Sarah Harding’s diary for trip from New York to England 2.12.65 to 4.2.68

Shortly after getting married, Nicholas and Sarah Harding went on the Queen Mary to New York where they worked for several months. On 2nd December 1965 they set off on the trip that is described here, arriving back in  England on 4th February 1968.

Clicking on the dates below should bring up what she wrote for each date. 

 Preface

This diary was written by Sarah Harding during a journey made with her husband, Nicholas between 2.12.1966 and 4.2.68. On 22.12.66 and 27.1.66 the diary was stolen so had to be written retrospectively. Occasionally Nicholas made short contributions, which are in italics. No diary has been found for the period 18.7.66 to 15.9.66. A very few edits were made to adjust colloquialisms and omit unnecessary personal matters. Headings should refer to where each night was spent (the day may well have been spent mainly in a different country).

Thursday 2nd December 1965. Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA

It took a long time clearing up all our junk in our apartment and taking pictures of Eeyore and Mimi and planting out the plant. The apartment was left in a really lousy condition and we set off with our car really loaded up and found my wallet in the camera shop. We cashed the cheque in the Chase Manhattan Bank and saw Shelagh and set off through the Holland Tunnel becoming lost and had a very very dull day. We stopped in Carlisle and ate fish on our primus which worked well except the car stank of fish and primus fuel. Our first night was comfortable. We had wanted to spend it by Opossum Lake, but went in the wrong direction. In the early evening we went through Harrisburg, a sedate and pretty town, and got lost getting out, going miles along one side of a shallow river and having to come all the way back on the other side when we found a bridge to cross.

Friday 3rd December 1965. West Virginia, USA

We started off an hour before it got light and had some difficulty finding the way.  Soon we got into hilly country and went on to small roads into Kentucky and West Virginia which are full of derelict coal mines and the small roads wind up and down hills and through small villages, some deserted and all grey and isolated. We stopped in a sort of rubbish dump in a clearing by the side of the road on top of a hill. After nearly getting stuck in the mud, we walked round to a restaurant 200 yards down the road and drank coffee. A man with a broken-down car came in – his car was boiling over but he still tried to drive it.

Saturday 4th December 1965 Tennessee, USA

We left a little later this morning and continued through the same Appalachian country. Hazard was too far from the route so we didn’t go through it. West Virginia was the same as Kentucky and it was quite a relief when we suddenly came out of the hills onto the wide straight roads of Tennessee. We filled up with gas at a very cut-rate place near a national park and walked round Knoxville, a prosperous large town with the usual main street full of bank buildings and jewellery shops. We drove to the top of a very long hill on the Memphis road and slept in a pull in.

Sunday 5th December 1965. Arkansas, USA

We woke early on top of the mountain and all morning was spent on a dreadfully dull motorway to Memphis, a really nice town and up to expectations. We wrote Richard a PC and wandered through the dead empty streets, it was Sunday afternoon. We saw river boats stationery on the river which was wide and very nice and ghastly Baptist army boys wandering around. We saw a poor woman dying in a gas station and set off for Mississippi, reaching abominable narrow roads and cotton fields and woods. We had mugs of soup and N had nearly a whole tin of beef stew for our supper. We drove on into Arkansas and miles into a field, where we spent the night.

Monday 6th December 1965. Texas, USA

Four dogs came and visited us when we were having our porridge by the Mississippi. It was a nice drive to Texas and we heard fantastically stupid programmes on the wireless – we stopped in a quiet white town with a courthouse in the middle and drove into Texas and the roads were deserted and flat. We had a delicious supper of fish fingers by a river and our wireless got amazing far away stations.

Tuesday 7th December 1965. Monterrey, Mexico

I drove for miles along straight, dull, Texan roads with huge fields of cacti with disappointingly few cattle. It got excessively hot and I drove at 80mph. We had a very long breakfast of hotcakes flavoured with grit in Loredo. We visited AAA, changed money and spent quite a long time in the Customs dept, a Mexican typed very slowly and gave us the wrong name. There were a couple of boys who had no passport and were planning to walk round the border, a long way, as we passed a check point about 20 miles into Mexico. It was very much as I remembered it from last time, straight wide roads, with cacti and blue mountains in the distance which one never seemed to reach. We cooked our supper, soup and a truck driver visited us and tried either to buy or sell us a tyre. We had a drink in a funny little place and spent the night just outside Monterrey. 

Wednesday 8th December 1965. Between Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico

A truck had got stuck in the road as we woke just outside Monterrey. Fortunately,  our car got out easily and we entered Monterrey just as everyone was going to work. We parked the car after some difficulty and walked around having our first café con leche. Monterrey is a very touristy town, hundreds of shops selling Mexican type things you see in New York. We saw a parade of tiny children, something to do with Guadalupe on the way out of the city. We turned up a tiny side road and saw our first tiny Mexican village, little boys on donkeys and huge bunches of deep purple clematis hanging on houses. We joined the main road and further on made another detour to a very peaceful clean town right up in the mountains – a very long and perilous drive. We sat in the square which had lovely roses growing in it and took a picture of the church and tried to take a picture of a stationary donkey. We re-joined the main road after more mountainous driving. The country became extremely dull, only cacti to remove the boredom. When darkness fell we realized we were running low on gas and had a faintly exciting drive to find a gas station. A fox ran across the road and it was quite hot.

Thursday 9th December 1965. Between Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico

Nicholas thought it was raining so we moved off early and visited an Indian village right up in the mountains – the streets were running mud and we bought a very solid, almost uneatable piece of dough from a little boy. As we drove off, we saw vultures eating a poor pig. We stopped by the side of the road and cooked coffee, as it was our old instant coffee it tasted disgusting. We lost height and came down into a jungly valley, very warm, with jungle noises and tropical looking birds. We saw our first Mexican cattle and took pictures. Then we joined the main road and had tamales for lunch, afterwards coming into an orange and tangerine area and we bought lovely tangerines. Nicholas met two boys and they followed us over the mountains covered in mist, progress was slow and troupes of Mexicans were walking up and down the hills. We eventually arrived at a prosperous little town, Nicholas felt the beginning of d? and we drove up a little hill and slept, surrounded by barking dogs.

Friday 10th December 1966. Mexico City, Mexico

We woke quite early and our antics were watched by people from behind a cactus. We drove along a dusty road by the side of harvested wheat fields. The mountains in the distance. We reached Mexico City by midday and had an exhausting time parking the car. We walked to the Hilton where I had a pee. It was quickly realized ? should not be worn. We visited the Guatemalan Consulate and the Tourist Bureau and it was through them we found a dear little hotel called Dankery? Near the centre of the city and our room was at the top of a fire escape and as the American said, had character. We decided to stay 7 days as there seemed a lot to see and we had to wait for our cable from Guatemala. The streets are very wide and one seems constantly to be crossing them in great peril.

Saturday 11th December 1965. Mexico City, Mexico

The water surprisingly was hot and we had a major wash before setting off for an intensive sightseeing tour. We slowly made our way to the large square and went inside the cathedral which was very impressive and was filled with queues of people having their children christened. They were all given certificates and then we saw Indian dancing, old ladies being very energetic and men beating tiny drums. Next, we visited the Presidential Palace which was disappointing, there were curios and ugly frescoes, all the people had extraordinary noses. After lunch we went to the National shop which had some really, lovely jewellery, all very expensive it seemed. We were exhausted and I walked back on the way meeting an American boy called Jack, we took him along to our hotel and he decided to stay in the room opposite ours.

