94 



A FLYING TRIP TO THE TROPICS. 



Giiaduas, and stop there, but as Lindauer was going- to push ahead, 

 he said good-by to us, and hurried on. We had a light breakfast, 

 and started off about eight. Ahce was very nervous about the 

 road, and walked a good part of the way to the summit and down 

 the other side. We reached the crest about nine, going up some 

 places worse than a staircase, and just before reaching the top, 



through a deep and 

 crooked gorge not 

 wide enouo^h for 

 two animals to pass. 

 I saw here the use 

 of the brass slip- 

 per-shaped stirrups. 

 In turning sharp 

 angles, my feet 

 were often pressed 

 against the stones 

 at my sides, and 

 without these stir- 

 rups the barefooted 

 riders would have 

 their feet injured. 

 We rode along the 

 ridge for a few 

 yards, and then be- 

 gan the descent. 

 At one place the crest was barely ten feet wide, and fell off abruptly 

 on each side for several hundred feet. From this point the view 

 was grand. Through the clouds across to the west we caught 

 glimpses of the perpetual snow on the Peak of Tolima and the snow 

 fields of the Paramo del Ruis. To our left, to the southeast, lay 

 Guaduas in the valley below us. It looked very near, but we were 

 two and a half hours in reaching it. We went obliquely down the 

 side of the mountain, and found the road not so bad as on the other 



" A DEEP AND CROOKED GORGE." 



