Arizona republican., 1922-03-21
Travelling Oldest Roadh
North America Aboard
FIiUUer Has It's Thrills
Strange CoUoLcades of Mexican Indians Pass
OUer "Cortez Road" Whose Traps and
Bunkers for Autos Are CrnftiIy Concealed
BY Deep Dust
By HERBERT COREY
ARTICLE No. fs

in the road did not get up and we
stopped with our front wheels on her
nose in a storm Of dust from scraping
tires. Once an ocelot lazily loped
across the trail ahead.
On the Santiago bottoms the In
dams guard against all contingencies.
They have boats in the shadow of
their waffle sided, grass-thatched
cabins, lest there come a sudden flood.
The door steps are two logs high. so
that the pigs cannot get in and bother
the babies. Here and there are roosts
in the trees where village dwellers
have been marooned in freshet time:
This land would grow any sort OF
tropical crop If it were given chance.
Near here one can in season ride
through miles of wild lines and
lemons. Oranges are never cultivated,
but are indigenous to the country.
The cocito palm Is responsible for a
local soap making monopoly, for its
kernels are SIS per cent oil. There
are fields Of sugar cane, and bananas
flourish wherever planted. The best
coffee in the world-with the possible
exception of Mochia-comes from
near this district.
But little is being done. There are
the evidences of a former prosperity
visible on every side. Not thorough
going prosperity, such as has been
common to happier countries. Not
one-tenth of the available land, per-
haps, is under cultivation. No one
has paid attention TO the roads during
the last 10 years Of revolution. eX-
cept that here and there the walloWs
washed out. in the rainy season have
been filled in with the material near
est at hand. Everywhere one sees
deserted haciendas and abandoned
farms. But people are gradually
coming home, with the growth Of the
conviction that an era OF peace is
dawning. Then this land of Nayarit
will enter upon its own.
An incredible Thorou5hfare.
But in the mean time the "Old Cor
tez Road" Is the most incredible thor
ouRhfare that Lizzie ever bucked.
Once lO-horse stages ran along this
road all the way from Guadalajara TO
Nogales in Arizona Now only INV
yer or a mule cart can negotiate II.
II is we'll laid out, for'the old Toltecs
and the Aztecs and the Spaniards,
and later the Mexicans. knew some
thing OF surveying. Everywhere the
views are superb, OF rolling hills ana
deep seated valleys and giant crests.
Spots of vivid green grow where some
farmer has held his own and kept the
water flowing upon his fertile fields.
But the dust underneath is Of tall
cum powder lightness and a shoetop
depth. Time after time the driver
raced his engine to haul out of bed
OF dust under which had been con-
cealed unplumbed depths of soft, dry
earth.
Our fore wheels threw up a wave
Of dust like that Of fast launch IN
smooth water. Behind us pillar OF
dust rolled high to mingle with the
other pillars that rose from the feet
OF peon and burro and mule. At Es-
pino, near which is an Aztec monu-
ment dating back TO days when the
priests led their people south by
stages on their slow pilgrimage TO the
valley Of Mexico, where the Span
iards were later to destroy their
power and almost their tribe, we
halted for the fourth time to empty
the boiling radiator. Up the road
came swirling dust cloud. We could
not see what it held in its heart
until it was almost upon US.
1t was a. trotting, squealing pig,
driven by an angry little Indian.