Sunday 12th December 1965. Mexico City, Mexico

We waited for hours for the boy to turn up to come to Guadalupe with us and before we left, had an expensive cup of coffee. It was very hot and we watched Indian dancing and trekked inside the church and saw people on their knees to pay homage to the Lady of Guadalupe. We walked up endless steps and saw the shrine and then hurried back and drove for miles to?? Finding the boys bull fight. We met a trio of very young boys in the evening, one of whom was nice and could speak atrocious English and not understand a word we said. We went to a square with grass and trees in the middle and saw Mexican singing groups of men and ? with guitars. We had foul chicken in an enormous sort of market and went back to Hotel Dankey and met in the passage a very strange boy who was nervous and giggled for hours. He was avoiding the draft and was on his way to Australia. 

Monday 13th December 1965. Mexico City, Mexico

In the morning we visited the Guatemalan, Nicaraguan and Honduran embassies. The cable had not arrived back from Guatemala and we have an exhausting time. We go back to our hotel to rest and the wet boy comes along, and we decided to go off to see “the Love Cage?” which was bad though good entertainment. Then he introduced us to San ? and we went to bed after retrieving my dark glasses from the first boy and heard his stories of how he was meeting the underworld etc and playing an endless game of cheat with the wet boy who we were becoming bored of.

Tuesday 14th December 1965. Mexico City, Mexico

We went to collect our letters, Nicholas had one from NADCO and I had a Christmas card and a couple of letters. I am very bad tempered, and Nicholas goes off with the Mexican boy and his friends, driving for ages through the park to an old monastery which we walked round and also the surrounding countryside where there was a river and a lot of fish. Then we ate rice and went back. On the way we were searched by police for fir trees which might have been stolen for Xmas trees. When we got back, Sarah had improved and we read our books. The wet boy attacked us and we went to bed quite happily.

Wednesday 15th December 1965. Mexico City, Mexico

We walked to collect our letters from Wells Fargo and Nicholas is very worried as he did not have a letter. It is a very long walk back to our hotel and we feel exhausted and have lunch before lying on our bed waiting for the nice Mexican boy to arrive. We are relieved he arrived without his friends and set off down Insurgentes to have the car’s carburettors cleaned in a very seedy little place. Then we set off to the Pyramids, along the same road as we came in to Mexico City. We made very slow progress along the road as it was crawling with oxen and donkeys and children playing in the dust. We turned off the road and saw Popocatepetl in the distance. It was nearly twilight when we arrived at the Pyramids and we set off to climb one of highest ones. They were unimpressive but it was nice climbing up all the steps to the top, we saw a huge black beetle sitting on one of the steps. The Pyramids were built by the Indians. We arrived back in Mexico by the toll road and had an inadequate though expensive meal before saying goodbye to the Mexican boy who was rather rich and his father has three cattle ranches and he is going to Beverley Hills tomorrow. We met the wet boy and had a drink of coke with him before going to bed.

Thursday 16th December 1965. Mexico City, Mexico

We had a lazy day and did very little. We drank delicious jugos and were followed around by the wet boy for a long time. We read the books in San? And slept in the afternoon. In the evening we wandered around by the Cathedral and along back streets, home past lots of tiny shops and had tortes of veal in our usual place. We packed and went to bed.

Friday 17th December 1965. Puebla, Mexico

Our departure from Mexico City was delayed by the car refusing to start. With the help of the wet boy we found a garage who charged a lot to mend it, but it went perfectly afterwards, the acceleration much improved. We left Mexico City on a lovely road, Popocatepetl and its sister in the distance, capped by snow. We drove in great heat up and down mountains and we feared our car would overheat. We passed lots of labouring trucks and a little black Volkswagen overtook us and showed great interest in us and the man got out and offered to show us round the corners. He drove very extravagantly up and down hills and stopped at a restaurant where he gave us coke, he drank ? and it was not long before we realised he was an alcoholic. He had won £20,000 in a lottery and lived a life of gambling and women or so he told us with a priest as his confessor. Nicholas saw our gas tank was spouting petrol and Eddie Sanchez filled the holes with wax – and we were very thankful to have found him. We stopped several times to Puebla, having drinks and he gave us apple juice which he called champagne. We spent the evening in two bars, accompanied by a man like a teddy bear. We drank gin and funny lemon and had quite an amusing time – we spent the night in an expensive hotel.

Saturday 18th December 1965. Between Puebla and Oaxaca, Mexico

We both had violent hangovers and Nicholas bounced around very early in the morning and I could get no sleep. Eddie Sanchez called and proved not to be taking us swimming etc so really was a dead loss. We took our car to a garage to have the gas tank mended with the aid of a nice parking lot man and we were a little wary of the garage. We went to the bank and I was feeling really seedy until we had a delicious torte. Puebla we both liked but didn’t see much of. We went round several bars with Sanchez, who failed to amuse us and we found him fairly tedious. In one bar we came across two very drunk Mexicans who bought me quantities of red and white carnations and eventually went off in one taxi to collect the car. Nicholas was given a calendar of a naked lady and we were pleased with the car. The hotel bill was outrageous and left Puebla. Popocatepetl was in the distance and we drove through warm, flat country, with high green plants which we could not identify. We spent a fairly comfortable night.

Sunday 19th December 1965. Oaxaca, Mexico

An old peasant lady watched us while getting up and eventually asked for some money. We had an enormous saucepan of porridge for breakfast and started off for Oaxaca, it was very hot and we passed people going to church and groups of brightly coloured goats and donkeys. We gave a very old man and a child in a bright red dress a lift. The soil turned deep red and we descended into a wide red valley and entered Oaxaca, an attractive town with narrow streets and many white churches. We walked through a very poor looking market and spent most of the afternoon in the main square which was filled with people, a few Americans who obviously lived in the town and we thought were writing books after DH Lawrence. At twilight we started a search for a cheap hotel but met with complete failure after visiting most hotels in the city – we had coffee and met a nice lady who sent us just outside the town to her father’s drive in where we had an unfortunate misunderstanding and spent the night by the side of the road instead. Next to trucks.

Monday 20th December 1965. Between Oaxaca and Guatemala border, Mexico

We woke up on the main road outside Oaxaca. It was a grey morning and quite cold. We drove into the town and bought our insurance which took a long time and had coffee in the company of a round grey cat. We bought buns filled with air, tangerines and a machete and started off climbing up and down steep mountain roads. It got very hot and we stopped at a tiny mountain village and it was all quiet and suddenly a donkey brayed. We climbed even more and saw a river miles down and really green fields with healthy looking Mexican cattle. Eventually we got onto the flat, near the sea and stopped in a colourful little town with a square with very high bushes in the middle and had delicious tortas, though covered in flies. An immense wind started up and we stopped at a check point with an irascible old man. We started to climb again and passed trucks on a fantastically steep narrow road and had a meal, a tin of quite foul beans which we threw away, followed by soup. We walked round a fair in a prosperous little town and had some beer and then drove and spent the night on a triangle. Our last night in Mexico.

Tuesday 21st December 1965. North of Guatemala City, Guatemala

Peasants began cutting stalks not far from our car and we got up early and drove into the sun, we went through very tropical looking countryside, all very green with mountains in the near distance. We passed some nice rivers and stopped and had porridge and took our clothes off and paddled around in a river. We saw shoals of tiny fish and little lizards running around on the banks. There was a scaly hairy pig in the water up to his knees and women carrying water. We drove on into great heat and saw a monstrous scaly greyish lizard slowly crossing the road, we think he was an iguana. We reached the customs, along with three boys in two Volkswagens from Costa Rica and an excessively long time was spent, first in the Mexican migration and then in the Guatemalan customs where we stayed till six, waiting to have all our luggage weighed and details taken of our car. We were given a tourist plate and set off in a real downpour and were forced to stop as our windscreen wipers did not work. Steam rose off the road and we had supper in a primitive little town badly lit and very smelly. We passed at least three check points and found a river to spend the night by. It was our first experience of mosquitos.

