 A.M.,
coffee being ordered for 4.15. As it did not
arrive, I descended, ready to depart, and had
some in the office. My day not expiring until
5 P.M., I was provided with a luncheon; a for-
tunate circumstance, as none was furnished by
the Condon Taking a taxi at 445, I arrived, as

NORTH BRAZIL 215

directed, at five at Caes Pharoux: the old docks
where I landed from a steamer on my first visit to
Brazil in 1912. After some delay for other pas-
sengers and the pilot, we sailed in a steam launch
to an island in the bay. It was still dark, and
coffee was offered in the hangar. When it was
quite light, we put out in a small boat to the
awdn. About six we took off, sailing out through
the harbor entrance, having a pretty view of
islands, curving shores, and abrupt headlands.
Corcovado, surrounded by clouds, lifted its
head above them. The Sugar Loaf was clear, and
the entire coast. Outside the harbor, we turn
east along the shore, which for a long distance
shows lovely green hills and mountains, and we
pass islands on the right.

Of Cape Frio, long a familiar name, I was glad
to have an actual view. The Cape is a rather
sharp corner, where the coastline running east
from Rio turns N.N.E. to Victoria, thence run-
ning almost straight north to Bahia, where
planes from Rio are supposed to spend the first
night. Cabo Frio, probably so called on account
of strong winds at the corner, seems a curious
place; at first a long narrow point, later widening
out, with water covering the greater part. The
salt pans to me were a novelty. Unless mines
are available, with the salt nearly pure in solid
form, this seems a good and cheap way to obtain
it by evaporation along a flat coast. It is claimed

216 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

that the other Ingredients of sea water add to its
healthfulness. Beyond the Cape we went a con-
siderable distance over land, then along the
shore with mountains a little way back, and
clumps of trees near the shore. In open spaces in
the woods a few dwellings are visible in the dis-
tance, and two high peaks appear above white
clouds.

Our first call at 9.15 was at Victoria, capital of
the small State Espiritu Santo. Located on a
fine bay, the city is the outlet of the eastern part
of the very rich and well-populated State of
Minas Geraes, which has no port of its own.
Victoria seems a queer though pretty place,
composed of several towns and villages, scattered
on many coves, a river, and hills. Here we took
on gas, but, unfortunately and inexcusably, not
enough. At Caravellas, our next port of call, we
were due before noon.

Beyond Victoria we pass low mountains, fol-
lowed by a flat shore. Heavy, dark clouds appear,
and fog. Then comes sunshine as we fly above
the clouds, but about 11.20 it began to rain. The
engine seemed steady till 11.30, when the sound
became a little queer. Soon afterwards we came
down on a wooded, curving stream, where we
chugged along awhile and then stopped ; nowhere
in particular. Perhaps a quarter of a mile ahead
I could see a hut on the shore, a dug-out in the
river. After a long wait, doing nothing, a man

THE DOCKS OF RIO DE JANEIRO

RIO DE JANEIRO WITH PRAA FLORIANO AND HOTEL GLORIA
AT THE LEFT

NORTH BRAZIL 217

came from there in a canoe and soon departed.
The pilot explained that we were out of gas and
must wait an hour. Another man came and went,
also went the passenger whose destination was
Caravellas. The pilot now said that we must
wait two hours, adding that in five minutes more
we should have arrived. The mechanic, he said,
was to blame for not taking on enough gas; but
my idea was that the pilot, like a ship's captain,
was responsible for not looking after such mat-
ters, or having a helper that he could depend
upon. Four hours passed; it was 3.30 when the
gas arrived. I was, indeed, thankful that a kind
American gentleman had bestowed upon me that
morning five Saturday Evening Posts, and that
I had with me a luncheon. A long time was re-
quired to put in the gas and get started. We
chugged along the river like a steam launch. The
stream was devious, with no straight long enough
to get well to going; the wind also must be right.
Finally we rose into the air and in a few minutes
came down in front of Caravellas on the river.
It was half-past four, with Bahia, where we were
due to spend the night, four hours away, and
Ilheos, a port between, over two hours. Needs
must, that we stay at Caravellas overnight*

It was still raining in showers. Hopefully I de-
layed going ashore till at last a man came with an
umbrella. (Mine had been lost in Buenos Aires
and I had not bought another.) I was now rowed

2i8 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

to the land. It rained harder. The street along
the shore was a small river. Puddles were thick,
stepping-stones occasional. A boy carried my
hatbox and I hastened as fast as might be to the
hotel two blocks distant. A terrible place it was,
but better than none. Narrow, dark wooden
stairs led up to a dining-room, out of which was
a bedroom allotted to me. A woman brought one
sheet and a spread for the bed, some water, and
a candle stuck in a bottle.

At 6.30 dinner was served at a long table where
sat eight or ten men, less polite than those met
elsewhere. The soup with macaroni was fair.
Other dishes, rather poor, were placed on the
table, but no one took the trouble to serve. The
men helped themselves to the chicken, lettuce,
potatoes, and rice, but passed nothing unless
asked. The dessert was hard quince marmalade,
with cheese, which I never eat; bread and coffee,
of course. It didn't matter, and I withdrew speed-
ily to my own quarters, where by the dim light
of the candle I played a little solitaire and went
early to bed, in a rather disgusted frame of mind.
A noise of walking awakened me about three, and
at 4.45 I arose* For breakfast there were crackers
and coffee, but somehow I could get only tea, and
ate a single cracker. For what I received with
lodging I paid ten milreis quite all it was
worth.

Departing about six, I was taken in a canoe to

SALT WORKS, CABO FRIO, BRAZIL

VICTORIA, BRAZIL

NORTH BRAZIL 219

the seaplane, and we were soon in the air. We
flew over land to the shore and then along the
coast. There were clouds on both sides, on the
right remarkably beautiful white ones, resembling
mountains: a jagged perpendicular wall. It was
so cold that, with some difficulty, I closed the
window, though the sun was warm. A short call
was made at Belmonte, a funny little hamlet on
a flat point with water all around. Ilheos, a
prettier place, is an hour farther. Here we go
ashore and change planes and pilots, meantime
getting coffee and little cakes. This plane went
on very well, arriving before noon at Bahia,
where we should have spent the night in an ex-
cellent hotel.

