Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1911-02-13
GUATEMALA IS
LIKE SANTA FE
Picture of Capital of Pros
porous Central American
Republic
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION
)r. Hewett and Party Find
Jungle Covered Site in
Ten Months.
'Hp"cial Correspondence OF the New
Mexican.

MeXican)
Guatemala City, Guatemala Feb
The expedition Of the School Of
. American Archaeology reached this
country on January IA and found the
RAINY season sill in full swing, We
went directly TO Virginia. the head
. oihces OF the United Fruit Company.
Where We secured accommodations at
the hotel, Good American cooking.
room, and board for four hundred dol
lars month each. 40. it's not the st.
/ Regis-simply 1G to i dollar each
, Guatemalan dollar cquaIliug GA
cents in our money. You get used 10
high sounding values down here. five
dollars shave and shine beer five
dollars. 1t sounds like Alaska in the
lgold fever days only the dollars are
not real money" only paper
/ A Jungle in One Year.
We visited the ruins which We are
to eXcayate and found the great plaza
of Quirigua, which We had cleared last
year of the jungle an impenetrabIe
thicket again. Since the first OF April
when We left last year, Il months
ago, all this had grown up, p feet in
ten months. We figured it out and it
averages l inch every a hours. Rath-
er beats dry farming, doesn't 1t.
Wonderful Banana Ground.
The Fruit Company officials say it
is the most wonderful banana ground
in the world. Bits Of banana roots
planted last year when We were here
are beginning to bear their first
bunches, crop within eleven months
While elsewhere is is thought to be
a good average. All it does is rain.
! February, March, and April are sup
posed to constitute the dry season
+ though it rains even then. This has
/ hampered and delayed the work Of
! our expedition somewhat as all the
c!c5ring had to be done over again.
/ During the past few weeks Mr.. Nus.
/ baum and Mr.. Adams have been SUI
! perintending the building of our
/ house, while Dr. Hawett, Mrs Morley
and myself have been up here at the
capital This house is nearly COM
pleted now and we expect to return
to the ruins in a few days to start
work
Guatemala Like Santa Fe.
+ Guatemala city is a pretty place
that reminds one something of Santa
Fe. Indeed under Spanish rule it was
a captain generally of Spain just as
was Santa Fe. The cathedral fronts
on the Plaza opposite the government
buildings just the Palace at Santa
Fe used to be opposite an old church,
which formerly occupied the south
side
The Market.
Perhaps. the most interesting fea.
ture here is the market. There fruits
Of all kinds, oranges, pine apples, ba
nanas, mameys, sapotes, chirimoyas
and many others whose names | de
not know, may be found. Veg atabIes
We know at home, here are much
cheaper and richer in flavor Violets
at six cents a bunch in our money
roses three cents a dozen in our mon.
ey, Easter lilies six cents a dozen
etc. Bananas are 90 to 80 cents a
bunch of four or five dozen, oranges
two for cent. Board and room at
the best hotel in town are S125 a day
Living in this country is wonderfully
cheap. But when you come to buy i'm.
ported things especially from the Unit
ed States, this town has Santa Fe
looking like thirty cents in billetes
(they call their paper money here
billetes), which means something like
Uncle Sans two cent stamps in ac-
tual value. To begin with, it's very
much cheaper to have your clothes
made to order down here than TO buy
them ready made, as ready-made cloth.
ing is imported mostly from the
states. Consequently. q Hart, Schaff-
ner and Marx costs much more than
a custom-made suit American maga.
zines, shoes. hats, candy. etc, etc,
cost just about double what they do in
the states. This complicates things.
Every morning at 10 o'clock and
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sat
urday evening. the band plays in the
plaza. 1t is one of the finest musical
organizations I have ever heard. equal
to Sousa. Damrosch, Conway or any
of the other American bands. More.
over the class of music played is far
superior to the kind heard at the aver
age American summer park These
people are infinitely more musical by
nature than we are
Shoe Trust.
There are no electric cars here
though the population is said to ex-
ceed 10000, instead there are mule
cars on which a ride costs three
quarters of a cent. The driver, who
also acts as conductor, gets about
a dollar in gold a MONTH but has no
uniform to buy, and goes barefooted
In fact, the greater part of this re-
public goes barefooted, including the
army, which is dressed in red hats
and overalls and jumpers with khaki
leggings but no shoes. Lead 'em over
a stony road and they would be de,
moralized. all but the officers, who
are fine looking chaps. in heavily
goldbraided uniforms. However, if