Wednesday 22nd December 1965, Near border with El Salvador, Guatemala

We were tormented by mosquitos and not woken by the cops as we had expected. We had our breakfast and washed in a lovely river, stared at by ladies who were waiting for their bus. We set off to Guatemala City and saw three volcanoes which seemed to be letting off tiny whiffs of smoke but it could have been cloud. We climbed high and by twelve were in the city and were disappointed in it, it was bleak and had few interesting buildings or streets. I bought a blue ? at great expense and we met three boys who were at the customs and were now trying to sell their car. We had a very unhappy experience; we walked for miles trying to post our letters and when we returned to the car found the side window had been broken and N’s suit, my bag, wireless and washing things had been taken. We were very upset and unhappy but there was little we could do – my diary had gone, combs, safety pin collection etc. We are more disgusted with Guatemala City and leave immediately in drizzle and drive miles having a disastrous meal of hotcakes on the way, I had bought condensed instead of evaporated milk. We spent the night near the Salvador border, by a lagoon and the mosquitos infested our car – I am sick and we have a very bad night.

Thursday 23rd December 1965. San Salvador, El Salvador

We were woken and tormented by mosquitos so hurried on to the Salvador border, the sunlight in our eyes, just missed being hit by a truck. We waited in a queue of people and had scrambled eggs for breakfast while waiting to cross the border and were through by nine thirty and on our way to La Libertad. I drove along a twisty road, through tunnels and by the sea. La Libertad is a dear little town and for the first time we felt away from the Yanks. We had a delicious lunch on the beach, sardines in rolls and our first juicy pineapple. We swam and watched two boats slowly unloading cargo onto a tiny boat and gradually it got enormously hot and we had fantastic thirsts so wandered around and had a huge coke down by the docks where cars were being unloaded by the pier and we saw children selling fish and old pathetic men sitting in the shade. Walking back to the square we saw the British Consul having tea on his balcony, with a lady with a Pekingese. We were determined to visit him and found him in his office, a decidedly unpleasant old man dressed from head to toe in white and not at all pleased to see us. We drove to San Salvador, parked our car in a parking lot with a donkey in the corner and met two nice non-English speaking boys who gave us drinks and little things to eat. We drove off, attempting to find a lake in a volcano crater but failed, owing to my inefficiency, so spent the night by the side of the road.

Friday 24th December 1965. Honduras side of Honduras/El Salvador border, Honduras

I woke up feeling foul from sunstroke and we realised we had driven miles beyond the lagoon we had planned to find so we drove on., desperately looking for a river to wash and cook by. We drove up and down wooded hills on a good road, over many bridges where the water was dried up and past villages. We bypassed La Union and drove along a very straight road near to the sea until we turned down a tiny road made of red dust which supposedly led to Tamalles? Bay. We drove miles along it, passing people on donkeys and mules. There were a few minute houses with children playing in the dust. Eventually we found the sea and we had arrived at a very large deserted bay with a yellow beach and palm trees. We parked the car and it sank slowly into the sand – however, we went off to swim and just as Nicholas was knee deep in the water, a native came along and said it was ? on account of sharks so we beat a hasty retreat to our car to find it sunk further into the sand and with the aid of a Salvadorian and Nicholas’s ingenuity in using the jack, eventually we were on our way back to La Union where we drank quantities of Pepsi cola and bought a green melon before setting off for the Honduran border where we refused to pay customs fees with great success and spent the night near a nice place where I had a shower and a bug flew down my dress. It was Christmas Eve and we saw a dog and cat mating.

Saturday 25th December 1965. Danli, Honduras

Christmas Day, we ate our breakfast to the sound of church bells and boys in brilliant blue shirts stared at us. We climbed very high into the cold and gave two ladies with washing on their heads a ride up the hill. We passed groups of people in their best clothes and passed a check point where the drunken soldier was drinking out of a coffee pot spout. We reached the capital about noon, a dead, empty place and we met an American who had a ranch on the Caribbean coast. He told us about canning sharks livers and that we could make our fortune in Central America and told us of a good place to eat Christmas dinner. We had delicious steak at a fairly seedy hotel, very deserted and set off along an unpaved road to Danli which took ages. We drove up and down hills and over rivers and past little villages which smelt of incense. We had soup for supper and had a drink where there were some nice little kids playing with their Christmas presents. We spent the night outside Danli, scared of bandits.

Sunday 26th December 1965. Near Nicaragua border, Honduras

It was an exhausting day. We set off to the remote Honduran/Nicaraguan border along an unbelievable road, very narrow with bumps and ruts. We passed the Honduran border and got about ten miles beyond when a rock struck our petrol tank and gas poured forth and it had to be caught in Tropicana jars and water bottles. The natives came out to help and eventually produced some wax and helped ? the road until we decided to retrace our steps. We gave them tins of marmalade and New Yorkers. Suddenly round the corner bounded a porter carrying a suitcase on his shoulder and an Italian with binoculars sweating a long way behind. Some minutes later came a very dark boy who was quite amusing and we gathered the Italian had had trouble in crossing the border, because of smuggling. The Italian implored us to give him a ride which we were unable to do on account of our gas tank. The muffler on the car had gone, otherwise it sounded okay. We reached Danli and paid for a coffee with a tin of marmalade. We drove all the way back to the Honduran capital and had an enormous meal of chop suey. We drove another sixty miles on and spent the night infested by mosquitoes not far from the border either side.

Monday 27th December 1965. Managua, Nicaragua

After a terrible night of mosquitoes, we set off for the Nicaraguan border. We had coffee and saw an American family, the father was carrying a Bible. We climbed up mountains and it was sunny and not too hot when we arrived at the border where we had an argument with a surly youth about our visas. We spoke to the Texan and I was very taken aback when he turned out to be a religious fanatic and gave me a dreadful lecture. We escaped and drove off to Managua. We had a flat on the way, it grew hotter and we vainly looked for Lake Nicaragua for a swim; after two fruitless attempts we gave up and continued into the city where we found a friendly gas station and met a Texaco agent who took us round the town in his car and showed us the lagoons for swimming. They were very impressive and were extinct volcano craters and supplied the city with fresh water. Later on in the evening we met a fascinating Egyptian who was doing business in Managua and he spoke with an impeccable English voice and had ridden in the Helsinki Olympics. He had with him a very young Austrian. He gave us supper and a shower, cold in his hotel. We slept in the gas station and got lost on the way back.

Tuesday 28th December 1965. Costa Rica, near Nicaragua border 

The old seaman gave us delicious scrambled eggs and coffee in the Managua gas station and we set off for Costa Rica, making a detour to the sea. Disappointingly it was grey and cloudy and windy, We stayed by the sea a very short time and saw pelicans diving into the water straight onto their beaks. We saw some oxen plodding along the sand and had delicious buns which cost nothing. Nicholas didn’t even swim. We set off for the Costa Rican border and had a coke in a house full of hens and pigs and dogs. The customs was quick and there were several fat rabbits hopping about outside. We drove off along a narrow road with high green grass either side and tall succulent bushes and trees. We ran into a rain storm and saw a gorgeous rainbow. Further on were fields of humpy cattle and ponies and it all looked very rich land. We started to climb and had tomato soup for supper and rice and tuna. The car ran backwards onto the primus which was great drama. We spent the night in the middle of a small town, outside a church.

