How to Travel in South
America.--Routes.--Expenses.--Outfit.--Precautions.--Dangers.
The most vague and incorrect notions prevail in respect to traveling in
South America. The sources of trustworthy and desirable information are
very meagre. Murray has not yet published a "Hand-book for the Andes;"
routes, methods, and expenses of travel are almost unknown; and the
imagination depicts vampires and scorpions, tigers and anacondas, wild
Indians and fevers without end, impassable rivers and inaccessible
mountains as the portion of the tourist. The following statements, which
can be depended upon, may therefore be acceptable to those who
contemplate a trip on the Andes and the Amazon.
The shortest, cheapest, most feasible, and least interesting route
across the continent is from Valparaiso to Buenos Ayres. The breadth of
South America is here only eight hundred miles. By railroad from
Valparaiso to the foot of the Andes; thence a short mule-ride by the
Uspallata Pass (altitude 12,000 feet), under the shadow of Aconcagua to
Mendoza; thence by coach across the pampas to the Rio Plata. The
Portillo Pass (traversed by Darwin) is nearer, but more lofty and
dangerous.
Bolivia offers the difficult path of Gibbon: From the coast to
Cochabamba; thence down the Marmoré and Madeira. There are three routes
through Peru: First, from Lima to Mayro, by way of Cerro Pasco and
Huánaco, by mule, ten days; thence down the Pachitéa, by canoe, six
days; thence down the Ucayali to Iquitos, by steamer, six days
(forty-five hours' running time). When the road from Lima to Mayro is
finished the passage will be shortened four days. No snow is met in
crossing the Andes in summer, but in winter it is very deep. Second
(Herndon's route), from Lima to Tinga Maria, by way of Huánaco, by mule,
fifteen days, distance three hundred miles (the passage is difficult in
the rainy season); thence by canoe fifteen days down the Huallaga to
Yurimaguas. Third and best, by mule from Truxillo to Caximárca, five
days (note the magnificent ruins); thence to Chachapoyas, seven days
(here are pre-Incarial relics); thence to Moyabamba, eight days; thence
on foot to Balsa Puerto, four days; thence by canoe to Yurimaguas, two
days. Price of a mule from Truxillo to Moyabamba is $30; canoe-hire,
$10. The Peruvian steamers arrive at Yurimaguas the fifth of every month
and leave the seventh; reach Nauta the ninth and Iquitos the tenth;
leave Iquitos the sixteenth and arrive at Tabatinga the nineteenth, to
connect with the Brazilian line. Going up, they leave Tabatinga the
twenty-first and arrive at Iquitos the twenty-fourth, stopping six days.
Running time from Yurimaguas to Tabatinga, forty-eight hours; fare, $70,
gold; third-class, $17. La Condamine's route, _via_ Loxa and the
Marañon, is difficult; and Md. Godin's, _via_ the Pastassa, is perilous
on account of rapids and savages. The transit by the Napo we will now
give in detail.
Six hundred dollars in gold will be amply sufficient for a first-class
passage from New York to New York across the continent of South America,
making no allowance for stoppages. For necessary expenses in Ecuador,
take a draft on London, which will sell to advantage in Guayaquil; so
will Mexican dollars. American gold should be taken for expenses on the
Amazon in Brazil; at Pará it commands a premium. On the Marañon it is
below par; Peruvian gold should therefore be bought at Guayaquil for
that part of the route. Also French _medios_, or quarter francs; they
will be very useful every where on the route, especially on the Upper
Amazon, where change is scarce. Fifty dollars' worth will not be too
many; for, as the Scotchman said of sixpences, "they are canny little
dogs, and often do the work of shillings." Take a passport for Brazil.
Leave behind your delicacies and superfluities of clothing; woolen
clothes will be serviceable throughout. A trunk for mountain travel
should not exceed 24 by 15 by 15 inches--smaller the better. Take a
rubber air-pillow and mattress: there is no bed between Guayaquil and
Pará. A hammock for the Amazon can be bought on the Napo.
The Pacific Mail steamships, which leave New York on the first and
sixteenth of each month, connect at Panama without delay with the
British Steam Navigation line on the South Pacific. Fare, first-class,
from New York to Guayaquil, by way of Panama and Paita, $215, gold;
second-class, $128. Time to Panama, eight days; to Paita, four days; to
Guayaquil, one day. A coasting steamer leaves Panama for Guayaquil the
thirteenth of each month. There are two so-called hotels in Guayaquil.
