Doctor Bronson's plans did not include the overland journey to Acapulco, and by way of consolation the youths determined to write a description of the route from what they could learn from others. By consulting those who had made the journey, and by references to some of the volumes in their possession, they composed the following:
"There is no regular system of hiring horses and baggage-mules for the journey, and the traveller must make his bargain with an arriero. A horse to carry himself, and a mule for the baggage, will cost about forty dollars, twenty for each animal; if there are several persons in a party the price can be reduced somewhat. It should be carefully stipulated that the arriero pay his own expenses and those of his animals, or the traveller will find himself mulcted for a considerable sum as he goes along. The arriero will want to be paid in advance, a demand that should be strenuously refused; the affair can be compromised by paying half down, and the other half at the end of the journey, which is ordinarily made in ten days.
"As we start from Cuernavaca we find ourselves on a carriage-road, and wonder how it happens that we were told we must go in the saddle. The reason is soon apparent, as the carriage-road comes to an end after a little while. It reminds us of that famous turnpike somewhere in the Western States that began with a macadamized road fifty feet wide, and steadily dwindled till it became only a squirrel-track and ran up a tree, or a similar road that terminated in a gopher-hole. One gentleman says the route from Cuernavaca to Acapulco is spoken of as a bueno camino de pajaros (a good road for birds), and he is about right.
"The country is rough and the scenery wild and interesting, except that one wearies of mountains and valleys after seeing a few hundreds of each. Portions of the way as we leave Cuernavaca behind us are through the sugar region. We pass large fields of cane and meet trains of mules laden with sugar. At irregular intervals we find villages or isolated houses, and in the construction of these buildings we observe that the cane is very prominent. Houses in this region are mostly built of cane, and their roofs are heavily thatched to keep out the heat of the tropical suns and the heavy downpour of tropical rains.
A COUNTRY HOTEL.
"This is the regular routine: We make an early start in the daybreak, take a long rest in the middle of the day, then ride in the late afternoon, and put up in a meson, or inn, or in the hut of some villager. The accommodations are of the most primitive character, but they are the best the country can afford, and we accept them without murmuring. For food, we have eggs, chickens, fried bananas, tortillas, and always the national dish, frijoles. We can get milk in the morning but not at night, as they milk their cows only once a day.
"Some of the rivers are fordable, others have been bridged, and others swollen by rains must be crossed in boats. Some of the boats are large enough to ferry our animals along with ourselves, while at the crossing of others we are transported in dugouts, and the horses and mules are compelled to swim. Of course in such a case everything must be removed from the backs of the animals, and this causes a considerable delay. We think ourselves fortunate in getting through in ten days when all the hinderances of progress are considered. In some places there is absolutely no track, as we follow the beds of streams, where at each rise all traces of previous travellers are washed away. In the time of floods these river-beds are abandoned, and the banks of the streams are followed.