GUANACASTE—SANTA CRUZ 467 



an hour and a half, irrespective of direction. We left Santa 

 Barbara at 5,30 P. M. and reached Santa Cruz at 7 when it 

 was growing quite dark. The yellow twilight produced a 

 beautiful color effect on the dry and burnt up grass of the 

 hillsides. 



On January 30, at the invitation of Padre Velasco, we ac- 

 companied him to the Rio de las Cafias. After some diffi- 

 culty Professor Tristan secured a horse, through the druggist 

 — a former pupil in the Liceo — and the Padre lent me the 

 most comfortable mount I had in all Guanacaste. The 

 Padre's little daughter Dora and Seiior Rinaldo Jimenez, of 

 Santa Cruz, completed the party of five. 



We rode north from Santa Cruz along the Belen road but 

 before reaching the Rio de las Cafias turned off to a private 

 road to the left and went through woods to a clearing close 

 to the river where the stumps of large trees were still stand- 

 ing. At a house here our horses were turned loose to graze 

 and going to the river, we got into a dugout, which was a little 

 too small for six, a boy from the house having been added 

 to our party as a helper. The Rio de las Caiias was wider 

 here than farther downstream (east) where we forded it on 

 the Belen-Santa Cruz road, and contained several small 

 islands. The banks were low and muddy with low twisted 

 trees and small plants standing in the shallow water. The 

 water-hyacinth (Priaropus or Eichhornia) of the Atlantic 

 side was replaced here by a plant whose name was unknown 

 to all of our party but which likewise becomes at times so 

 abundant as to block up the stream. It may have been 

 Pistia stratiotes, a variety of which increased enormously in 

 Gatun Lake, Panama, a few years ago. Each plant con- 

 sisted of a rosette of about half a dozen pale green leaves, 

 lying on the water's surface; each leaf was now about four 

 inches long, with a broadly rounded tip. I saw no flowers. 

 As we paddled upstream many cirujanos walked or flew 