"Los tres Mosqueteros," kept by Sr. Gonzales, is the best. Take a front
room ($1 per day), and board at the Fonda Italiana or La Santa Rosa ($1
per day). Here complete your outfit for the mountains: saddle, with
strong girth and crupper; saddle-bags, saddle-cover, sweat-cloth, and
bridle ($40, paper), woolen poncho ($9), rubber poncho ($4), blanket
($6), leggins, native spurs and stirrups, knife, fork, spoon, tea-pot,
chocolate (tea, pure and cheap, should be purchased at Panama), candles,
matches, soap, towels, and tarpaulin for wrapping up baggage. Convert
your draft into paper, _quantum sufficit_ for Guayaquil; the rest into
silver.
Besides this outer outfit, an inner one is needed--of patience without
stint. You will soon learn that it is one thing to plan and quite
another to execute. "To get out of the inn is one half of the journey"
is very appropriately a Spanish proverb. Spaniards do nothing
_d'appressado_ (in a hurry), but every thing _mañana_ (to-morrow). You
will find fondas, horses, and roads divided into the bad, the worse, and
the worst, and bad is the best. But fret not thyself. "Serenity of
mind," wrote Humboldt, "almost the first requisite for an undertaking in
inhospitable regions, passionate love for some class of scientific
labor, and a pure feeling for the enjoyment which nature in her freedom
is ready to impart, are elements which, when they meet together in an
individual, insure the attainment of valuable results from a great and
important journey."
The journey to Quito must be made between May and November; in the rainy
season the roads are impassable. From Guayaquil to Bodegas by Yankee
steamer; fare, $2; time, eight hours. At Bodegas hire beasts at the
_Consignacion_ for Guaranda; price for riding and cargo beasts, $4 each.
No extras for the _arriero_. A mule will carry two hundred and fifty
pounds. Buy bread at Bodegas and Guaranda. The Indians on the road are
very loth to sell any thing; buy a fowl, therefore, at the first
opportunity, or you will have to live on dirty potato soup, and be glad
of that. At the tambos, or wayside inns, you pay only for _yerba_
(fodder). Never unsaddle your beast till it is cool; an Indian will even
leave the bridle on for a time. To Guaranda, three full days. There take
mules (safer than horses in climbing the mountains) for Quito; $6 25,
silver, per beast; time, five days. Be sure to leave Guaranda by 4 a.m.,
for in the afternoon Chimborazo is swept by furious winds. Also start
with a full stomach; you will get nothing for two days. Drink sparingly
of the snow-water which dashes down the mountain. You will be tempted
to curse Chuquipoyo; but thank heaven it is no worse.
There are two hotels in Quito, French and American; the former has the
better location, the latter the better rooms. Best front room,
furnished, half a dollar a day; cheaper by the month. Meals (two),
twenty-five cents each. The beef is excellent, but the _cuisine_--oh,
onions! "God sends the meat, and the evil one cooks." You can hire a
professional male cook (Indian) for $5 a month, but you can't teach him
any thing. Fish is not to be had in Quito. Gibbon speaks of having some
in Cuzco, but does not tell us where it came from.[186] Price of best
flour, $3 60 per quintal; butter, thirty cents a pound; beef, $1 an
arroba (twenty-five pounds); refined sugar, $3 50 an arroba; brown sugar
(_rapidura_),[187] five cents a pound; cigars, from six to sixteen for a
dime; cigarettes, five cents a hundred. Horse hire, from fifty cents to
$1 per day. If you are to remain some time, buy a beast: a good mule
costs $40; an ordinary horse, $50. The Post-office Department is a
swindle. If you "pay through" you will find on your arrival home that
your letters have been paid at both ends. Ask our consul at Guayaquil to
forward them.
[Footnote 186: The Guayaquil market is well supplied with fish of a fair
quality. Usually the fish of warm tropical waters are poor, but the cold
"Humboldt current," which passes along the west coast of Ecuador,
renders them as edible as those of temperate zones.]
[Footnote 187: Called _chancaca_ in Peru. In flavor it is very nearly
equal to maple-sugar.]
The necessary preparations for the Napo journey have been given in a
previous chapter (Chap. XI). We might add to the list a few cans of
preserved milk from New York, for you will not see a drop between the
Andes and the Atlantic. Fail not to take plenty of lienzo; you must have
it to pay the Indians, and any surplus can be sold to advantage. A bale
of thirty varas costs about five dollars. Rely not at all on game; a
champion sharpshooter could not live by his rifle. Santa Rosa and Coca
will be represented to you as small New Yorks; but you will do well if
you can buy a chicken between them.
