1894 
Tuxtepeo 
(Oaxaca) 
Otatitlan 
(Vera Cruz) 
10th of April I broke camp and returned to town. Our return was so 
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timed that we rode for over 2 hours through an extremely- heavy rain 
storm. We were wet to the shin at once after which we did not mind 
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the warm downpour which came in heavy drops that rattled through the 
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tree tops with a loud rushing noise that could be heard for a consider- 
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able distance before the advancing storm reached us, 
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April 13* Took a canoe and descended the river to Otatitlan (About 
20 miles by stream). Just as we left Tuxtepeo I saw the fin of a small 
shark cutting the water and my men said that they are not uncommon up 
to this point in the river, ^hey are small "dogfish", 3 to 4 feet long. 
A few crocodiles are also found along the river here although we saw 
none . 
April 14* We stayed here a few days in a small wooden hotel. The 
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rooms are rudely floored with brick and are little more than a series 
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of wooden boxes with walls about 9 or 10 feet high with a door in each 
end and a tiled, pointed roof over all. Rude cots with a single sheet, 
a rush mat, and a pillow are furnished fen* sleeping accommodations, at 
fifty oents a night. Here, as elsewhere,-in the hot country, the food 
is cooked with so much oil or grease that it is very unpalatable to an 
unsophisticated taste. North of this place a few miles are some grassy 
llanos bordered by oak forest although the altitude is less than 300 ft. 
above sea level. Nearer the river where the ground is damper, the 
vegetation is similar to that near i’uxtepoc. The latter place is about 
the extreme lower limit of the damp climate that forms the humid tropi¬ 
cal belt along the foothills and low mountains. From about Otatitlan 
and down to the coast, the climate is much drier and none of the recent 
rains at Tuxtepec have reached here. Were it not for the fact that 
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