Bahia, capital of the State of that name,
founded in 1549, is the oldest city in Brazil, and
was once its capital. Now in population the
fourth city in the State, it has 320,000 inhabit-
ants. Its name is really Sao Salvador, while that
of the bay is Bahia de Todos os Santos. The
harbor, one of the largest and finest in the world,
has good anchorage with a depth of forty feet
close to the shore. Bahia is a great cacao port.
The State produces the finest kind of oranges,
our navels originating there, and the most
delicious pineapples; about as much tobacco as
Cuba.

The city is more remarkable than Valparaiso
in having two distinct sections, really two stories.

220 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

On the first floor beside the docks are the shipping
offices, banks, and important commercial houses.
The second story, two hundred feet above, where
the Government buildings are situated, has also
the shopping and residential sections. Elevators
have long been in service; but January I, I93>
when new ones were installed, 10,700 people used
them between 8 P.M. and midnight. The two pas-
senger elevators make the 195-foot trip in seven-
teen seconds, believed a record. The city is not
merely commercial, but is a seat of artistic and
literary culture and of sumptuous religious
sanctuaries. There are picturesque places to
visit, the lighthouse, and lovely parks. A notable
peculiarity is that its monuments are symbolic in
character; no statues or busts of heroes, but one
to an English philanthropist, Dr. Paterson, whose
good works were many. From the airplane we
had a splendid view of the harbor, which if seen
before Rio's would excite superlative praise. We
pause merely to deliver mail and receive a pas-
senger, in our hurry to reach Pernambuco before
night. When there is semi-weekly service one
will be repaid for a stop-over here; but as I had
been there earlier, I had planned to call at Recife,
never previously visited.

Leaving Bahia, we had a fine view of moun-
tains, later finding the coast low with white or
gray sand scattered along the shore for many
miles: probably monazite, from which thorium is

CARAVELLAS, BRAZIL

ILHEOS, BRAZIL

NORTH BRAZIL 221

produced, largely used in gas mantles. In two
hours we called at Aracajti, capital of a smaller
State, Sergipe, and in two hours more at Macei6,
all in good time for Recife, less than two hours
beyond. I was astonished when a man came up
and said I should get out. I refused. I was going
to Recife and saw no reason for debarking there.
Then came the pilot, who declared that some-
thing must be done to the plane; it would take an
hour, and I must go ashore. I walked around
awhile until I was informed that repairs would
consume four hours, and all must remain over-
night. I was truly indignant. This seemed in-
excusable. But I was helpless. An automobile
was at hand, which I took for the two-mile drive
to the town, where I arrived about five at the
principal hotel.

Maceio, capital of Alag6as, population seventy
thousand, is called a modern city, having tram
cars, electricity, and a really respectable hotel.
Unhappily it was full no room available for
a lone woman. Across the street in a poor house
with no conveniences of any sort a room could be
had. As I had met an agreeable American and
an Argentine gentleman who asserted that this
was the best hotel in the place, I accepted the
poor room, hoping for a good dinner on the
pleasant veranda in the warm evening. In this
I was not wholly disappointed, though naturally
the hotel did not compare with that at Recife,

222 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

a city of 400,000. The American was very polite,
but having guests to dinner upstairs, he could
do no more than send me a small bottle of wine.
Up Friday at 445, coffee at 5.15, I left the hotel
at 5.30, departed in the plane about seven, and
arrived in Recife at nine.

CHAPTER XXV
PERNAMBUCO, NATAL, FORTALEZA, PARA

THE city, called by foreigners from the name of
the State of which it is the capital, is properly
Recife (reef), so named from the reef which
extends one thousand miles along the coast.
Visible in a straight line for a great distance, the
reef is here so close to the shore that it helps to
form a splendid harbor, strengthened by concrete
to form a natural breakwater. The peculiarity of
the city is clear from the photographs. The air-
plane moves so rapidly that in admiring its
remarkable appearance, the precise outlines may
be confused or ignored. The outer section, a nar-
row island close to the reef, is naturally the port
and commercial district; a stone jetty allowing
suitable entrance to the well-protected harbor.
On a second island, Sao Antonio, the Government
buildings are located, while the residential dis-
trict on the mainland, called Boa Vista, extends
broadly to the back, with wide avenues, electric
cars, parks, hotels, etc.

The city was built on marshy ground, which by
drainage canals and filling in has gradually been
solidified, the Rockefeller Foundation helping to
eradicate malaria. The Hall of Congress and the
President's Palace (some States have Presidents

224 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

instead of Governors) are noteworthy, and two
churches, Nossa Senhora de Pacha and Boa Vista.
The bridges afford lovely panoramic views. A
suburb, Olinda, is called a shore resort, but per-
haps better worth visiting is an estate of that
name of forty-five square miles bordering on the
sea, a fringe of coconut trees along the shore, with
pasture and woodland in the rear. In connection
with cotton factories, where they spin, dye,
weave, color, and print, there is a stock farm
and dairy, schools and hospital; a flourishing
community. The cotton used is of the finest
quality with long silky staple, raised elsewhere
in Brazil, and the product is of the first quality.
Regretting that my time in Recife should be-
come one day instead of two, it was sad, indeed,
that I was so tired with my early risings that
I must take a nap before going out, and that only
on one morning instead of two during the eight
days from Rio to Miami could I sleep to a rea-
sonable hour. Going all the way with Nyrba it
would have been six days straight. The hotel
where I stayed, doubtless the best, patronized by
Nyrba, has a large dining-room on the top floor
where many of those present were plainly Amer-
icans. Several days I should gladly spend in this
unusual city, called also the Brazilian Venice, but
the next morning I must leave at eleven, first
making two calls, one on our Consul, who kindly
presented a map of the city, another on the Ger-

BAHIA: POINT AND LIGHTHOUSE

BAHIA: THE UPPER AND LOWER TOWNS WITH THE ELEVATOR
(AT LEFT) CONNECTING THE TWO

NATAL 225

man Consul, who escorted me to the top of the
fairly high building, which afforded an excellent
view of the land and waterways of this interesting
city.

