CHAPTER I 

 BUENAVENTURA TO CALI, AND THE CAUCA VALLEY 



THE voyage from Panama to Buenaventura, the more 

 northern of Colombia's two Pacific seaports, requires but 

 two days' time. Owing to numerous reefs and rocks that 

 render navigation perilous along the coast of northwestern 

 South America, it is necessary for ships to sail far out into 

 the Pacific. Banks of low-hanging fog, encountered at 

 frequent intervals, add further to the skipper's difficul- 

 ties. 



The captain of the Quito followed a simple plan for find- 

 ing port. It was his custom to steam in a southerly direc- 

 tion about forty-eight hours, and then head toward the 

 coast. Once in sight of land, there was little difficulty in 

 getting his bearings, although it frequently meant steam- 

 ing back a distance of ten or fifteen miles. 



At noon on the second day out we entered what might 

 be called the belt of perpetual rain, and for three hours 

 water fell in such torrents that it seemed a solid wall. When 

 the deluge had ceased and the last wisps of blue-gray vapor 

 melted into oblivion, the shore-line, dim and distant, could 

 be discerned. The faint outline of a rugged coast became 

 gradually sharper; jagged rocks, frowning precipices, and 

 dark, gloomy forests slowly unfolded themselves to the 

 vision. The" magnitude of it all was most impressive. 



Then followed a ten-mile sail through the placid water 

 of Buenaventura Bay. Numberless brown pelicans fished 

 in the shallows while others, in long files, alternately sailed 

 and flapped through the air on their way to some isolated 

 nook among the mangroves. The dark, hazy shore-line 

 at the head of the bay gradually dissolved itself into lines 



