e.

CHAPTER X

FIRST TOUR ABROAD

Mexico--Guatemala--Salvador--Panama--Colombia--Venezuela--Jamaica
--Cuba--Fire in Amarillo--Rebuilding.

Among the many long trips leisure has permitted, the first was a tour
through Mexico, Guatemala and Salvador to Panama; thence through
Colombia and Venezuela; Jamaica and Cuba; needless to say a most
interesting tour.

Mexico has a most delightful climate at any time of the year, except on
the Gulf Coast, the Tierra Caliente, where the heat in summer is
tropical and oppressive. She has many interesting and beautiful towns.
The city itself is rapidly becoming a handsome one, indeed an imperial
one. Accommodation for visitors, however, leaves much to be desired. The
country's history is of course absorbingly interesting, and the many
remains of Aztec and older origin appeal much to one's curiosity. There
is a capital golf-course, a great bull-ring, and a pelota court. There
is much wealth, and every evening a fine display of carriages and
horses. The little dogs called Perros Chinos of Mexico, also "Pelon" or
hairless, have absolutely no hair on the body. They are handsome,
well-built little creatures, about the size of a small terrier. They are
said to be identical with one of the Chinese edible dogs. Cortez found
them in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru. How did they get there?
Popocatepetl, a magnificent conical volcano, overlooks the city and
plain. I tried to ascend it but a damaged ankle failed me. A trip to
Oaxaca to see wonderful Mitla should not be missed. There also is the
tree of Tuli, a cypress, said to measure 154 feet round its trunk. Also
a trip to Orizaba city is equally interesting, if only for the view of
the magnificent Pico de Orizaba, a gigantic and most beautiful cone
18,000 feet high; but also for the beautiful scenery displayed in the
descent from the high plateau of Mexico, a very sudden descent of
several thousand feet in fifteen miles, with a railroad grade of one in
fourteen, from a temperate climate at once into a tropical one. More
than that, it leads you to the justly-celebrated little Hotel de France
in Orizaba, the only good hotel in all Mexico.

The imposing grandeur of a mountain peak depends of course greatly on
its elevation above its base; for instance, Pike's peak, to the top of
which I have been, is some 15,000 feet above sea-level, but only 8000
above its base. The great peaks of the Andes likewise suffer, such as
Volcan Mist