Leaving the dock at eleven, I was soon on
board the Nyrba plane afloat in the bay, which
I was sorry to see was a Sikorsky; for in these,
the seats of the chairs were too low for my com-
fort, and the backs too straight. It was the in-
tention to employ Commodores all the way from
Buenos Aires to Miami, but in the early days the
traffic was insufficient to make their use practical
in this section. The morning was pleasant, the
sky dotted with beautiful white clouds, others
a lovely gray or pearl, and some tinged with red
or yellow. For luncheon I had a little chocolate
and a roll brought from Rio, with an orange
presented by the friendly pilot.

At 1. 20 we reached Natal, a pretty place near
the sea, where I was almost sorry that I had not
stopped instead of at Recife; since Natal has
been rapidly coming into prominence by reason
of aviation. This city, capital of Rio Grande do
Norte, now with a population of thirty thousand,
is the one nearest to Africa; the port and goal
for all fliers from Europe. Here landed Ramon
Franco Coutinho, Major Dargue, and many
others. The Aero-Postale sent their fast mail
boats here, and here Mermos landed in May,
1930, with the first mail from Europe brought all

226 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

the way by air. I had the pleasure of meeting
him a little later in Rio, a very modest hero, who
had in the Eastern Hemisphere previously per-
formed still greater feats than this. The Zeppelin,
though passing Natal, gave Recife the preference
for landing, as the larger city offered better
facilities for supplies, as well as a mooring-mast.

The head of the State of Rio Grande do Sul,
Dr. Lamartine, progressive also in other ways,
has a great personal interest in aviation. Though
the State is the fourth smallest in Brazil in area
and the sixth smallest in population, it has, or
then had, more landing-fields for planes than all
the rest of Brazil. The State President, in June,
1930, had installed landing- fields in twenty-nine
counties, to follow, in twenty-one more, before
the end of the year. The first field in Natal was
given to the celebrated French Company by
1928, as the service from Toulouse to Buenos
Aires was inaugurated in March of that year,
weekly service continuing to the present. In
July, 1929, it was prolonged to Santiago, Chile,
and later to Comodoro Rivadavia and to Asun-
cion, as previously mentioned.

The local Aero Club has a field, as well as a
clubhouse, tennis courts, etc., and several air-
planes. A passenger service between Rio Grande
do Norte and Pernambuco was subsidized by the
President of Natal when the larger State would
not undertake the responsibility. It is a two

TWO VIEWS OF RECIFE (pERNAMBUCO)

FORTALEZA 227

hours' flight only. When the President wishes
to visit any part of the State, he does it by air.
This enterprising State and city has recently
constructed jetties and docks, making a first-
class port, where large ships are received; and
two lighthouses have been built.

This State has another distinction, not so
widely heralded, yet it will interest many. It is
the first Brazilian State in which women were
allowed to vote: a change due to the President,
who, including this in his platform, was unani-
mously elected. In 1930 there were five women
members of county councils, and one was a
Mayor. Other reforms have been instituted and
were working well.

The Sikorsky plane, going faster than the Com-
modore, arrived at our destination more than an
hour ahead of time. Fortaleza, the capital of
Cear&, is a very poor port on account of drifting
sands. The State is subject to severe droughts,
which they hope to remedy by the construction of
reservoirs, not yet accomplished. We rode to
a good hotel, where I had a better room than at
Recife, and time later for a drive around town
before dinner, an attractive place with handsome
private residences and pretty plazas. Native
laces and colored hats were purchasable at a
small price.

It seemed that the next day might be a long
one. Though the scheduled hour to depart was

228 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

seven, we were notified that we should go at five;
hence I rose by 4.15, and we left soon after five.
It was a beautiful morning, the clouds tinted at
the top with red and gold. Low mountains were
visible in the distance and later others were near.
Lagoons were seen along the shore and one
clump of houses, with fishing-nets at the end of
a long pole, perhaps wide enough to walk out on.
Though mainly green, some yellow sand-banks
appear, in one section with sand-dunes like those
in Southern Peru. Dense woods grow close to the
sands, and to rivers and bays. Now the flat
country extends far back with slight elevations.
We call at a very small place, Camocim, to leave
mail, then at Amarragao; these two in the State
of Piauhy; the latter port on the shore of the
Parnahyba River which separates this from the
next State, Maranhao. Two hours more bring
us to the latter's capital, often called by its name,
but more properly Sao Luis, a city of over sixty
thousand, on an island. Cotton and barbassii
nuts are important productions, cattle as well;
there is forest wealth and some cotton factories.
Our luncheon was better than some others;
tender chicken easily negotiated, rolls, and very
small bananas, these usually better than large
ones. Two passengers who spoke English had
departed somewhere. We flew rapidly, some of
the time making one hundred and twenty miles
an hour, accomplishing the flight of nearly eight

DOCKS AT NATAL, BRAZIL

GOVERNOR AND CITIZENS AT NATAL

PARA 229

hundred miles in eight hours including stops.
We arrived in Par4 at two instead of 4.10, gaining
an hour by change of time going west.

I was glad to arrive early, as I had never before
had an opportunity to visit this noted and beauti-
ful place, almost as near the Equator as Quito,
but widely different in every other respect. Pard,
properly Belem, has double the population, and
being a seaport instead of far inland, is much
more cosmopolitan. I had long wished to see
this city, once famed as the greatest shipper of
rubber, the best of which was called f Par fine.'
I had read of its attractions, and of the jungle
country, delightfully described in Tomlinson's
'Sea and Jungle,' which I was happy to note
favorably before the second edition attained
belated fame. I now hoped at least to visit
Park's wonderful park and museum.

For some strange reason, as we were still in
Brazil, we were obliged to wait a half-hour on the
float for the police and the doctor to inspect us,
and for the customs official to inspect our bag-
gage. However, after I showed the latter a letter
from the Minister of Agriculture, he was polite
enough not to open my baggage. Soon after our
arrival, the Nyrba plane came from the north and
we all proceeded to the splendid sixty-million-
dollar docks, built in the boom days of rubber.
The quay wall has a long space with a depth
of thirty feet for ocean steamers, and another

230 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

space for boats of lighter draft. With electric
cranes, railways, and warehouses the port com-
pares with larger cities in manner of equipment.

