Peru : incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas / by E. George Squier.

  • Ephraim George Squier
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peru : incidents of travel and exploration in the land of the Incas / by E. George Squier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/666 (page 24)
    The pina Ua/nca, or pine-apple, of Guayaquil is a proverb of excellence all over South America, on account of its size and flavor. No traveller fails to secure a dozen or so before leaving port. When we left, our steamer resembled a flrst-class fruit- shop. On deck and between decks, in the purser’s cabin and the sailors’ forecastle, on every projection from which they could be suspended, swung the fragrant pina Ua/nca of Guayaquil; for it is a perquisite of “all hands” to carry along the coast, for sale in the different ports, as many pine-apj^les as their finances will permit them to buy, or the space at their com- mand enable them to stow away. Above Guayaquil, although still substantially an estuary, the Eio Guayas narrows and becomes more like a river. It is navigable for more than sixty miles, and steamers ply to a point or landing-place, called Las Bodegas, whence the traveller for Quito commences his long and weary journey. The trip to Bodegas takes about six hours, and should not be omitted by the transient voyager to Guayaquil, if his time will permit. The river-bank is Kned with a superb tropical vegeta- tion, relieved at intervals by cane-built and liieturesque native huts, in front of which graceful canoes and unwieldy halsas are moored, ]3reparatory to being loaded with fruit for the port. The steamer seems utterly out of place in these placid watei-s and amidst this slumberous scenery, sacred to drooping palms, broad-leaved plants, interlacing vines, gaudy parrots, and dreamy alligators that literally line the shores. It is well for the traveller, if bound for Peru, to feast his eyes on the verd- ure that surrounds him in such profusion, for he will see little of the grateful green of tree or plant after he leaves Guayaquil. Under favorable circumstances, it is said, the great volcano of Chimborazo, flaunting its banner of smoke over the ranges of high Cordillei-a, may be seen from the port; but clouds rested on the mountains, and we missed the view. From Guayaquil southward—which the jDeople pei*sist in say- ing is up the cotist—there is little to interest the voyager. The wooded shores of Ecuador soon disappear, and the aspect of the continent becomes entirely changed. High, bare rocks, frayed