104 Travels and Adventures 



loading and unloading bags of coffee, bales of gutta- 

 percha, or cases of plants. Very few stay more than 

 one day, on account of the climate. As the village is 

 situated at the foot of the mountain, the ascent can be 

 made in about two hours to a large country-house 

 called El Volador, built on a ridge of the mountain 

 several thousand feet above the River Lebrija. On 

 the top of the mountain the air is fresh and cool, and 

 the climate eood. From here to the town- of Bucara- 

 manga the journey can be made in two days, over a 

 tolerably good mule-track, which passes through the 

 midst of many beautiful plantations of coffee, tobacco, 

 and siiQfar-cane. 



What appears most extraordinary to the traveller 

 when he mounts up to the top of the range of 

 mountains which overlooks the town of Bucaramano-a 

 is to find a large town of about fifty thousand 

 inhabitants at so great a distance from any port 

 and so thoroughly isolated in the tops of the Andes. 

 The natural situation is very beautiful, the town being 

 built upon an extensive plain, about 3,000 feet above 

 the level of the sea, and this plain entirely surrounded 

 by high mountains, and these mountains for a con- 

 siderable distance up the side adorned with pretty 

 country-houses, each one with a patch of sugar-cane, 

 a plantation of coffee or tobacco ; while as far as the 

 eye can reach is an extent of pastures enriched with 