Entertained at the best hotel north of Rio, it is
said, on the finest plaza, Praga da Republica,
I should have been glad to wait for the next air-
plane for a rest and sight-seeing. It seemed
rather warm, and with a shower bath near I
decided to take one. But, instead of being re-
freshed, I then felt so tired that I concluded it
was more important for me to return in fair con-
dition than to see the city; so I took a nap in-
stead. I had accepted the invitation of the polite
Nyrba Agent to have a cocktail with him at
seven, but I should have appreciated it more at
the moment. A nip of aguardiente, such as I was
served with years ago when coming in from a
long day's horseback ride in Peru, would have
enabled me to see the city instead of taking
a nap.

I went to dinner at the appointed hour, but no
cocktail man appeared, and I had to eat alone.
He explained later that pressing business de-
tained him. After dinner, there was dancing; the
Brazilians graceful, but not the foreigners. I may
remark in passing that the finest dancing I ever
chanced to see was at the Gloria Hotel in 1922 by
a Brazilian, with his wife and two daughters as
partners, one at a time; the most graceful I have
ever witnessed. It was no gymnastic perform-

PARA 231

ance, no twirling on toes, or raising them as high
as the head ; but real dancing which any cultured
person might enjoy and imitate if endowed with
sufficient skill. I afterwards heard that the man
had great success in Paris, though New York
failed to invite him.

Pari possesses surpassing charm, and with air
service twice a week most persons would stop
over. Though it often rains and is warm, the
mercury seldom reaches ninety. The streets and
plazas are beautifully shaded, and in a short car
ride one may reach the Bosque, where within the
city a bit of the jungle was left. The paths and
artificial ponds make it different from the real
article; but that, few tourists would care to pene-
trate. One may, however, see real jungle from
a railway, by making a sixteen-mile excursion,
or traveling forty-four miles to Braganga on the
ocean.

The Goeldi Museum is famous for its tropical
collections, with botanical and zoological gar-
dens including fine specimens of the Amazonian
forest, plant life and birds, live monkeys and
larger mammals, alligators and snakes galore,
electric eels, and birds with gorgeous plumage.
The old cathedral (1710) is worth visiting, and
several other churches, Our Lady of Nazareth,
with sailors' gifts, wax images of boats. The
Paz Theater with splendid columns of white
marble contrasts in tranquil grandeur with the

232 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

luxuriant foliage around. The interior is beauti-
fully decorated with paintings by De Angelis, a
foyer with inlaid floor, and it has all modern
devices for lighting and stage.

The markets present attractions different
from those in other cities. Fishes are there in
little sailboats with gayly colored sails; strange
ones, before unseen; turtles in hundreds. The
regular market near by presents foodstuffs of
the region and curios for the souvenir hunter,
Indian bow and arrows, monkeys, parrots, and
skins of animals, at one fourth to one tenth
what might be paid In New York. The Inde-
pendencia Praja is adorned with flower-beds as
well as trees and shrubs, but no one steps on
lawns or plucks a flower, unless it be someone
from the land which a Brazilian lady once de-
clared was that of barbarians.

It is, indeed, a pity that, while the West Coast
has air service twice a week, the East Coast,
with far greater population and business interests,
has only one. We may hope that even in these
hard times this condition will soon be remedied.

CHAPTER XXVI
COMING HOME

MY LAST night in South America! which I was
leaving with more than my usual regret. Per-
haps, as I said to President Leguia, I should
never go again, though I still have hopes. At
the moment there seems more important work
at home. The more I had seen in familiar ways
and in novel and less frequented places, the
more I wished to return; to see more of the
back country and small towns, and to make
real visits in cities where I had spent a few
minutes or hours. I often think how utterly
stupid are those people who, with plenty of
money, commit suicide, when there is so much
in the world to enjoy if they have the slightest
intelligence, and how much good they might do
if they had any conscience. How stupid also
not to read and learn about other countries;
in ignorance to fancy that your own must be the
best in every respect, that all should live as you
do, and that your ideas should everywhere pre-
vail!

To bed at 11.30 with everything packed
except what could go into a shawl strap! Thus,
with alarm set at 340 I was below at 4.09, where
I found the pilots and had orangeade, a roll,

234 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

coffee, and some pina, pineapple, a good break-
fast, leaving about 440. A little after five, we
rowed out to the plane and took off in the dark-
ness. Soon there was a faint light, but a half-
hour passed before I could see the water over
which we were flying, the Para River; for Par
is eighty miles from the ocean on a river, not
properly the Amazon, but the outlet for the
Tocantins, here called the Par&. The sunlight on
clouds made a beautiful picture, and presently
the sun came above the horizon. But the sky
was soon overcast, with clouds again wonder-
fully white; then mountains apparently were
among them and pearly caves. After consider-
able time above water, the direct route took us
over land, the Marajo Island, north of which is
the true mouth of the Amazon. The island has
a greater area than either Holland or Belgium;
but we fly over a small, thickly wooded stretch
of it, and then above the real Amazon, the brown
waters of which may, for many a mile out, be
distinguished from the sea.

The coast at the north is flat and green, barren
or forested, with occasional pools of water, in
one of which an unheard-of village is situated,
Montenegro, where at eight we make our first
call to take gas, since it was forbidden to call at
or sail over French Guiana. A recent treaty
making this possible, the station at Montenegro
is abandoned for one at Cayenne. I recognized

COMING HOME 235

the mouth of the Oyapock River, the dividing
line between Brazil and Guiana, where Latin
America is left behind for a while. We had been
flying nearly north along the coast, which here
turns more to the northwest as far as Trinidad.

Cayenne, capital of French Guiana, we see in
the distance, pleasantly located on a hill over-
looking the bay. With a better location than
Georgetown, it might be more attractive; but
the use of the colony as a penal settlement has
doubtless been a drawback to other immigration.
We flew over Devil's Island; there are three,
looking rather pretty but recalling tragedies:
among them the notable case of Dreyfus, freed
after long years of unjust imprisonment through
the work of Clemenceau. Blair Niles, who
visited the islands, told thrilling tales of the hard-
ships of the prisoners, especially in their at-
tempted escapes. One can but rejoice when, as
happens rarely, a man preserved from the
dangers of sea or jungle, wins through to free-
dom. One may hope that some day the French
will adopt a better plan, or find a more remote
island where the prisoners may live in better
case.

