ALBACORA 75 



great many experiments have been going on to test the 

 power of these drugs in inhibiting the growth of cancer 

 cells. People laugh at jungle medicines until they them- 

 selves suffer from some jungle ailment. Then, often as 

 not, a primitive remedy turns out to be the best 



Jo was not alone that week in her battle with the 

 tourista sickness. No less rugged an individual than 

 Captain Walt Gorman was caught in its unpleasant grip. 

 But, of course, Walt carried on. "There are people in 

 hospital beds with screens around them who feel a damn 

 sight better than I do," Walt said, but he kept working 

 during every waking moment. Each day at four o'clock 

 the group went out, and each night the work for Luis 

 Rivas lasted until close to midnight. Practically no one 

 got more than four hours sleep a night but I did not 

 hear any complaints. 



While everyone was away I spent most of my time 

 thinking about Iquique and the past. The two seemed 

 to be so closely interwoven. If you can envision a city 

 slowly turning into a ghost town, changing painfully 

 from riches into rags, losing everything and falling out 

 of step with a transforming world, then you can under- 

 stand about Iquique. Before World War II, when ni- 

 trate fertilizer was in enormous demand, thirty or forty 

 boats would fill Iquique harbor, waiting to load up with 

 precious nitrates. Everyone who lived in Iquique had 

 all the work he could handle, and the village bustled 

 and prospered and grew. Then the Germans, cut off 