Wednesday 29th December 1965. Near the Panamanian border, Costa Rica

I refused to get up and Nicholas walked round the small town we were in and drove off in the direction of San Jose; then I got up and we had coffee and cheese sandwich. The way to San Jose was very prosperous looking with many middle class houses with lawns and swimming pools. San Jose is very attractive and we got our very expensive visas from the Panamanian Consul and had a lengthy search for sandals and mosquito net. We had arrived in the lunch hour so everything was closed. We found our way to an ? dirt road, first it climbed high into misty mountains and then we descended onto a flat dry plain, the road was very dull and dust flew in every crack of the car. We had tomato soup for supper and very shortly afterwards a flat tyre which was obstinate and the stew pot had to be used as the jack would not go up high enough. A Texas car arrived and told Nicholas he was turning the screws the wrong way which was amusing tho’ embarrassing. We spent the night in a friendly gas station, not far from the Panamanian border.

Thursday 30th December 1965. Near the Costa Rica border, Panama

We started along the dusty road from the gas station and it quickly became very hot and our car was completely covered in dust which settled on everything. We had another flat tyre which did not improve tempers and had it mended further along the road and had rice and egg while we waited and I read the Cruel Sea. We were very pleased to reach the end of the dirt road and the border where we ate a delicious hamburger and were given a certificate showing we had driven all the way from New York. We stopped at a river and thoroughly cleaned out our car. The country was flat with mountains in the distance. There were many rivers and green fields with the funny humpy white cattle and strange birds and gigantic butterflies fluttering about. Towards early evening we got onto another dirt road, this one for ? miles or so and narrowly escaped running out of gas. We saw the sea and a beautiful sunset. We had trouble with our leaking gas tank and a flat tyre at the end of the road and changing it was an excitement for many of the natives. We had supper of extremely tough meat and spent the night on the beginning of the long straight road to Panama City.

Friday 31st December 1965. Panama City, Panama

We woke very early to hear people burning cacti in little houses so we drove off along a straight flat road and found a very American looking place to have breakfast where we had quantities of very uncured tasting ham. We found a lovely wide river further along to wash in, masses of people appeared just as we were about to go to the lavatory. The drive to Panama City was disappointingly dull and straight and flat with a lot of traffic as we got towards the city. We bought tangerines, grapefruit and our first coconut from the side of the road and arrived in Panama City about twelve having driven over a bridge we were very excited about. We found our way to the Consul which was shut and collected N’s mother’s letters from Boyd Brothers. We sat in the Hilton resting for a long time waiting for a torrential downpour to end and spent the rest of the day looking for somewhere to stay and got ourselves into the oldest part of the city, right in the middle of the market which was chaos. The old part of PC is most attractive and by the water. We found a nice girl who helped us find the Hotel Central where we slept right through New Years Eve.

Saturday 1st January 1966. Canal Zone, Panama

We drove to Colon along a flat straight road and stopped in a jungle clearing on the way where we were about to start on a hike to the canal until two Americans told us it was a six hour journey. We saw a trail of ants, carrying green leaves around and drove off to the Gatun locks where we saw several boats passing through and talked to the guide who has six kids and a Costa Rican wife. We went to Gatun Lake and lay on the beach, reading in the sun. We were cooking our supper when a strange Germanish lady slightly drunk, came and talked to us and invited us to spend the night with her family on Fort Davis. We went off and met her husband who she told us hadn’t been sober since Xmas Eve, but he wasn’t drunk, however she became steadily drunker as the evening progressed. She had a son called Rudi who was turned out of his room for us. We had a fabulous shower.

Sunday 2nd January 1966. Canal Zone, Panama

We had hard fried eggs cooked by Mrs Day and did our gigantic pile of laundry in her washing machine which was a great relief. We hung it out to dry and met a terrible GI friend of hers called Toby Tyler. We left to go into Colon and it was very humid with no sun. We spent the afternoon visiting all the shipping lines trying to find a cheap way to Colombia with little success. We also try to find out about ships crossing the Pacific, also with little success. We feel rather gloomy and have a meal and talk to an Ecuadorean lady about the Royal Family about which she knows more than us. We find no car dealers in Colon and drive back to the Days and hang around while they watch juvenile television and Sgt Day pokes around in Another Country for dirty sections. Rudi takes us down to the Yacht Club to inquire about boats to Colombia. Then we go back and have to sit and admire all his photographs which is very tedious and we want to watch the news on television. Mrs Day is very silent all evening and we go to bed early.

Monday 3nd January 1966. Hacienda, between Panama City and Colon, Panama

We went off at eight o’clock to the Yacht Club and talked to a nice lady about the prospect of getting a boat to Colombia. She put up a notice on the board about our car but was not very hopeful about us getting a ride. We drove to Panama City and visited the Consul for our letters and went to the Balboa Yacht club, first having lunch at the American Legion. We met a strange man in the Yacht Club, an American who always uses the British Consul and he took us to see a marine biologist who was painting his tiny boat and goes off hunting for sea snails. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going till February so Nicholas was unhappy. I was quite pleased as the boat was so tiny. There was a torrential downpour of rain, so great we had to stop the car and wait for it to finish. The roads were running with red mud. We spent the rest of the day taking our car to dealers and a foul dealer called Guy offered us $75 so we drove of in disgust. We walked around PC and found a funny place to eat and had rice and then started to look for a place to sleep. Fortunately we found the Hacienda which was very friendly and had a cage of two monkeys and a parrot and puppies and a minute kitten were wandering around. The owner of the place looked like Salvador Dali and had a very nice wife. We spent a fairly comfortable night free from mosquitoes and had great excitement as we saw a cat in shadows and thought it was a strange animal.

Tuesday 4th January 1966. Hacienda, between Panama City and Colon, Panama

We woke at the Hacienda and the nice lady gave us coffee before we set off for Panama. We had a very tiring day taking our car round many gas stations who invariably told us to come back later and sent us off elsewhere but never with any success. We had a funny lunch, Nicholas had rice and shrimps and afterwards there was a downpour of rain which seems a common occurrence in Panama City. We visited the YMCA in Balbao and met a dreadful senile old man and a boy who seemed interested in our car but when he saw it his interest died rapidly. We drove back to the Hacienda and have a delicious tortilla which turned out to be an omelette.

Wednesday 5th January 1966. Hacienda, between Panama City and Colon, Panama

We spend the whole day fairly fruitlessly driving our car around endless gas stations and PX garages on various bases. We drive backwards and forwards along the Transisthmal ?  Highway and become disconsolate and suffer from great heat. We meet a nice man called Captain Baldwin and arranged to see him in the evening. We spent an hour at Miraflores Lock watching boats go by and eventually found Capt Baldwin in B O Q and he brought his really thick friend to see the car. He seemed quite interested and we arranged to call him tomorrow. We were very excited and drove to the Hacienda.

Thursday 6th January 1966. Hacienda, between Panama City and Colon, Panama

We sped from the Hacienda to the Days house having breakfast along the way on the bridge of a wide river. We had the last of the porridge and a grapefruit and delicious coffee. We were very upset to hear that the oafish friend of Cpt Baldwin didn’t want our car, however, Ursula came to our rescue and suggested we advertise in the Port Bulletin. We spent the afternoon at her house. She is a very attractive person and has the most enormous foul baby. A friend of her husbands, Vince Kindrick came to see our car and surprisingly enough offered us $200 for it. It was very exciting and we made arrangements to drive to Panama City to see about duty. So we drove off, I had a very confidential conversation with Mrs Day outside the door about nothing. We spent a night in the Hacienda and talked to the many animals.

Friday 7th January 1966. Lake near Colon, Panama

We drove from the Hacienda to Panama and spent hours in the Customs car department while a really doddery old man typed out a letter. There were lots of exciting letters at the Embassy from Aunt Diana, Lavinia, etc. We drove back in the burning heat to Colon and waited for hours for Kindrick, it appeared he couldn’t get away so collected some money from him in the evening. We saw a movie in Colon, not very good, the exciting thing was Bingo in the middle. We spent the night by the lake and met a group of boys, one rather insufferable negro and friends of Rudi’s. We had a very short midnight swim and went to bed later, our snake [mosquito repellent] burning away.