Our next halting-place, a five hours* flight
from Montenegro, was Paramaribo, capital of
Dutch Guiana. From our casual view it really
appeared Dutch certainly clean if not beauti-
ful. Strange to say, a hot luncheon was brought

236 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

out to us (as ordered) in tin pails with tiers, as
sometimes sent to workmen. There was meat in
chunks, potatoes, and beets. Apparently the
rest liked it; they certainly ate. A little was
enough for me. An experiment, the pilot said.

According to the latest schedule an overnight
call is made at Paramaribo on the flight south.
One who has recently made the trip calls this the
most tranquil capital in the world : a quaint and
fascinating Dutch city, a quiet, soothing place,
which I think some millions of our countrymen
with high taut nerves would do well to visit for
a long period. There all calmly ride bicycles,
with no alarm for the few automobiles in the
place. Every front porch in the town is scrubbed
clean and no child would be seen with a dirty
face. The bustling markets are different, for
queerly garbed people there jabber in many
tongues over the variety of wares for sale. In
the wilderness back of the town are 'Bush*
people, descendants of escaped African slaves
who mingled with the native Indians. They
sometimes come to the city with carvings of
wood: combs, bowls, chairs, bracelets, etc.,
unusual curios.

Four hours later, we arrived at Georgetown,
capital of British Guiana, a curious place with
population of sixty thousand, green, flat, and
damp, houses on stilts or pillars, but with fifty
miles of broad paved streets, a club, a museum,

COMING HOME 237

and fine roads on which one may motor seventy
miles into the heart of the jungle. In all of the
Guianas there is higher land at the back; some
of it pasture or savannah, the resf dense forests
little explored. Here and there gold is found and
diamonds; agriculture, especially sugar, is fol-
lowed, and forestry. Many East Indians are
employed on plantations, picturesque in their
peculiar garb.

A notable waterfall is the Kaieteur, about
which exaggerated statements have been made.
It is nearly five times as high as Niagara in the
midst of beautiful tropical vegetation; but the
mass of water is vastly less.

The time has been changed twice, gaining two
hours, so we leave the last two places earlier
than we arrived. It is now three and a half
hours to the Port of Spain. We find the coast
still flat, though higher at the back, and at length
"perceive the brown waters of the Orinoco Delta,
third in size in South America, recognizing
Venezuela, again Latin America, the only South
American Republic by me left unvisited. This
part of the coast is flat, wet, and sparsely in-
habited, but farther west it is different.

Now at the right we see the green hills of
Trinidad. Flying over land, we observe some
villages, but do not descry the famous and very
valuable pitch lake, asphalt from which does serv-
ice on many of our streets. At last there is a

238 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

great cove where we descend among large ships.
After a while we are passed to the land with
baggage unopened and drive in automobiles to
the well-known Queen's Park Hotel, a real old
English establishment facing a broad green. ^

Trinidad is a cosmopolitan, fascinating city,
where one might be glad to spend a week or two.
Here are turbaned Hindoos, Japanese in native
dress, Chinese in kipcmos, Turks, East Indians,
Europeans and Americans, the English, of
course, predominating, and a variety of churches
to suit them all. Many kinds of queer articles on
safe will tempt the most sophisticated.

We have been flying fourteen and one half
hours, though hjy the clock here it is only half-
past six; truly a long day. People dress for the
dinner at 7.30, and it is a good one, the best
since leaving Rio, ending with ice cream and a
benedictine. The Nyrba Agent is sociable, and
alas! it is 11.30 before I am in bed, to rise, dear
me! at 3.30. I am downstairs at four, the boys
are there; we have the inevitable English toast,
but American coffee instead of tea. We leave
at 4.30, at five are on board and off. The moon is
sinking, and there is a slight dawn; the days
getting longer, as we come north in June, but
until six there is no real sun.

At first we fly over the open sea with no land
in sight, but presently islands come into view
at some of which we call After a flight of two

COMING HOME 239

hundred and twenty miles in two and a half
hours, we pause a few minutes at Port Castries
on the Island of Santa Lucia with green hills and
pretty coves. At this point, I hear, a plane l^as
been known to halt long enough, while taking on
gas, for half of the passengers, earlier notified,
to don bathing-suits, to dive off the air finer for
a dip in the cool clear water of a purplish tint,
while phosphorus lends sparkles to the splashing
waves. * * /

It is a little farther to St. John's, capital of the
British Leeward Islands, but more interesting,
as the isles are nearer together; among these we
pass Martinique with famous Mont Pelee,
which gave so disastrous an eruption years ago,
when thirty thousand people perished. The
mountain is symmetrical and green, except for
a scar burned by molten lava, but with few
settlements near instead of a large city as for-
merly. We are two hours on this leg of the
journey to St. John's, but as clocks change again
it is only ten instead of eleven.

Several pretty islands are passed before we
arrive at St. Thomas, capital of the Virgin
Islands, recently become a part of the United
States, not altogether to the satisfaction of the
residents. It is also pleasing in appearance with
coves and hills. We recall that from this island
our first great Secretary of the Treasury,
Alexander Hamilton, came to the United States.

240 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

Here a lady embarked for our next station,
Puerto Rico, which, on the contrary, as we see it
in passing, is flat, with much land in cultivation ;
our halt is in San Juan, the capital, where there
is a strange mingling of old Spanish and new
American. A place named San Pedro de Macoris
is on the schedule, on the south shore of Santo
Domingo, recently devastated by a hurricane.
These storms seem less dangerous to airplanes
than to islands, as the former can move out of the
way, seeing them in the distance early enough to
do so, or, carrying wireless, being seasonably in-
formed of bad weather. After flying a good
distance along the south coast of this large island,
we cross first a flat district and then fly through
a gulch thirty-six miles, among the mountains,
to the western shore. At the head of a bay,
Porte au Prince is located, where we paused for
the night.

