Four Mexican Volcanoes. 



99 



resembling pajamas; one or two blanket-like zarapes, 

 leather sandals called guaraches, and a big straw som- 

 brero. The first day they walk about fifteen miles up- 

 hill, while you are riding. In camp they get wood and 

 water, attend to the animals, and probably stay up half the 

 night talking or singing or imbibing aguardiente. The next 

 morning, long before dawn, they fix the fire, wrap their 

 feet in rags to keep them from freezing, eat a few tor- 

 tillas which have been thrown in the ashes to warm, 

 saddle the horses, and walk up to the snow line while you 

 ride again. Here you hand them all you may have in the 

 way of lunch, field glasses, and kodaks, for them to carry, 

 and then you set out. Where the snow is steep and hard 

 the guides cut steps with a spade, or ax, or grub hoe, 

 because their sandals slip where hob-nailed boots would 

 hold perfectly well. When on the descent, the snow line 

 is reached again, the horses will probably be waiting for 

 you while another fifteen-mile walk is waiting for the 

 Indians, should you care to return to the town the same 

 day. They are perfectly cheerful at the end of the 

 journey. You pay them the stipulated sum, with a little 

 extra for pulque, and they never fail to ask when you 

 are coming again, or whether you have friends who would 

 care to make the trip. 



El Nevado de Toluca lies forty miles west of Mexico, 

 and fifteen or twenty miles south of the city of Toluca, 

 which is chiefly noted for its cheese and its large brewery. 

 To reach the volcano you go to Toluca, and then, by a 

 small branch railroad called the Toluca, Tenango and 

 San Juan, you reach San Juan or Calimaya, at either of 

 which places horses for the trip can be hired. I went 

 with a friend who knew the manager of this little rail- 

 road. He provided us with a track automobile at Toluca, 

 and we were taken to Calimaya without delay. The trip 

 from Mexico City to Toluca, by the way, is a beautiful 

 one, and well worth taking for its own sake. Nevado de 

 Toluca is interesting on account of its huge crater, which 

 is more than two miles in diameter. The mountain rises 