Saturday 8th January 1966. Canal Zone, Panama

We woke by the lake after a tranquil night unmolested by mosquitoes and heat. Nicholas had an early morning swim and then we swam together and consequently were starving so drove to Colon and had eggs of which we were becoming bored. We brought tangerines and macaroni and things and visited Mrs Day who was waiting to go to the beach. We hung around and then went into Colon to see if there was any rioting. It all seemed quiet so we went to the beach and found Mrs Day etc. It was not particularly sunny and at six we cooked the supper of macaroni and corned beef. We met a nice oriental boy on the beach. Mrs Day invited us to stay for the night and we went to a movie “Shot in the Dark” before going to her house. She told us a very gory story about a lady found dead on the beach with crabs coming out of her mouth and we went to bed very late having dried our hair with her hair drier.

Sunday 9th January 1966. Hacienda, Between Panama City and Colon, Panama

We woke very late in the Day’s house and cleared out our car, giving the funny soap and ball and sweaters to the Day family. We drove to Colon and had an enormous meal of rice which the Chinese boy we met on the beach paid for. We drove to Panama a different way, along a narrow jungly very hot road and arrived in the old part of Panama and walked through the old streets by the sea. We drove to Chepo which is the most southerly point on the Pan American highway in Central America. For most of the way the road was dark and some of the way very crowded. It was not as jungly as we had expected, nothing ever is. We ate a foul grapefruit on the way back to the Hacienda and when we arrived there had delicious omelettes and the nice lady showed us her monkeys swinging around in their cages. We spent a fairly comfortable night.

Monday 10th January 1966. Astor Hotel, Colon, Panama.

We drive from the Hacienda to Panama, sadly there were no letters so the journey was completely wasted. We drove back to Colon and met Kinnard at the Day’s and spent hours with him getting necessary documents and had to go to the Y and type out our official bill of sale, then we had a drink with him and were left without our car. We paid a visit to the St Andrean boat and watched a new mast being floated across the water and being put up. The Colombian captain was not very nice and we found a dear little Indian boat bound for the San Blas Islands which we hoped to go on. It was waiting for a consignment of sugar from Panama City and would leave very early in the morning. We were very excited and went back to the Y where we had left our luggage with a dreadful little man who incited us to anger because he was so complacent and foul. We found a hotel in which to spend the night called the Astor and had a delicious ham and egg sandwich in our usual place. We saw Kinnard in our car and just as he was gone round the corner saw he had an atrocious flat tyre but could not stop him in time

Tuesday 11th January 1966. On San Blas boat in Colon, Panama

We woke up sweating in the Hotel Astor and Nicholas reads The Cruel Sea until eleven when I get up. Outside it is sunless and humid. We have coffee and buy some huge buns which we eat while walking down to the pier to see if the sugar had come in. There was great activity and although the Captain was not around we gather that the sugar had arrived. We read our books in the Y until it is time to cart our dreadful luggage down to the boat, we find it most exhausting and plan to throw some of it away. We meet an Indian from India who gives us bubble gum and told us that ? died in Russia. He had lost $5,000 when his store caught fire in Panama and has two hundred relations. We left the boat which had scores of people milling round loading it and had an enormous meal of fried rice and egg and walked around Colon for the thousandth time, filling in time until we could get on our boat. We read in the Y and met some boys, one with a fantastic English army officer moustache and one from New Zealand – who was rather interesting as he had just finished traveling around South America which had taken him six months and gave us bottles and bottles of insect repellent. On the way back to our boat we were walking through a murky area and suddenly were attacked from behind by a little coloured man; fortunately he was inefficient and got away with nothing, except perhaps “the Cruel Sea”. The safety pins in N’s trouser pockets saved the wad. We screamed and shouted respectively, but the Panamanian cop by the wharf did not move a muscle until we arrived panting and N’s voice was hoarse, then off he wandered to see what he could find of course the thief was far away and we went off to sleep in our boat after listening to a lively conversation in Spanish between everyone who lived nearly. The Captain was woken up when we arrived and we got a little sleep on the hatch. Nicholas complained of a cold wind. Throughout the night more and more passengers arrived and we began to wonder how they would all fit in.

Wednesday 12th January 1966. San Blas Islands, Panama

We set off at four am. When we woke up the boat seemed crammed with people. All the ladies with rings through their noses and small children disappeared into the only cabin. We sat on a very hard bench and suffered seven hours of real misery, being sick every other second it seems. We felt quite dreadful and eventually the sea became calm and we saw small flat islands with palm trees, houses on stilts and small yellow beaches. The first island we got off at was typical of the majority and had houses built of reedy material with thatched roofs and hammocks swinging inside. There was no spare space and houses are everywhere with tiny narrow paths running down to the sea. We had cornflakes which tasted rather strange but was good for seasickness. We met a nice boy who is staying for two years on the island in the Peace Corp. Nicholas went to sleep in the wharf and I sat in the rocking chair and read “Great Escape”. We were given a meal of rice and egg and cold but good coffee. Then we walked around the village and met the second Peace Corp boy in his house – he came from Washington State. We gave him Eeyore to give to someone with measles – there is a measles epidemic here. Tomorrow we go to the largest island and probably a bit beyond.

Thursday 13th January 1966. San Blas Islands, Panama

Nicholas got out of his hammock very early and we finally got up at eight, just before we thought the boat would leave, it left quite a bit later as it had a run-down battery. It was a lovely sunny morning but it got exceptionally hot later on when we were at the capital island. We met some Peace Corps people and managed to send off a pc – we wished we had our camera as now we could begin to use it as everything seems so unusual and strange. Our little boat is called Cuna Karibe? And the captain is a jokey fellow, very tiny like all the San Blas and with a happy, wicked face. His name is Jerry Jones and today he was very talkative and it was very calm and we had a lovely ride stopping at tiny islands delivering things. We had lunch of vegetable, rice and juicy sardines. We arrived at an island called Tibetha? Where the captain decided to stay the night, we were very pleased as we met a Peace Corps boy who took us swimming and we saw tiny little crabs walking sideways and sea slugs and coconut trees – the water was fantastically warm and clear. Afterwards we had supper of spaghetti and bread and marmalade and coffee in an enormous reed house with two poor little pigeons cooped up in horrid cages. We were the subject of great curiosity and the children ran after us laughing at us. Hords of people trooped into the house, one terrified little boy who hid behind his mother the entire time. There was a chief who spoke nothing but Indian and sat for hours. We ate congee cane and went to sleep in the hammocks, the doors being firmly shut because of vampire bats and rats.

Friday 14th January 1966. San Blas Islands, Panama

We started off punctually at 5.30 and slowly the sea began to get rougher but we survived. We stopped at several little islands and saw a ship-wrecked boat on the sand. The mainland was jungly with little mountains everywhere. It was very grey and rather rainy but when we reached a large island with a church and library, the sun was out with violence. We set off from the island and when we were half a mile from the shore the engines suddenly went dead and we dropped anchor, waiting till three motor boats pulled us slowly into shore where we stopped in the burning heat until 5.30 while the engine was being mended. Something had to be soldered. I was very angry all afternoon and read “The Great Escape”. Nicholas wandered around and met the Peace Corps boy who was building a cement house and was keeping an enormous conch in a bucket until the insides came out. Also near his house in the water was an octopus and a ?. At 5.30 we started off for Aligaide? Which is on the mainland and has many cement houses and a hotel. We arrived in the dark and parked next to a Colombian bungy which had two masts and looked dark and mysterious, its inside piled with coconuts and negros. We walked round the town down the dark streets past reed houses and we could see people sitting inside, some were sewing and some were in their hammocks. There was a very large house, inside a man chanting in a hammock and we thought perhaps someone had died as it all sounded very solemn. We had a delicious supper of soup and tuna and peas all out of tins which cost us only 50. We had a very comfortable night on the hatch next to the Colombian boat which looked exactly like a pirate boat and we were in two minds whether or not to find the Captain. We had great excitement as when I was in the loo, I saw a little patch of luminous light on my shirt but is turned out to be a hole in the door and not a glow worm as we had thought.