The steamer on which I sailed to Puerto
Colombia called here on the way down, when I
had time for a pleasant drive around the very
attractive city with a population of one hundred
and twenty thousand. It has fine public build-
ings, beautiful homes, and several good hotels.
In recent years many improvements have been
made and the island has now about four hundred
miles of good motor roads. The climate and
scenery are such as to make a few days' stay
agreeable. Arriving at 5.30, we were driven to a

COMING HOME 241

small hotel In the suburbs, kept and chiefly
frequented by Americans, some of them regular
boarders. One dined on the veranda agreeably,
and heard a little of the alarm some persons had
experienced when a dangerous uprising was
feared not long before.

Early to bed at 9.30 in order to rise at 4.30
for the last day's flight. On board the plane at
six, now in sunlight, all ready to go; but some-
how we did not get off. Everyone who has done
much flying is aware that a breeze is desirable for
a take-off. This harbor is so surrounded by hills
that often no air is stirring, as seemed to be the
case that morning. Hence our trouble with a
heavily loaded plane. One pilot tried twice, then
the other. We sailed around the bay. The pas-
sengers went to the back of the plane, though I,
being light, was permitted to remain in the
middle seat. Another vain attempt to rise. We
returned to the float for more gas. Again we
sailed around and went back. I had suggested
to a fat Nyrba man that he depart, and at last
he did; with a passenger and another man.
Some gas was shed. Then the bag of mail at the
rear was brought forward; the sole man remain-
ing in the cabin, the radio operator, also went to
the front. At last, to my surprise, the plane rose,
and several hours late we were in the air. I was
a little worried about reaching Miami in time
for the 9.30 train for New York, but hoped for

242 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

the best, especially as one of the pilots also
wished to take it. To Santiago, Cuba, it was a
long way across the water, but we arrived at
2.30, leaving with no trouble fifteen minutes
later, I was hungry enough to enjoy a good
luncheon while we flew inland over a pleasing
landscape to Cienfuegos, near which it was rather
squally, so that we bounced around in the
rain. But it soon passed. We fly over small and
large towns as we approach Havana, where we
make a brief call, and in pleasant weather go
on, over the interesting Florida Keys, arriving
after dark at Miami; too late to see anything of
that city so recently become famous, but in
time to get a bit of supper at the station and
board the 9.30 train for New York. Happy was
I to be able to sleep late the next morning, to
arrive in New York on Friday, June 14, and to
have completed my most delightful air tour of
twenty thousand miles, without the slightest
accident: a tour which I heartily recommend all
who can do so to undertake.

CHAPTER XXVII
VENEZUELA

WITH regret Venezuela was omitted from my
air tour of South America. Surely I would not
willingly slight a country that I have long
desired to visit, but the opportunity was lack-
ing. In my * Industrial and Commercial South
America' I ventured to write about the region
of the North Coast, although my tours of the
continent had necessarily been confined to the
countries of the East and West.

Colombia, however, had long boasted an air
service, so that I was able to begin my tour
there, and personally confirm the opinions of
others that my previous statements about the
country had been accurate. On my return
journey, it would have been a great pleasure to
fly from the Port of Spain, along the coast of
Venezuela, as may now be done, making also a
few calls back from the coast; and go on to com-
plete the circuit at Barranquilla, thence to
fly by way of Kingston to Miami. That oppor-
tunity developed later* As Venezuela is now on
the schedule of the Pan-American Airways, I
venture again to write, as best I can, presenting
a few of its attractions, that future air travelers
may plan to include it in their own circuit or
tour.

244 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

In truth, Venezuela has certain advantages
over some other countries of South America.
With mountains along the shore much lower
than those in Peru, it is far easier to enter the
region at the back. At the same time the
coastal zone at once presents to the visitor rich
and beautiful verdure, and agreeable climates,
with many easily accessible and delightful
places among or in the rear of the mountains.

Proceeding from the Port of Spain, the first
landing is at Maturin, capital of Monagas; a
quiet town in a healthful climate, with a flourish-
ing cattle industry. Of far greater interest are
the other regular calling places. Everyone will
surely halt at La Guayra to visit several im-
portant towns in the interior. The port is
already well known, as the fame of the railway
and the motor road to the capital city is wide-
spread.

But prior to journeying upward, one, if not a
hasty traveler, will enjoy the varied scenery of
the driveway by the sea, along which luxurious
residences are scattered, to the fashionable shore
resort of Macuto, where the Hotel Miramar is
reputed to be one of the most beautiful and
up-to-date in all tropical America.

The twenty-three-mile drive up to Caracas
has still greater charm, long famous for present-
ing in its climb of four thousand feet an extra-
ordinary contrast of tropical verdure, rugged

ROAD FROM LA GUAYRA TO MACUTO

LA GUAYRA

VENEZUELA 245

mountain, and precipitous cliffs. Then, de-
scending one thousand feet, the road enters a
charming valley in which the capital is located.
The new Majestic Hotel here is said to compare
in comfort and luxury with any other in Latin
America. Thus one will be happy while visiting
the varied attractions of Caracas, such as the
Capitol, the Presidential Palace at Miraflores,
the Academy of Fine Arts, the Bolivar Museum,
and the new aristocratic Country Club with
golf course, swimming-pool, etc.

Everyone will motor to Maracay, capital of
the State of Aragua and home of the President,
General Gomez, a name as familiar in these days
as that of his country. The road, ascending to a
cold village, Los Teques, then descends to a
fertile region, where, approaching Maracay,
great herds of unique cattle may be seen, a
cross-breed of Zebus from India and Holsteins
from Europe, imported by General Gomez,
and crossed with the native stock.

Maracay in the last twenty years has had an
extraordinary development, appearing a modern
city of immaculate cleanliness and surprising
attractions. The Hotel Jardfn, again said to be
one of the finest on the continent, faces the
beautiful Plaza Bolivar, beyond which is the
well-equipped Policlinic Hospital, From this
point may be seen the tall masts of the wireless
station, which communicates with every corner

246 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

of the globe. Airplanes, military and passenger
both, skim over the town to the hangars beyond.
From the field a wide avenue leads to Lake
Valencia, a lovely freak of nature twenty-two
miles long, with twenty-two rivers flowing into
it, and twenty-two islets on its bosom. At the
Hacienda Las Delicias is an extensive Zoological
Garden with the usual animals, and all comforts
for relaxation. But of greater importance for
the populace and for the development of vari-
ous industries has been the installation of tex-
tile mills, butter and soap factories, and modern
slaughter-houses. The advancement of educa-
tional facilities has also been a part of General
Gomez's programme.

