§41202-57

Puerto, Barrios
December 2, 1954

Dear Annette,

Left Barrios at about 7:30 a.m. for
Guatemala City via railway. The first
class fare allowed me to ride in the last
coach which differed from any other coach
by having a woven bamboo covering over the
seats. The train is of the narrow-gauge
type with small engines and kerosene lamps.
The road bed is just rough enough to make
the train go sideways and up and down at
the same time. Ten hours of this was cal-
culated to dislocate a vertebral disc. The
passengers retain their friends until about
three blocks out of the city when the train
starts to gain too much momentum for the
non-paying passengers to jump from the
train. Likewise, in approaching a station
the village people jump aboard and ride
the train to a halt. A dozen or so porters
claim your baggage, Actually there is
more room in second class cars than in the
crowded first-class car. The countryside
is even more exotic than Assam but in ways
very similar. The hills and mountains are
covered with dense jungles of high trees
which, from my position in the train,
seemed to be impenetrable. As the railway
follows the valley of the Motagua River,
it is relatively flat. Ledo, Assam could
be campared with this valley with mountains,
however, on both sides. The flat part of
the valley supports many banana trees,
other areas are grown to dense jungle with
vines sealing in the vegetation. The
ground is damp to wet and many places with
standing water and the types of plants which