541215-96

Nebay, Guat amala.
Dec. 15the, 1954
Dear annette:

If this letter reaches you 1 will be surprised.
Guatamala is rough country in every way you look at
its for instance, it has taken us three days to trav-
el from Guatamala City to this place, a distance of
166 miles. The factor of time is of major import-
ane@ o

Before finally getting away from Guatamala, I
had many exasperating rounds with customs. The car
was finally released on Deo. 10th. at 6.00 P.M. In
all, there has been five eomplete inspections of
the equipment. On Dec. llth. a permit to drive the
car was issued by the police in Guat. On the even
ing of the loth. I went to the police station and
asked for the permit so I could get started the
next day. ‘Manana' was the answer. They told me
just where to park the car that night which was 20
feet from the front door entrance to the Pan-American
Hotel. Next morning the front side window of the
car was broken as well as the look-the door left
open. I am sure I aade the mistake of telling the
police where the car would be parked during the
night. There are two explanations of the vandaliea
the one-the garrage offers proteotion-perhaps a
gentle reminder to use their facilities; the other,
conmunistisc outburst.

On Sunday I left for Chajul.e Ibarra in-
sisted I take along one of his assistants-Senior
Carlos Paredes (dusts cases) a fine fellow tho has
no knowledge of collecting or sooking-one of those
individué&’s you have to train by showing them how
to break an egge ity trip was planned for ‘solo
flight *-an extra oomplicated matters. He wore ox-
fords and had no bedding. He used my sleeping bag
for a mattress, a blanket and all available coats
for bedding. Beyond this obstacle it necessitated
,the removal and storing of all the gear ateavery stop,
an operation I had eliminated in my original plans.