Another remarkably enjoyable drive is down
to the port Turiamo, a splendid natural harbor,
far superior to that of La Guayra, and destined
to become a great center for export as well as a
fashionable resort. Road-making has been one
of the hobbies of General Gomez, and splendid
highways have been or are being constructed
from one end of the country to the other; in the
mountainous region at the west, as well as to the
coast and over the fairly level llanos to the south-
west and the east. The Pan-American airplanes
go on, twice a week, from La Guayra to Mara-
caibo, a city also well known (capital of the
State of Zulia) as the headquarters of Vene-
zuela's great oil industry in which recently

STATUE OF BOLIVAR, MARACAY, VENEZUELA

HOTEL JARDIN, MARACAY

VENEZUELA 247

Venezuela has surpassed Russia, becoming sec-
ond in this field to the United States. The
industry, carried on by foreign companies and
capital, has been so well managed by the Govern-
ment as to produce a large revenue, by means of
which the country has developed and prospered
without seeking a loan in Wall Street or else-
where in the last twenty-five years.

Maracaibo is another city where 'Petroleum 1
tells the story of a great boom. Improvements
of all kinds were ordered by the Government
and carried out, including extensive docks.
Around the great Maracaibo Lake, one hundred
and fifty miles long and half as wide, are farming
districts, while settlements of Indians are re-
ported, inhabiting huts on piles in the lake
(for the most part shallow) in ancient fashion.
The great oil fields are chiefly east of the lake,
but some wells have been drilled in the water
and at the west. The section, regarded as a
basin of petroleum as well as of water, with some
interest for the ordinary tourist has more for the
business man. Anyone, however, might enjoy
visiting some of the mountain towns, accessible
by boat across the lake, and then by rail or
motor road above, where many towns and cities
are located at comfortable elevations.

Venezuela has been very attractive to ex-
plorers, as to Mr. Beebe, the Dickeys, and
others. They have visited the country to search

248 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

out the sources of rivers, especially the Orinoco,
to ascend Mount Rorainia, or to collect flora,
birds, or animals. More numerous, perhaps, have
been persons in quest of gold and diamonds,
metals and minerals of almost every variety,
which are to be found in the country. Visitors,
whatever their taste, cannot fail to find much
that will excite their interest.

From Maracaibo one may proceed by the
Pan-American Airways or with Scadta to Bar-
ranquilla for a stay at the Hotel El Prado,
thence perchance to fly around Colombia. If
this country has already been visited, one may
continue to Colon and fly north through Central
America and Mexico. Else, having made a com-
plete circuit of South America or of most of the
Caribbean, one may come home in palatial style
to Miami in a day and a half by one of the
great flying boats of the Pan-American-

POSTSCRIPT

INDEED, times have changed since I sailed for
Colombia November 6, 1929, and returned from
Miami to New York in June, 1930, after my
twenty-thousand-mile flight. The circuit of
South America by air was then regarded by
others as somewhat of an adventure; though to
me, once embarked in an airplane at Barran-
quilla, it was merely a novel and delightful
journey, on which I proceeded throughout the
entire distance without a qualm. The very few
slight imperfections or annoyances were trivial
to one who in mountain-climbing days had slept
on floor or adobe benches in Indian cabins, in
a tent with five Indians, or spent nine consecu-
tive nights in a tent on a glacier, and risked life
on an icy slope from which a Swiss guide (he
said later) never expected to get down alive.

The improvement in air service has been so
rapid that even little inconveniences are over.
People in general have become so 'soft* that
luxury, as well as safety, is demanded by the
majority of tourists, and this is now prepared
and realized. A fleet of one hundred multi-
motored air liners fly over the countries at the
south. Among these, the Flying Clipper Ships
accommodating forty-four passengers, which

250 FLYING OVER SOUTH AMERICA

ply between Miami and Barranquilla, are the
ne plus ultra in the world's service. Radio con-
trol stations and weather observatories with a
block-signal system for international planes
maintain guard over each liner in flight, giving
advice as to weather and flying conditions for
the entire route. Makeshift shelters are super-
seded by trim stations or floating terminals. A
record has been established for dependability
and keeping up to schedule time, which only
two major railroads have achieved.

This route between Miami and Barranquilla
is the longest over- water air line in operation:
1350 miles, 1300 over open sea. Many experi-
ments were made before the actual construction
of these great air boats, which have also auxiliary
landing-gear to permit operation over land.
Their four motors provide an aggregate of 2300
horse power. They may carry 1040 gallons of
gasoline, nearly four tons. The Clipper Ships
contain a ladies' lounge, smoking-salon, buffet,
fitted to prepare meals in the air, with electric
range and refrigerator. With real couches and
easy-chairs they afford vastly more luxurious
comfort than the finest Pullman, room to cir-
culate easily, stewards to wait upon the guests,
so to speak, and no tips essential. The tickets
include meals, in some places ordered in advance
to suit the passenger, and for through passen-
gers include night accommodations ashore.

LAKE-FRONT, MARACAIBO, VENEZUELA

CARIBBEAN PETROLEUM PROPERTY, MARACAIBO

POSTSCRIPT 251

By means of the existing air service, South
America is but two and a half days from New
York, Bogota only three. Santiago, Chile, may
be reached in six days from Panama, Buenos
Aires in seven. With this rapid locomotion one,
with little time but ample money, may visit
remote cities; or, if able to spare the weeks
essential to a cruise, will have so much more
time on land to attend to business or to become
better acquainted with the countries and the
people visited.