From Quito to Papallacta, two days and a half; riding beast, $2 silver,
and $1 20 for each cargo of three arrobas. At Papallacta hire Indians
for Archidona; each carries three arrobas, and wants $5 silver in
advance. You take to your feet; time, nine days, including one day of
rest at Baeza. At Archidona you take a new set of peons for Napo at
twenty-five cents apiece; time, one day. From Napo down the river to
Santa Rosa, one day. You give two and a half varas of lienzo to each
Indian, and the same for the canoe. From Santa Rosa to Pebas, on the
Marañon, fifteen days; cost of an Indian, twenty-five varas; ditto for a
canoe. We advise you to stop at Coca and rig up a raft or craft of some
kind; we ascribe our uninterrupted good health to the length and breadth
of our accommodations. The Peruvian steamer from the west arrives at
Pebas on the sixteenth of each month; fare to Tabatinga, $15 gold; time,
four days; running time, eleven hours. Brazilian steamer leaves
Tabatinga the twentieth of each month; fare to Manáos, $44 44 gold;
time, five days; distance, one thousand miles. From Manáos to Pará, $55
55 gold; time, six days; distance, one thousand miles. The Brazilian
steamers make semi-monthly trips. We found two hotels in Pará--the
"Italiana," dear and poor; the "Diana," unpretending but comfortable.
Charges at the latter for room and board, $2 a day. The best time for
traveling on the Amazon is between July and December. The United States
and Brazilian steamships on their homeward voyage call at Pará the
seventh of each month; fare to New York, $150 gold (the same as down the
whole length of the Amazon); second class, $75; time, fourteen days;
distance by way of St. Thomas, 1610 + 1400 miles. Steamer for Rio the
ninth of each month; fare, $125; time, twelve days; distance, 2190
miles. Fare from Rio to New York, $200. Fare by sailing vessel from Pará
to New York, from $50 to $75; time, three weeks. A British steamer from
Rio stops at Pará and Lisbon.
A word about health. First, take one grain of common-sense daily; do as
the natives do, keep out of the noon-day sun, and make haste slowly.
Secondly, take with you quinine in two-grain pills, and begin to take
them before leaving New York, as the great African traveler, Du Chaillu,
recommended us. As preventive against the intermittent fevers on the
lowlands and rivers, nothing is better than Dr. Copeland's celebrated
pills--quinine, twelve grains; camphor, twelve grains; cayenne pepper,
twelve grains. Mix with mucilage, and divide into twelve pills: take one
every night or morning as required. On the Amazon carry guarana. Woolen
socks are recommended by those who have had much experience of tropical
fevers. Never bathe when the air is moist; avoid a chill; a native will
not bathe till the sun is well up. Rub yourself with _aguardiente_
(native rum) after a bath, and always when caught in a shower. Freely
exercise in Quito to ward off liver complaints. Drink little water;
coffee or chocolate is better, and tea is best. Avoid spirits with
fruit, and fruit after dinner. The sickliest time in Guayaquil is at the
breaking up of the rainy season.
As to dangers: First, from the people. Traveling is as safe in Ecuador
as in New York, and safer than in Missouri. There are no Spanish
banditti, though some places, as Chambo, near Riobamba, bear a bad name.
It is not wise to tempt a penniless footpad by a show of gold; but no
more so in Ecuador than any where. We have traveled from Guayaquil to
Damascus, but have never had occasion to use a weapon in self-defense;
and only once for offense, when we threatened to demolish an Arab sheik
with an umbrella. Secondly, from brutes. Some travelers would have us
infer that it is impossible to stir in South America without being
"affectionately entwined by a serpent, or sprung upon by a jaguar, or
bitten by a rattlesnake; jiggers in every sand-heap and scorpions under
every stone" (_Edinburgh Review_, xliii, 310). Padre Vernazza speaks of
meeting a serpent two yards in diameter! But you will be disappointed at
the paucity of animal life. We were two months on the Andes (August and
September) before we saw a live snake. They are plentiful in the wet
season in cacao plantations; but the majority are harmless. Dr. Russel,
who particularly studied the reptiles of India, found that out of
forty-three species which he examined not more than seven had poisonous
fangs; and Sir E. Tennent, after a long residence in Ceylon, declared he
had never heard of the death of an European by the bite of a snake. It
is true, however, that the number and proportion of the venomous species
are greater in South America than in any other part of the world; but it
is some consolation to know that, zoologically, they are inferior in
rank to the harmless ones; "and certainly," adds Sidney Smith, "a snake
that feels fourteen or fifteen stone stamping on his tail has little
time for reflection, and may be allowed to be poisonous." If bitten,
apply ammonia externally immediately, and take five drops in water
internally; it is an almost certain antidote. The discomforts and
dangers arising from the animal creation are no greater than one would
meet in traveling overland from New York to New Orleans.
Finally, of one thing the tourist in South America may be assured--that
dear to him, as it is to us, will be the remembrance of those romantic
rides over the Cordilleras amid the wild magnificence of nature, the
adventurous walk through the primeval forest, the exciting canoe-life on
the Napo, and the long, monotonous sail on the waters of the Great
River.