Saturday 15th January 1966. Our San Blas Island, Panama

We woke up and set off at 5.30 and watched the Colombians cleaning their teeth over the side of the boat and had a very sour dry biscuit for breakfast. We stopped for an hour on the largest island so far called Lipressa? And were constantly followed by Indian women and children chattered in hostile voices, really they were friendly and were interested by my wedding rings. We saw a skinny black cat and hairy pigs and there was a large Catholic church and a nursery next door, which we found useful as we got a man to post our letters as the post office was closed. We heard the conch horn and found the boat waiting for us. The sea became a little rough and we saw porpoises leaping in the water. The sun became hot and we stopped at a really primitive island and had a curious drink of maizey stuff and then lunch which was boiled bananas and fish. Suddenly the Captain announced he was going no further and put us off at a really primitive island where we were received with great friendliness and lay in hammocks in their congress room waiting for the Sila to arrive. When he did come he started singing and it appeared that we were not meant to talk to him until he spoke to us first. We were given coffee and were the subject of great curiosity, the children followed us round in hords. We found several men who could speak a tiny bit of English but did not manage to extract much information about coming bungies. When it got dark, the Congress room filled up and endless chanting began, the women sewed, and the children slept in the hammocks and most of the men seemed bored. One of the English-speaking men took us into his house and gave us more coffee and showed us wood carvings he had made. He was the Secretary and wrote letters for the island. Eventually the singing stopped and they all trooped out of the room and we slept in hammocks.

Sunday 16th January 1966. Our San Blas Island, Panama

We were woken at 6.30 and were taken off to wash in a house. The morning was spent in reading, sleeping and drinking cups of maize liquid and eating bananas. We were asked into a house and were given a piece of rather tasteless melon. Hordes of children followed us around but lost interest fairly quickly. The sun came out and it got quite hot and we were asked into a house where we had maize flavoured chocolate. Later on in the day a bungy arrived with no engines, unfortunately it was going the wrong way. We spent a long time bargaining with the San Blas over material, skirts, coffee and sugar. It got dark and we were given a drink of orange by a little man who owned a shop which he kept padlocked. We went into the Congress room and again the chanting began. We heard an engine and went outside to find another bungy, again heading north. We are not too disturbed as we are told one going south is expected tomorrow. Eventually the singing stops and we go to bed. During the night there is a heavy storm and windy. A rat eats half our banana.

Monday 17th January 1966. Our San Blas Island, Panama

We were hungry this morning until we bought some delicious spaghetti in the shop, a coconut and were given some crackers and we had a lovely meal on the pier. Both bungies disappeared at about 9.30 and we saw piles of poor iguanas with their arms tied over their backs. The rest of the day was spent in reading and eating bananas from a giant bunch we were given, they went bad rapidly and had to be disposed of next day into the sea when no one was looking. We sat on the wharf looking for bungies though none arrived. We were constantly told one was due tomorrow so we did not lose hope. We endured another three hours of chanting and slept in the hammocks and were woken up by rats running over our faces. From that moment we were wary of noises, it was very windy and we imagined vampire bats in every corner, however, eventually we got to sleep.

Tuesday 18th January 1966. Our San Blas Island, Panama

The boy who gave us the bunch of bananas told us a Panamanian boat called the Milton was arriving at three, however we dd not really believe this and were very surprised to see a little boat arrive on the dot of three just as we were eating our tins of pork and beans. It was a sailing ship and sold things to the San Blas once a month. It was a long time before we learned that the boat was turning around. There were very nice people on the boat and a Colombian with an arresting face called Archibald Lipton who told us of a bungy that might be passing our way. He gave us delicious meal and fortunately we only arrived back in time for a little of the ? We both spent a very sleepless night and heard rats rustling around

Wednesday 19th January 1966. On a bungy between San Blas Islands, Panama and Cartagena, Colombia

We had an enormous breakfast on the boat and got most excited over a bungy in the distance but it was concluded that it was travelling in the wrong direction. All morning was spent sitting on the wharf in great heat and stickiness – we had our lunch at 11.30 and Nicholas had a nasty fright when he fell down a hole in the wharf. We rested in our hammocks when Archibald Lipton arrived and told us of a bungy on the next island. We set off with him and arrived on a very lively island where all the children were chased by an old man with a stick and they jumped into the water. Our bungy was quite weighed down with coconuts and we saw a tiny ships cat tethered by a piece of string. We had a drink of orange which tasted foul as usual and sat on the wharf waiting for our boat to leave. We were warned it would be very rough with lots of spray which made us very excited. The boat had a poor tortoise buried beneath suitcases and coconuts. Immediately we got out to sea, the bungy rolled and swayed and very soon it became dark and we passed a tortuous night. Nicholas had the beginning of a runny tummy and it was impossible to sleep wedged between boards and coconut tins.

Thursday 20th January 1966. On a bungy between San Blas Islands, Panama and Cartagena, Colombia

Eventually it got light and the bungy moored off a largish island where half the crew disappeared, till midday in a ? when were told to leave for another bungy nearby which proved much more comfortable but it was not carrying contraband coconuts but it had a real old-fashioned captain who stood on the mast seeing his way. We made a house for ourselves on crates of empty beer bottles with bananas for our pillow near the kitchen. We were both terribly thirsty and were given the last bottle of orange on the boat by a boy called William who was interested in our guide book throughout the voyage. We were both nauseated by food, rice with fried bananas. The boat stopped at five and we went straight to sleep.

Friday 21st January 1966. On a bungy between San Blas Islands, Panama and Cartagena, Colombia

After a very uncomfortable night we started off again and I slept till very late. Nicholas sat on the bows of the boat and had to spend a long time in the lavatory. We discovered a ships pig and horrid scrawny hens. The boat stopped early near a wooded island and the crew and Nicholas had a swim and was bitten by horrid jelly fish. I felt weak through loss of food but couldn’t face the foul donkey like meat and rice. We drank the tin of evaporated milk and slept, again badly on beer bottles.

Saturday 22nd January 1966. Cartagena , Colombia

The boat started off at three and by eight we had stopped in the sea as the captain had lost the way. Fortunately, land was sighted and we felt ourselves to be near to Cartagena as we saw an old fashioned sailing boat and a navy ship rushing along. Gradually the sun rose til it became oppressively hot. We stopped for ages at what appeared to be the Customs. The captain went ashore and people appeared to buy bananas. By eleven we had landed and were both relieved to be off the boat. [My recollection was that we were required to get off the boat some way from the shore, carrying our luggage over our heads. This could have been because we didn't have visas or similar]. We carried our luggage to a square where we found the British Consul, a very friendly gentleman who told us of a hotel and said it was impossible to find hot water. He sent one of his people to show us the way and we arrived and paid £2.50 for a room which was expensive. We had a shower in a gigantic bathroom and had food downstairs, which also was expensive. Nicholas had soup. Afterwards I washed all the clothes and we set off for a walk, first by the sea. The old part of the city, which we are staying in, has two walls around it and is very attractive and Spanish looking, with old domed churches and nice green squares. We bought a pineapple, the tiniest in an immense heap and visited our boat which was tied up in a line of other bungies. We had a terrible time repacking our suitcase and had delicious soup downstairs, sitting next to three American boys who are in the navy and very oafish. It is tremendously hot and there is a giant fan in our room. We hope it won’t fall down, it is very precarious.