THE END

APPENDIX

SUMMARY OF AIR PASSENGER SERVICE

IN AND TO SOUTH AMERICA, AUGUST 17, 1932

(Overnight stops in capital letters)

PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS

Sunday and Wednesday service by Flying Clip-
per or Commodore to KINGSTON, Jamaica, and
Barranquilla, Colombia, with afternoon service by
Commodore to CRISTOBAL. Passengers from the
West may prefer to fly from Brownsville, Texas,
in three days by way of Mexico City and San Salva-
dor to CRISTOBAL*

THE WEST COAST

From Crist6bal, the Panagra division of Pan
American Airways affords service in five days to
Buenos Aires and Montevideo: by Sikorsky Am-
phibians, Crist6bal-Talara; thence by Tri-Motor
Fords to Montevideo. Calls are made at Buena-
ventura and Tumaco, Colombia, SANTA ELENA and
Guayaquil, Ecuador, Talara, Piura, Chiclayo, Pa-
casmayo, Trujillo, LIMA, Arequipa, Tacna, Peru;
Arica, ANTOFAGASTA, Ovalle, SANTIAGO, Chile;
Mendoza, Villa Mercedes, BUENOS AIRES, Argen-
tina; and the same day, MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay.

THE EAST COAST

Weekly service in nine days by Commodores,
Miami to Buenos Aires. Calls are made at Nuevi-
tas, Cuba, PORTE AU PRINCE, Haiti, San Pedro de

APPENDIX 253

Macoris, Santo Domingo, San Juan, Puerto Rico,
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, ST. JOHNS, British
Leeward Islands, Port Castries, Saint Lucia, Port
of Spain, Trinidad, GEORGETOWN, British Guiana,
Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, Cayenne, French Guiana,
PARA (Bel6m), Sao Luiz, Amarracao, Camocim,
FORTALEZA, Areia Branca, Natal, Pernambuco
(Recife), Macei6, BAHIA, Ilh6os, Caravellas, Vic-
toria, Rio DE JANEIRO, Santos, Paranagud, Floria-
nopolis, PORTO ALEGRE, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil]
Montevideo, Uruguay, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina.

THE NORTH COAST

Port of Spain by Sikorsky Amphibians weekly to
Maturin, La Guaira, MARACAIBO, Venezuela, semi-
weekly to Barranquilla, Commodore to Crist6baL

ADDITIONAL SERVICE IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES
COLOMBIA

The Scadta Airways System has daily service ex-
cept Mondays from Barranquilla to Puerto Berrio,
Girardot, and Bogoti in about seven hours. Other
ports on the Magdalena River: Magangu6, El
Banco, Gamarra, Puerto Wilches (train service to
Bucaramanga in a few hours). Barranca Bermeja,
La Dorada, have service from one to five times a
week. From Puerto Berrio there is semi-weekly
service to Medellin, Cali, and Buenaventura; also
twice a week from Cali to Buenaventura; once a
week Buenaventura to Istmina and Quibd6 north,
and to Guapf and Tumaco south. Service four
times a week from Barranquilla to Cartagena in
three quarters of an hour, and daily except Sunday
from Barranquilla to Q6naga (Santa Marta) in
half an hour, and return later.

254 APPENDIX

PERU

Peru at the moment has semi-weekly service
from San Ram6n to Masisea and Iquitos and hopes
for service later to Chachapoyas, Moyabamba,
and Puerto Maldonado. The Faucett Company
gives service along the coast from Lima to Talara
twice a week, and to Arequipa once. Faucett and
Panagra afford special service as may be desired.

BOLIVIA

Service in 2 hours and 20 minutes semi-weekly
from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz with calls at
Sucre and Valle Grande, and elsewhere when de-
sired. A line to Todos Santos and Trinidad in the
north is operated weekly except when the rains
make the landing field useless. Twice a month there
is service from Santa Cruz to Puerto Suarez, and to
Corumbi, Brazil, on the Paraguay River, designed
to connect with the Brazil Condor for Rio de
Janeiro and with the Zeppelin for Europe when
flights are regularly made as now expected. Also
there is rail connection from Porto Esperanga to
Rio de Janeiro and by steamer on the Paraguay and
Parani Rivers to Buenos Aires.

CHILE

The Linea A6rea Nacional affords service three
times a week from Arica to Santiago in a day and a
half with calls at Iquique, Maria Elena, ANTO-
FAGASTA, Copiap6, Vallenar, Ovalle, Illapel, SAN-
TIAGO ; and south weekly to Chilian, Temuco, and
PUERTO MONTT. Occasional service to Puerto Aysen,
and rarely to Baker, Natales, and Magallanes.
Branch service is given from the main line to the im-

APPENDIX 255

portant cities, Tocopilla, Calamd, Chanaral, Po
trerillos ; and La Serena, near Coquimbo.

ARGENTINA

Service formerly rendered by the Aero Postale
south to Bahia Blanca, San Antonio, Trelew, COMO-
DORO RIVADAVIA, and beyond to Puerto Gallegos,
also north to AsuncI6n, Paraguay, with calls at
several tow;ns in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil,
has recently been taken over by the Argentine
Government. The Aero Postale, however, carries
mail from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile, and
gives weekly mail and passenger service north from
Buenos Aires and Montevideo to Natal, Brazil,
with the usual stops.

BRAZIL

In addition to the services of the Pan American.
Airways and the Aero Postale, Brazil has also pas-
senger service by the Brazil Condor weekly, from
Porto Alegre at the south to Natal north, making
the usual calls. The country enjoys further the
service of the Zeppelin, which was expected to
cross from Germany ten times ia 1932, and monthly

in IQ33*

The Aero Postale is planning to inaugurate a new
and extraordinary service in November, 1932.
Very large seaplanes with twin motors have been
constructed, capable of carrying a pay load of 1000
pounds; to be manned by a pilot, mechanic, and
radio operator, to fly directly from Dakar, Africa,
to Natal, Brazil.

The famous Mermoz, who first flew across the
South Atlantic, will inaugurate the service from
Toulouse, France, to Buenos Aires in 4 days;

256 . APPENDIX

Toulouse to Dakar, 34 hours; Dakar to Natal, 20
hours; Natal to Buenos Aires, 34 hours. Eight
hours allowed for change and refueling. Seven hours
the next day to Santiago, Chile.

VENEZUELA

The Aero Postale has recently established service
from Maracay to San Fernando, Ciudad Bolivar,
and Tumeremo.

115243