OVER THE ANDES TO BOGOTA 



365 



Photograph by Frank M. Chapman 



THE ASCENT OF THE CENTRAL ANDES ON THE QUINDIO TRAIE FROM IBAGUE 



Oxen are commonly used as pack animals on the Quindio Trail. They carry less than 

 mules and travel only about half as far in a day, but in the wet season they are less apt to 

 sret mired. 



the Cali River, which they guard, we ex- 

 perienced a definite sensation of arrival. 



Cali, a city of some 45,000 inhabitants, 

 is the metropolis of the Cauca Valley. 

 Here the traveler will find excellent quar- 

 ters and an agreeable, healthful climate, 

 and if he wishes to study the life of a 

 Latin-American city free from the cos- 

 mopolitanism of a seaport, Cali's streets 

 and market-place, plaza and river- front 

 will supply him with abundant material. 



Possibly he may be asked to visit a 

 sugar estate or cattle ranch in the valley 

 where, if he be young and romantic, he 

 may be so charmed by the semi-baronial 

 life of a planter or ranchman that he will 

 be tempted to become a Caucano. 



There are few places in the Americas 

 which offer greater inducements to one 

 who wishes to become a resident of the 

 tropics. With an altitude of 3,500 feet 

 above sea-level, and a moderate, evenly 

 distributed rainfall, the valley possesses a 

 white man's climate. 



The soil is inexhaustibly fertile. There 

 are sugar plantations on which cane has 

 been known to grow continuously for 120 

 years without fertilization. Cattle thrive, 



and once a stand of para grass is estab- 

 lished, it will feed one and a half head of 

 cattle per acre without further care. The 

 railroad now gives access to the coast, 

 the Panama Canal, to the world, and the 

 future prosperity of this favored spot 

 seems assured. 



The mountains which rise through 

 brown, softly molded foothills to wooded 

 summits not only supply a cloud-hung 

 panorama on which shower and sunshine 

 and shadow play with constantly chang- 

 ing effects, but they place another climate 

 almost within arm's length. 



To be more specific, two or three hours 

 in the saddle take one from the floor of 

 the valley, in the Tropical Zone, to an ele- 

 vation of 6,500 to 7,000 feet in the Sub- 

 tropical Zone. At these altitudes the 

 more well-to-do residents of the valley 

 build attractive bungalows to which they 

 repair for week-end visits or when they 

 wish relief from the- continuous, though 

 not excessive, heat of their homes. 



Two of these bungalows, one in the 

 Western, the other in the Central Andes, 

 were placed at our disposal by their 

 owners and for several weeks they be- 



