Price of Living. 329 



which dashes down the mountain. You will be tempted 

 to curse Chuquipoyo ; but thank heaven it is no worse. 



There are two hotels in Quito, French" and American ; 

 the former has the better location, the latter the better 

 rooms. Best front room, furnished, half a dollar a day ; 

 cheaper by the month. Meals (two), twenty-five cents 

 each. The beef is excellent, but the cuisine — oh, onions ! 

 " God sends the meat, and the evil one cooks." You can 

 hire a professional male cook (Indian) for $5 a month, but 

 you can't teach him any thing. Fish is not to be had in 

 Quito. Gibbon speaks of having some in Cuzco, but does 

 not tell us where it came from.* Price of best flour, §3 60 

 per quintal ; butter, tliirty cents a pound ; beef, gl an ar- 

 roba (twenty-five pounds) ; refined sugar, $3 60 an arroba ; 

 brown sugar {rapidtira),^ ^\e cents a pound ; cigars, from 

 six to sixteen for a dime ; cigarettes, five cents a hundred. 

 Horse hire, from fifty cents to $1 per day. If you are to 

 remain some time, buy a beast : a good mule costs $40 ; an 

 ordinary horse, $50. The Post-office Department is a 

 swindle. If you " pay through " you will find on your ar- 

 rival home that your letters have been paid at both ends. 

 Ask our consul at Guayaquil to forward them. 



The necessary preparations for the Napo journey have 

 been given in a previous chapter (Chap. XI). We might add 

 to the list a few cans of preserved milk from New York, 

 for you will not see a drop between the Andes and the At- 

 lantic. Fail not to take plenty of lienzo ; you must have 

 it to pay the Indians, and any surplus can be sold to ad- 

 vantage. A bale of thirty varas costs about five dollars. 



* The Guayaquil market is well supplied with fish of a foir quality. Usu- 

 ally the fish of warm tropical waters are poor, but the cold " Humboldt cur- 

 rent," which passes along the west coast of Ecuador, renders them as edible 

 as those of temperate zones. 



t Called chancaca in Peru. In flavor it is very nearly equal to maple- 

 sugar. 



