A RIDE FROM THE PACIFIC TO MEXICO CITY 127 



inner man at a roadside hut. Four hours' march in the after- 

 noon brought us to Venta de la Nera, where we had to sling 

 our hammocks almost in the street, with noisy muleteers all 

 around us. 



After several hours' march in the early morning of February 

 19th we just before dawn crested a hill, and saw below us an 

 immense plain, still shrouded in darkness. Above the highlands 

 beyond rose the giant volcanoes of Popocatapetl and Ixtaccihuatl, 

 their lofty peaks clearly denned against a crimson sky, so deep in 

 colour as to seem almost supernatural. Below, in the dark 

 plain an immense fire was burning, only partially dispersing in 

 its immediate vicinity the misty darkness, while it deepened the 

 gloom of all else around. A pleasant sight to us, for we almost 

 saw the end of our journey ; those two volcanoes stood between 

 the railway terminus our goal and the city of Mexico. 



At the bidding of the rising sun, the darkness resting upon 

 the plain dispersed, and we saw extensive maize fields, now 

 yellow and dry, with here and there bright green tracts of sugar- 

 cane, plantation buildings, and a few houses. A horrible road 

 brought us to a river, which we forded, finding coffee and eggs 

 in the village Amacusac, on the other side. Twenty minutes 

 were allowed for breakfast, and then on again, trotting over a 

 very good road to Puente de Ixtla, passing a large sugar 

 hacienda and several villages, which had now become more 

 frequent. After a very greasy luncheon at the inn of San 

 Antonio, the animals were saddled once more to carry us to 

 Blancaeca, where we arrived at 5.15 p.m., taking up our 

 quarters there for the night. In a muleteer's corral we slung 

 our hammocks under a shed, tenanted on our arrival by a 

 drunken old woman, a malformed tiny pig, and an unhappy- 

 looking hen, adorned with a feather passed through the nostrils. 

 Straight-growing cacti are used here for enclosures, forming an 

 impenetrable wall. 



The ten leagues next morning took us through a very fertile, 

 well-irrigated valley, occupied by several large sugar estates, 

 and over a range of hills into another valley, where to our delight 

 we at last saw the village of Yautepec, with the station buildings 

 of the railway to Mexico city. Yautepec, a thriving little town, 

 is surrounded by orange gardens and cane fields, and supplies 

 the capital with many kinds of fruit and vegetables. Thus 



