5 



ing through clouds and could see nothing but clouds below 

 us. Deep fluffy banks were around us, and another deep 

 fluffy layer below; far above were thin white clouds that 

 looked as clouds usually look. Sometimes we steered a- 

 round and among the clouds, and once in a while we plunged 

 right through. The near part was always a soft misty gray, 

 with glimpses of a luminous white beyond, that seemed to 

 be part of the far side. As we approached the Sabana de 

 Bogota we entered dense clouds and the plane bucked a bit; 

 suddenly the clouds opened out and we could see the earth 

 far below. A big flat plain of bright green, crossed by 

 little streams and surrounded with dull blue-green moun- 

 tains. Ahead of us were the red roofs and church towers 

 of Bogota, close under the two guardian peaks, Monserrate 

 and Guadelupe. And not yet ten o'clock. 



This was^our first call at Techo airport, and it was a 

 long one. Dugand had written that he and I-urillo would 

 meet us at Techo, but after we had claimed out? baggage we 

 had still seen nothing of them, though all the other pas- 

 sengers were received by eager and numerous groups of 

 friends. The bus was ready to leave, and still they had 

 not come. We did not want to make a bad beginning by be- 

 ing too impatient to wait, so we let the bus go off with 

 our baggage (marked for Hotel Granada) . We waited on a 

 bench outside the airport shelter until our presence 

 seemed to be disturbing an anxious little soldier. Then 

 we waited inside. We noticed that there was no vehicle 

 of any kind on the place. After we had thought over that 

 angle for half an hour more, a taxi with one passenger 

 drove into the grounds and we were glad to climb in and 

 say "Hotel Granada" . At the retln two soldiers came out 

 of a tiny little sentry house to inspect our passports. 



The Granada was so superlatively Victorian it was hard 

 to believe that it was less than fifteen years old. Red 

 plush, dark woods, marble tops, very high ceilings, etc. 

 We selected a small room looking on the court; it proved 

 to have an even smaller sitting room opening from it. The 

 court exposure allowed us to sleep through several hours 

 of church bells every morning . A very small boy went 

 across the street to the Avianca office for our baggage, 

 and delivered it at our room. Another almost as small 

 was behind the All American Cables desk. He was very 

 dubious about "PAU" as a cable address, but finally ac- 

 cepted it, and we cabled our arrival to Elsie Brown to 

 telegraph to Lucy and the mothers . The little boy was 

 punctilious; he came to the room twice to make sure of 

 the message and to make a tiny correction in price. 



We enjoyed our lunch in the large solemn hotel dining 

 room. The cheerful little head waiter was ready with his 

 English phrases; the waitresses knew no English, but were 



