Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Through jungles the pack was kept at an irreducible minimum.
We were on the slow-moving boat for three days. The navigation is about as crude as any-
body might imagine. We passed Barranca, where an American company operates an oilfield.
Fromthereapipelinehasbeenlaid,throughwhichtheoilispumpedtoCartagenaatthecoast,
some 300 miles away. The laying down of this pipe is in itself a masterpiece, for it leads
throughswamps,junglesandforests,andtheworkwasfinishedintheincrediblyshorttimeof
eighteen months.
I had often warned Victor about drinking water out of any ditch or stream we came to. For
hisowngood,Ievengavehimagoodhidingonmorethanoneoccasion whenIcaughthimat
it. But he had a bad habit of sneaking away when he was thirsty and drinking without my per-
mission. The result was that he contracted fever, and the mosquitoes of the Magdalena river
inducedaseriousattackofmalaria.Iwashappywhenwewereoffthathorriblevesselwithits
filthy food and unsanitary sanitary arrangements, as the Irishman would say.
FromalittleportcalledCalamarwemadetheoverlandtriptoCartagenaatthecoast,where
we arrived without incident.
Although I looked all over the town, the only place I could hire to leave the horses was a
small backyard full of pigs and mud, and it was no easy matter to find fodder, but after a long
chase around I finally obtained some.
Nextday,earlyintheafternoon,Iwenttopaymyrespectstotheauthorities, andonlyreal-
ised my mistake in arriving so early when I had already entered the government house.
