IN NICARAGUA 



169 



After that we had no further excitement except the catching of a 

 big kingfish, which helped out our table immensely. That night we slept 

 again on deck, and went through several showers, sailing into Blue- 

 fields about nine the following morning, where the doctor passed us as 

 "healthy, but ugly." Then we went up against the custom house officials 

 at the bluff, who fingered our belongings for anything contraband, 

 seeming to take particular delight in running grimy fingers over our 

 toothbrushes, and to have a deep anxiety to unroll camera films, and so 

 on. We got rid of them at last, and boarding a flat-bottomed stern- 

 wheeler, were taken across the broad expanse of Bluefields Bay, and 

 landed at Belangers wharf, from which we went at once up to La Trop- 



LA TROPICAL HOTEL, BLUEFIELDS. 



ical Hotel for a bath and breakfast. There was but one bathroom, and 

 that was situated over the kitchen, which was proved by the sign on 

 the wall: ''Don't slop water on the floor; range just below. Gives food 

 a soapy flavor." 



After breakfast we went out and looked over the little city of 

 frame houses, so radically different from most Central American towns, 

 both in its architecture and in the fact that it is built on a side hill where 

 there is a certain amount of drainage. We didn't tarry long in Blue- 

 fields, however, for our flat-bottomed boat, Nat, Jr., a sternwheel 

 freighter was waiting, and with our luggage aboard we soon started 



