The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics; With Notes on Other Parts of Central and South America (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE OLD SPANISH MAIN BY the old " Spanish main" is generally understood the entire Caribbean coast from the Cape of Yucatan to the delta of the Orinoco. But at present we are concerned only with that portion of it between the isthmus of Panama and Cape Guajira, which constitutes the northern shore of the Republic of Colombia. As I have already intimated, if we would see the most beautiful and attractive part of Colombia, we must make a long and tedious journey of several weeks to the remote interior; for practically the Isthmus and the capital of Colombia are farther apart than Washington and Alaska, and there are but two available routes between them. One of these is down the South Pacific coast by ocean steamer to the little seaport town of Buenaventura; thence by narrow-gauge railway through the coves of the western cordillera, 70 miles or more, to the old city of Cali, in the beautiful valley of the Cauca; thence by mule-back, fully two weeks' journey over the mountains of the central cordillera to the northern edge of the tableland of Bogota; and thence by coach 32 miles or more to the national capital. The entire journey can hardly be made in less than four weeks, and it may require five or six; it all depends upon the condition of the roads. The other and more frequented route is by ocean steamer from C61on, along the old Spanish main to the port of Savanilla (or Salgar, as it is now called), about a dozen miles west of the Magdalena delta; thence by railway, less than 20 miles, to Barranquilla; thence by river steamer up the Magdalena, fully 500 miles, to Honda; thence by mule-back three short days' journey over the mountains of the eastern cordillera to the southeastern edge of the great tableland of Bogota; and thence some 30 miles in coach or omn...