Evening star., 1939-08-06
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
Your first sight of the Andes is
never to be forgotten.
Before your startled, still sleep
drenched eyes. visions from your
childhood geography books are COM
ing true. 1t is daybreak, and as
you look out of your cabin windows
you find your steamship. the Santa
Rosa, gliding between lofty, vivid
green Andean ranges that come
down to the sea in great undulating
folds.
Covered for the most part by
masses of lush tropical vegetation
patches of brickdust red soil show
up In startling contrast here and
there. Over certain peaks float
wisps of fleecy clouds against a sky
that is shot with the glory OF the
dawn. In the deep barrancas or
ravines between others are the dark
still, purple shadows of the night,
outstretched like mammoth bats
wings.
Rising tier upon terraced tier
from the blue green sea, you pres
emily glimpse the vari-colored one
story houses and buildings of the
Port of La Guaira. coastal gateway
to Venezuela and its capital, Cara
cas-. They look as If they had been
cut out of pasteboard by children at
rainbow to please their fancy-and
might tip forward any moment and
tumble down the mountain side into
the ocean.
La Silla Is Largest.
Back of the town of La Guaira,
the coastal Andean ranges rise
sharply. La Silla, whose name
means either a chair or a saddle,
whichever simile better suits your
fancy, is the giant of the lot, reach
ing an elevation of some 5000 feet.
It forms a sort of gargantuan back
drop, as 1t were, for this ancient
port, whose beginnings go back to
the days of Spanish cavaliers and
English free-booters and seagoing
adventures.
Sir Francis Drake once captured
La Guaira while the Spanish troops
from Caracas waited in nearby
valley 10 intercept him should he
advance on Caracas, % miles away
by today's winding auto road through
the mountains but less than seven as
the crow flies Slipping through
these Andean passes with his bucca-
neers, Drake sacked the city. re-
Joined his waiting ships and, so the
story goes, sailed away with the
equivalent of a million dollars in
gold.
1t is said that La Guaira has
changed little since it was the target
for similar piratical operations, ex-
cept that in our 20th century it is
the open sesame to the rich store
houses of oil in nearby Caracas that
are its lure today rather than the
fabled gold of the long ago.
The scene at La Guaira is a COL
orful as well as a teemingly busy
one when a large steamship is an
chored in it's channel for, ocean
gateway that 1t is to Venezuela. it is
important as port of embarkation
and departure.
Like Washington Day.
Many of its great gangs of native
stevedores look not unlike movie
versions of French legionnaires with
their knee-length blue dungarees
and their improvised sacking head
dresses, which hang down in long
curtain-like effects over their necks
and shoulders to protect them from
the blistering heat Towering La
Silla, of which the La Guairans are
so proud, shuts of much of the
usual cool Andean breezes from the
town. At that, however, it COM
pares favorably with typical
Washington midsummer's day, I
would judge from our sojourn there.
Long before the Santa Rosas
swinging passenger landing way is
put down its side, a whole bevy Of
flaming red American-made motor
trucks is being swung out from our
ships hold by giant cranes to great
scows that are waiting for this
specific cargo. In the strongest pos
sible contrast to them are the trans
port trains of slow moving little
burrows and the two-wheeled
wooden carts pulled by straining
mules which we glimpse making
their way along the towns tortuous
streets.
, Presently, clutching our precious
landing tickets in our hands (they
serve cruise passengers in lieu of
passports), we are in the landing
launch about to set foot on Vene-
zuelan soil. With us are some of
La Guaira's citizens who have come
abroad to welcome friends back from
a visit to North America.
OF all things, they are being
shown souvenir paper hats of our
New York Worlds Fair, which they
don excitedly. The chatter in Span
ish reaches still higher crescendo,
we nod and voice our approval of
their becomingness in an effort to
become good neighbors, while we