The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-12-20

breakfast. 1 have seen many better meal in the course of a somewhat varied life, but never one that was more acceptable, as we had eaten nothing since the nasty desajuno of bread and coffee before daylight, in Honda. Two hours siesta and good rubbing down with alcohol and hot water (the best remedy, by the way. for the lameness of joint and soreness of muscle that affllcts the amateur equestrienne), and by 3 o'clock every body cheerfully responded to the call of boots and saddles,' not wishing to remain over night in desolate Con suelo. However, there is not much choice in posadas on the road to Bogota, one being about as bad as another.
 As we ascended, ever higher and higher, the air grew cooler and at 4,000 feet above Honda the temperature was delightful. Winding around the steep sides oL the Sierras, we had gIimpses of a most wonderful pan orama in the MagdaIena valley, which far below, looked like a gigantic chess board, squared off by hedge-rows en- ClOG1liS SblI4FdACu pd4C SCAIo"- ish-green of sugar-cane patches inter- spersed with the dark, glossy foliage of coffee groves; palm -thatched huts for paWns, royal-palms for knights and kings; all environed by distant heights whose tops are lost in the clouds
 Long before we reached Guadas, the town where travellers on the way to Bogotas must spend the night-~the moon was up. The miles are not many between these wayside halting places, but while the day was still young the dullest horse in the cavalcade had dis covered that we were not Mazzepas and therefore he need not hurry him self. Down into green valley, over an antique bridge, built three centuries ago and now crumbling to its fall, past pretty white cottages in the midst of coffee groves, and at last the pOsada was reached and thrice welcome dinner. Guaduas is said to be the most comfortable stopping place on the road, but it's high-priced posada bears no comparison to the poorest hotel in the United States. My room was large, airy and tolerably clean, it's floor paved with damp bricks, walls covered with old newspapers, windows entirely with out glass but guarded with heavy woden bars and doors ''locked" by a pole to be set up against it. Thanks to another thorough rubbing with hot alcohol, we started next morning be- fore daybreak, fresh as the larks that were not yet stirring. Long after the sun arose mists mercifully obscured from view the heights we were yet to climb, or I am afraid our spirits would not have been buoyant. Always up ward and upward, like that foolish youth who bore a banner with the strange device 'Excelsior!" and came to grief, as he richly deserved-by midday we found ourselves three thousand feet above Guaduas. The highest point called Alto del Raizal," is marked by a little white house set against gigantic heap of red-gray sandstone. The view from this point was even more glorious than those of the day before, the prospect being even more glorious than those of the day before, the prospect being wider, in
 cluding a circle of mountain summits, whose peaks, one behind the other lSSItu OuL Ol 6ll UCCph pL tIouN Descending thence to Las Tibayes was the most difficult task we have yet encountered over a road strewn with loose boulders, so steep and slippery that we momentarily expected to be pitched over the precipices. At the , apology for an inn at Las Tibayas We partook of poorer apology for lunch con, only redeemed from utter failure by some ripe sweet figs which, in the despera tion born of hunger we went out and stole before eyes of the pro- prietor.
 The rest of the way was a rapid down hill, regular toboggan slide four thousand feet long, into the green and lovely valley of Villeta. To this
 day I am no table to decide which is
 most to be dreaded-going up the face
 of hill, fiy-fashion, in momentary
 peril of slipping over the horses tail;
 or going downward, at an angle of fifty degrees, every muscle braced to prevent sliding over his ears. Since no
 beast could possible go astray on a trail so narrow that we bumped the wall of rock on the side, while stones
 loosened by his feet on the brink of the
 other, dropped without sound into an
 abyss so deep that tall trees growing
 at the bottom looked like mere twigs-
 yours abandoned all responsibility,
 closed her eyes to the fearful trail and
 chung for dear life to the pommel. At Villeta, where the second night was passed, we were fain to lay our