OVERLAND TO LA ESPERANZA 39 



There can be no more perfect and spontaneous 

 hospitality than is found everywhere in Cuba, 

 but especially, perhaps, in the western province of 

 Pinar del Rio. We were many times embarrassed 

 by the refusal of our rustic hosts to accept pay for 

 food or accommodation and often in the cases of 

 peasant families where our entertainment must 

 have been a burden. Unfortunately many Ameri- 

 can tourists who visit the country beyond Havana 

 assume, perhaps unconsciously, an air of supe- 

 riority over the natives. The sensitive Cubans 

 detect this and resent it. Throughout a journey 

 that took us into the remotest wilderness we never 

 met with a single act of discourtesy and we were 

 daily taught, by example, lessons in graciousness 

 of conduct. 



Late in the afternoon, after a strenuous day of 

 collecting on La Chorrera, we took the motor 

 diligence to Esperanza. The road passes through 

 superb scenery, especially as it skirts for a mile or 

 so the perpendicular walls of the Costanera de San 

 Vicente. This sierra is a part of the northern 

 range presenting its northern side to the sea. The 

 motor bus lumbered along across the sandstone 

 lomas^ now bereft of their pine trees by the same 



