The town of Valdivia.
The Cauca River at Puerto Valdivia.
The forest is magnificent, and is composed largely of ceibas with thick, white trunks and wide-spreading tops. Many tagua, or ivory-nut palms, grow beneath the tall trees; their fruit is one of the important articles of export from the Magdalena Valley and, during August and September, many thousands of bags are shipped down the river to Barranquilla. Wild life, however, was comparatively scarce in the forest proper, with the single exception of mosquitoes, which were present in unlimited swarms, even in the daytime; and small troops of brown marmosets that showed themselves at rare intervals.
While crossing the clearing one day a flock of blue and yellow macaws passed overhead; we needed a pair for the collection, so I took a quick shot at the birds as they flew by; however, I succeeded only in wounding one of their number, which flew to the ground in a long slant and alighted so far away that it was useless to try to follow. On reaching home at noon, I was greatly surprised to find the bird perched on a ladder in the very house we were occupying. It had dropped in the yard, and having been seen by some children, they tried to catch it, whereupon it took refuge indoors and kept them at bay with its angry screams and attempts to bite.
The evenings at Malena were fully as profitable as the mornings. We always spent a pleasant hour or two at dusk, walking along the railroad. Pools of water had collected in the hollows where earth for the road-bed had been excavated, and many water-birds came there nightly to fish or catch frogs. Great blue herons, bitterns, and occasionally a cormorant or anhinga were surprised at their nocturnal feasts. When we returned after dark we started numerous goatsuckers, which had settled in the open lane to catch insects and to sing; this habit of resorting to open places, especially trails and roadways, has earned for them the name guardacamino (road-guard) among the natives.
Malena was such an unusually interesting place that we expected to remain there several weeks; but, unfortunately, an epidemic of dysentery had invaded the Magdalena Valley, and the village was soon writhing in the throes of this fatal disease. Sickness and death in the family of our hosts made it necessary for us to continue on our way.
It requires exactly six hours to reach Cisneros, the end of the railroad, from Puerto Berrio. The altitude of the terminus is three thousand seven hundred feet above sea-level, and as one approaches it the heavy forest gradually disappears, to be replaced with a lower growth of brush and bushes; finally the hilltops are barren.
At Cisneros one may secure riding-animals, a carriage, or a motor-car, according to the mode of travel preferred, for the short ride across the ridge to Botero, from whence the journey may again be resumed by train. The road is splendid, and as the highest point, called La Quiebra, is only five thousand four hundred and twenty-five feet up, a canter on a spirited horse across the divide is most enjoyable.