CHAPTER XIX 



SURUBRES AND OROTINA 



In October, accompanied by Professor Tristan, we spent 

 a week at a charming farm on the Surubres River, about 

 eight miles from the Pacific coast. We went by train to the 

 terminus of the Ferrocarril al Pacifico, which was then at 

 Orotina; there we hired horses at once to take us to the Bon- 

 nefil farm, which was "more or less two hours" distant 

 — decidedly more in the wet season. Our way led at first 

 along the Carretera Nacional. In the dry season, the time 

 of shipping coffee, there was a steady stream of carts travel- 

 ing down this road every night and early morning, but now 

 in the deep mud of the winter we passed few carts and of 

 course no coffee. Beyond the little village of San Mateo 

 we turned to the right out of the Carretera Nacional into 

 a much poorer and muddier road, which grew worse as the 

 fine shower beginning soon after we left Orotina turned into 

 a steady heavy rain. When we reached the edge of the Sur- 

 ubres valley the road was really bad, very steep with deep 

 mud and deeper holes but the beasts behaved nobly. The 

 Surubres River was deep and rocky with a swift current, 

 and we were all glad when we had safely traversed the treach- 

 erous fording. Although so bad this last bit of road was 

 extremely pretty, shaded by big trees, the banks draped 

 with maidenhair ferns, Selaginella, Tradescantia and mos- 

 ses, and in places the horses' hoofs sank into a deep carpet 

 of the same plants. 



The Bonnefil farmhouse, which we reached late in the 

 afternoon, was built of wood and had board floors; there 