Sunday 23rd January 1966. Cartagena, Colombia

Nicholas woke up feeling ill and we get up late and went out into the blazing sun and ate delicious eggs and pots and coffee. We bought dark glasses and failed in finding a hat, we searched in the very smelly market and they were all like the Captain’s but too small. We walked rather aimlessly about and had papaya and guava drink by the sea and saw our captain gazing rather sadly into space. Cartagena was dead empty and we had a long rest, N read his book and I dreamt about talking to a coat hanger. We walked towards the sea when it was dark and saw all the middle-class people going to and from church. We had a fairly disappointing supper and wrote to our parents and I was bored while N finished Heeteg? We slept with our fan on all night and a giant roach walked up the wall.

Monday 24th January 1966. Barranquilla, Colombia

We had an exhausting time finalising our list and took four taxis whilst getting our entrade stamps back and forwards from ? and to the customs again, we just arrived before they were setting off for lunch. We had a period of enforced idleness while all the Cartagenians had lunch. We had a delicious pineapple drink which resulted in us having upset stomachs when we arrived at the ? so had to run back to the hotel. Eventually our case containing Mimi was sent off. A key had to be cut which was done wrong the first time and we visited the tourist bureau. Cartagena was quite different today and was teeming with people and cars. We caught our bus for Barranquilla which drove at top speed through flat country with fat white Mexican cattle and donkeys. It was quite dull and there were mountains in the distance and sea. We arrived in Barranquilla in a seedy area to find we had missed the last bus to Santa Marta. With the help of a boy who carried our suitcase on his shoulder, we found a hotel and had a tiny room with air conditioning and walked with trepidation through dark streets and had delicious soup and sandwich. We went to bed at nine, both missing my rabbit.

Tuesday 25th January 1966. Train between Cienaga and Bogota, Colombia

We got up at 3.30 and arrived at the bus place to find our bus didn’t leave till five, so we had coffee and some strange drink. We crossed the river Magdalena and drove at high speed along a dead straight road next to the sea and stopped at Cienaga and discovered our train to xxx leaving at many different times. After long hot hours of waiting the train arrived, very long with trucks and ? and eventually we found a seat. The train started off slowly and went through banana plantations and we saw trucks of bananas in plastic bags waiting to be taken off. We stopped endlessly at tiny stations and the train became less crowded. It became intensely hot and as we got further away from Santa Marta the banana plantations diminished and we saw green fields with Mexican cattle with disappointingly little jungle. Mountains were to the right of us, they were quite small and then disappeared. There were a few sluggish rivers with children swimming and dusty villages, many of the houses had reed roofs and looked very primitive and many of the children had enormous tummies from malnutrition. At the stations little boys rushed up and down our train selling extraordinary things to eat. Nicholas ate guava ? wrapped up in a smelly leaf which revolted me and we had what looked like a conglomeration of puffed wheat stuck together with sugar. When night fell we realised we had gone a very short distance and expected to arrive in Bogota early the next day. The train stopped constantly throughout the night and the mosquitoes bit. There were scores of small children who yelled eternally so it was not a very comfortable night. There was a dear little black and white kitten which slept underneath our seat for hours before we knew he was there.

Wednesday 26th January 1966. Train between Cienaga and Bogota, Colombia

We realised we were only half way to Bogota early in the morning so morale was low. The train made very slow progress in the early part of the day and the countryside was more jungle-like. We didn’t see macaws or monkeys swinging in the trees. All the children screamed intermittently all day. Again it was extremely warm and we looked forward to getting into the mountains for relief of heat and mosquitos. My feet swelled up from bites. We saw some derailed trucks but no other excitements. In the middle of the afternoon we stopped for a long time just after we crossed the Magdalena river and had delicious ? cold coke. The train made good progress and we were lucky enough to find much more comfortable seats and we went to sleep as darkness fell. We were invaded by insects, enormous dragon flies and a gigantic moth.

Thursday 27th January 1966. Bogota, Colombia

We woke at three to find the pill box had been stolen. We were very upset especially as the diary was in it. We thought it was stolen by a horrid old man whose legs stuck out of the window. We were both very relieved the rabbit Mimi was not in it and the passports. It grew very cold and we continued to climb until we reached Bogota. We started a fruitless search and I feel foul. We found a waterless hotel and Nicholas had breakfast and then we slept till two and got up and visited the British Consul who was helpful and had a lovely lavatory. We had a cup of coffee in a funny little place where we were the subject of great curiosity and two people paid for our meal – we found the Tourist place which was very smooth and helpful over buses. We started back towards our hotel and stopped in a bookshop where we were caught by a really cranky professor who had a wooden statue of a naked Indian. We found our way back to the hotel and both felt tired. Bogota is a nice town, surrounded by mountains and is very cold. Everyone is smartly dressed and the streets are broad. We did not find the old part of Bogota. We saw lots of men walking around in ponchos. We bought a dear little diary and will try to rewrite the one we lost. It is very disheartening writing this one as so much has been lost and we are extremely upset. I suffer all day from knives in the stomach and diarrhoea and we do not know if we will go tomorrow. We had an amazing supper. Nicholas had an assortment of offal sizzling on a rack with charcoal underneath and baked potatoes but it was not very nice. The waiter tried to overcharge us with no success. We had coffee in a funny little place and a little man said we were a pretty couple.  We hurried home to the lavatory. There seems to be a water shortage throughout Bogota. We feel very cold all day and wear sweaters.

Friday 28th January 1966. Bus from Bogota to Cali, Colombia

We got up and had two eggs for breakfast in a funny little saucepan and two cups of delicious café con leche. I had to hurry back to our hotel as a result. We decided to leave Bogota as my insides improved so much, so we packed up and bought lots of things like a bag with Avianca written on it, a razor, nail clippers and four books. Bogota was much warmer and sunnier and we saw delicious fruits being sold on the street, grapes and plums. We walked miles to the bus station and found a bus leaving at 2.45 so we had soup and Nicholas had an immense meal of tough meat. We had a terrible time finding a lavatory and managed to do so just before the bus started. Once out to Bogota we climbed for a bit and the scenery was very attractive with fields and cows and a few sheep.  Also we saw lots of different sorts of trees, some evergreens. We climbed down for a long way, there were little shrines all along the way and our bus stopped to light two candles. We passed through two attractive towns. The was an old lady in the bus behind us who was sick out of the window and wrapped herself up in a white scarf. We stopped briefly and narrowly escaped being left behind while we were having our pee. We crossed the river Magdalena which had a paucity of water and looked dirty. Then we stopped further on and the driver had his dinner and the whole bus disembarked. It was dark and we slowly gathered that we had to stay on the bus as had reserved our seats. We climbed up and down enormous mountains and it became very cold and misty as we reached the tops. There were masses of police checks and at one point all the men in the bus were searched when they got out of the bus. Further on down the road the bus was searched by Customs men who looked drunk. We were told we would reach Cali at three. It got freezing cold and we couldn’t see anything. The was a fantastically stupid boy next to me on the bus who tried to keep up a flowing conversation out of his English book and it was very tedious.

