CHAPTER IV 



CARTAGO TO THE PARAMOS OF RUIZ AND 

 SANTA ISABEL 



Dawn revealed the fact that Cartago was not materially 

 different from Cali. It was not so large, however, and the 

 temperature was much higher. Upon our arrival the pre- 

 ceding night we had finally succeeded in arousing a sleepy 

 landlord, who admitted us to a dusty, bare room in the 

 Hotel Colombia. We had learned long before this time 

 that the word "hotel" usually meant a roof only over one's 

 head and perhaps food, so we at no time travelled out of 

 sight of our baggage, with which we could make ourselves 

 fairly comfortable under almost any circumstances. 



The country surrounding Cartago is level and of a dry 

 nature; at any rate, it does not compare at all favorably 

 with the Cauca Valley at Cali. We saw few evidences of 

 cultivation and the number of cattle and mules grazing 

 on the scanty vegetation was very small. 



The outskirts of the city are picturesque. The huts are 

 low and lightly built of slabs of flattened bamboo; fences 

 made of split bamboo neatly woven in a basket pattern 

 surround them, and cannon-ball trees rear their slender, 

 awkward branches laden with great glistening spheres of 

 green fruit, high above the narrow, muddy sidewalks. 

 When the huge calabashes are ripe they are collected and 

 used as containers for water, wash-basins, bowls, and a 

 variety of utensils; narrow sections that have been split 

 carefully and resemble miniature pointed barrel-staves 

 even serve the purpose of spoons. 



A small marsh lies just in back of Cartago. It was filled 

 with several species of aquatic plants — mostly water-hya- 

 cinths and wild lettuce on which cattle fed, half submerged 



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