50 



sidewalk caf 6 for more arepa, chicharr6n, salchicha and 

 tinto. Across the plaza, well planted with trees , was 

 the old church, white with two towers and two dark red 

 bulbous cupolas that looked Russian, although the plain 

 white columns looked Greek. Between the cafe and the 

 plaza was an enormous ceiba tree (called silk-cotton in 

 Jamaica) . The silky fiber from the blossoms is the kapok 

 of commerce and is used for stuffing mattresses and pil- 

 lows. The Colombians call it lana de ce5«ba. 



On the way back to J'edellin we stopped in a narrow 

 street close to the open window of a primary school; the 

 children were seated on benches at long desks reciting 

 in chorus . The yound maestra smiled at us. 



Seriora de Gonzalez was at the airport and gave Clara 

 a huge orchid wrapped in cellophane. She told us that 

 she had been to Ecuador lately and about the fine beach 

 at Salinas, not too hot, where there were many sailors 

 from U. S. warships. Also that last year 13 students from 

 Yale, Harvard, Radcliffe, etc. had spent three weeks in 

 Medellln, one in a family. The plane left late and the 

 wait was long and hot. At least, there were curtains at 

 the plane windows that could be snapped closed to keep out 

 the sun. We landed at Cartago and the heat was terrific. 

 Clara managed to get to the airport building where she had 

 to meet all of don Adriano's family. Off again and our 

 next stop was Call, a huge airport with a row of huge han- 

 gars and many planes. 



W« were met by Jose Otoya, the brother of Francisco. 

 Ho drove us around the city. 

 Out near the monument to the 

 founder of the city, Belal- 

 cazar he jumped a sharp curb 

 and punctured a tire. V.e put 

 on a new tire and went to 

 the hotel Alferez Real. As 

 soon as we were assigned our 

 room Clara lay down and don 

 Luis, don Francisco and 1 

 left for Palmira. The land 

 is flat with much sugarcane 

 and bananas. At the agri- 

 cultural experiment station 

 we found don Adriano, who 

 had come by autocarril. He 

 had been left behind, per- 

 haps by mistake. We looked 

 over the station and met 

 Dr. Raul Varela Wartlnez, 

 the director. Varela was a 

 student at Pullman, Wash. 



Eelalcazar 



