Mule transport can generally be got cheap in the mountains, but not 
so much so in the Vega. {Vega reale of Columbus). Dominicans are 
much superior to Haitians in every my. Prom port au prince you 
can visit *urcy, 4000 feet, and go on to La Tcurane, high up on 
slopes of It. de Selle - I never went to the latter - There is an 
immense precinice on north face of La Selle. 
There is a ’’rest hcaise" at Police Station at Purcy, but 
we stayed at Madam Poniineau’s - who rents a little house to strangers 
and cooks for them. There is plenty of grub everywhere, women carry 
head loads of food down to market down all the mountain roads on market 
days, just carry rice and beans, coffee, sugar etc. for two or three 
days. Constanza may have food or maybe famine. As a rule food every¬ 
where in both republics - But carry rice with you. Carry tarps to cover 
loads - Leonard has some. Don’t carry anything that you can’t sling 
on side of a mule. • 
There may be a wagon road finished to Varabacoa from 
La Vega by this time - Last time I stayed in Varabacoa at a sort of 
fonda, I was nearly drowned by bugs and flees. Hire a house at Constanza 
of the shop keeper - forgot his name - Turkheim, the botanist, stayed 
several months at Constanza - and I got the type of the large owl there. 
I often heard them in the pine woods. It is very cold in mountains and 
take thick clothes and blankets. Ther. falls below 50° - even frost at time 
You will fall in love with the high interior of Santo Domingo - 
People largely of Indian descent. There is nothing like it in the West 
Indies, - climate is bracing and lovely. It is 15 or 25 times the area 
of the Jamaica highlands. I think indigenous rodents still exist there, 
but the mongoose has already arrived. 