Saturday 29th January 1966. Pasto, Colombia

We arrived at Cali at three and spent a very uncomfortable few hours waiting for our bus to leave, Nicholas slept with his head on the table and I wrote my stolen diary. We drank coffee and sat in our bus, waiting for 8 o’clock. We both felt very tired as had little sleep. The bus terminal was full of people sleeping and the cops came and moved two lots of people away. It was a very small bus we started off in and there was a screaming child behind us and a man with “born to love” on his arm. We started off on an unpaved road and the country was most attractive, hills and green fields and it looked very fertile. There were lots of donkeys by the side of the road and mules and ponies. We changed buses at a largeish town as ours seemed to go wrong underneath. The next bus driver was tinier than the last. We went through very picturesque scenery, up and down little mountains and past little green fields like England. There were lovely flowers and herds of ponies in fields and people wearing ponchos. We climbed quite high and stayed high, stopping at little towns picking up people on the way until the bus became very crowded. The child started to scream behind us and fortunately we stopped and had a meal, horsemeat and everyone moved at top speed. We were amazed to see we had not passed Le Union and resigned ourselves to a five hour journey. We climbed again and it grew dark, the man with “Born to Love” on his arm started on his repertoire of jokes and sung loudly all the way to Pasto, which we reached at nine, we were freezing cold and found a hotel very quickly and had eggs and went to bed in a really cold damp room.

Sunday 30th January 1966. Pasto, Colombia

We woke up at one and Nicholas had a tepid shower. Our room was cold and damp and smelt damp. We had an enormous lunch, guava jam stuff, milk and rice and bananas. I washed a shirt and the key got lost and it was very trying, it was found in the bathroom. We went outside and it was very cold. We walked around, it was quite deserted and everyone looked sombre. We saw lots of cops some in a truck. There are nice hills just outside the city and many churches and a large square in the centre of the town which has some modern shops and masses of small hotels. We had a delicious tea – cake and coffee and the rest of the day was spent in feeling cold, reading and writing letters and diary.

Monday 31st January 1966. Ibarra, Ecuador

Nicholas woke up with a cold and the room smelt damper than ever. We went to the bank and bought our bus tickets to Ipiales. We went on a dear little bus and sat in the front seat, we were faintly nervous of our suitcase which was put right on top of the bus. We had a nice little bus driver who drove slowly and had bad brakes. We went over the usual sort of country – mountainous with tiny villages and green fields. There was a lovely river miles beneath which we passed over several times. There was a Colombian boy who spoke English and was friendly. He was an agricultural adviser. He was very helpful and accompanied us to DAS? And then we had lunch with him, an enormous piece of chicken in a bowl of soup and rice and salad which he paid for – then we went to the Ecuadorian consulate and missed paying five dollars for a tourist card. We went in a very small bus to Tulcan and there changed money and caught a big bus for Ibarra. There were only a few hours of daylight left and we drove on a fairly cobbly road and there was a tedious military person who kept up a conversation in bad English. The excitement of the journey was being stopped by the Aduana and they searched the entire bus, all the ladies bags etc for contraband goods bought cheaper in Colombia to be sold in Ecuador. The Aduana made off with tins of coffee and chewing gum.  We drove on and on up an extremely high mountain with a fearsome precipice and the bus gave money to Our Lady of Fatima who was very elaborate. We were stopped by Aduana who swarmed onto the bus; this time we were rather nervous as the military gentleman had thrust a parcel containing what looked like knickers onto us; however the Aduana seemed content only to look at our passports. Just before we arrived at Ibarra the bus stopped and very furtively about a dozen ladies carrying sacks and looking like ants scurried off and ran up a path by the side of the road. A commotion was caused by a car coming up a hill and everyone ducked in the shadow of a house except for one poor lady who lost her nerve and came flying back to the bus. Later the bus was searched most thoroughly, including the drivers tool box and the wheels and we found the Imperial Hotel very late and woke up a poor boy who was asleep just inside the door. We had two beds, Nicholas slept in a middle sized bed and I slept in a tiny bed.

Tuesday 1st February 1966. Quito, Ecuador

Nicholas had a terrible stomach attack and a big black cat came and mewed inside our room. We had breakfast, an unusual sort of drink and roll and coffee and a military band playing outside. We decided we had arrived in an extremely nice hotel and deliberated about staying because of Nicholas’s stomach or whether to go by rail or bus. We decided to go by train and the nice German who wore very clean clothes and had been in Ibarra for 54 years rang up the station. I had a cold shower and we walked in great heat to the station and back. Ibarra is a quiet little town and surrounded by mountains. It has nice squares with flowers – we had lunch in our hotel – good but quite wasted on us and we were appalled by our bill for the night. The train was just one big coach and we were surprised to hear an American voice behind us and it turned out there were two missionaries in our train, a fairly nauseous couple from San Lorenzo. The train made a fantastic noise and we shouted at the tops of our voices at them for hours. It was a very spectacular journey; we went along the sides of mountains and over perilous wooden bridges and gorges miles beneath. The driver hooted incessantly to move hairy pigs and donkeys and people off the track. We arrived at Quito at six and the missionaries took us in their taxi and we had difficulty in extricating ourselves from having an expensive hotel. We found a funny little one with a man who looked like a Turk or an Arab. We had delicious eggs and walked round Quito – round the expensive area and past lots of military looking belligerent – one had a drawn bayonet.

Wednesday 2nd February 1966. Alausi, Ecuador

We were constantly woken by people passing our room and both slept badly – we trecked round Quito finding the post office and bank and Pan American bus service. Quito is a nice town with several squares where the President lives and the military etc. The Indians are very strangely dressed, the women wear men’s hats and the men have pigtails and the children, especially the girls are dressed up to look like very old creatures. We caught a bus just as it was leaving and made reasonably good time to Riobamba, along a paved road. First, we went through a rich valley, with herds of Friesian cattle and houses with lovely flowers. Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, both volcanoes were in the distance covered in snow and cloud. We arrived and bought red and yellow plums and had coffee, then the bus became more crowded and the paved road gave out and we bumped along a road which was being built and caterpillars were shovelling earth away. We climbed high and it became very bleak and cold and looked rather like parts of Scotland. We descended to Riobamba, a dusty little town with donkeys carrying piles of grass and minute Indians bent double under enormous sacks and spent ages deliberating what to do and decided to catch a six thirty bus for Alausi. We had delicious buns and coffee at great expense and wandered around by the railway, ceaselessly followed and stared at by everyone who offered to carry our things, etc. We got on a bus to Alausi and had a two and a half hour journey in the dark and saw a bus which had practically gone over the edge of a precipice avoiding another bus. We spent the night in a very primitive hotel with public basins and a minute pillow. We had café con leche and the inevitable cheese roll.

Thursday 3rd February 1966. Bus Cuenca and Machala, Ecuador

We woke to the sound of a Beatles record sung in Spanish. We had breakfast – that delicious guava type juice again. Outside it was cold and dark. We waited till 12.30 for our bus and climbed up and down misty mountains all the way to Cuenca, sometimes dropping down into a valley which were all brown and impoverished. We went through a couple of nice little towns. There was a French couple sitting in front of us. We arrived in Cuenca to find the bus for Valjo? a quarter of an hour later. So we flew around, peeing which was exquisite relief and buying delicious beef sandwiches. We managed to get a little sleep on the way – half way we stopped at a dark place where everyone except for us had food and afterwards we grabbed the back seat and bounced around over potholes. Earlier on in the day we had a prolonged discussion about food, conjuring up delicious steak and kidney pie in our imagination as we were so hungry. We ate very little over the last few days, lovely buns and horrid cheese sandwiches

Friday 4th February 1966. Machala, Ecuador

We arrived in Valjo at five and slept a few hours in the bus before we caught the bus for the border without a second to spare. It was a nice bus and stopped frequently so we had a chance to buy buns and coffee. We lost a lot of ground and it became quite warm and we saw purple dragon flies and orange shrubs. We had soup for lunch surrounded by pigs and flies and our passports were inspected twice. It suddenly got very hot and rained, the first time in ages. We arrived in Machala in another two hours climbing and then losing height again rapidly. It got very much hotter and we saw lovely white lilies growing in masses. Again our passports were checked and we entered the town very muddy streets and it started to rain so heavily we thought we must have hit the rainy season. We had delicious coffee and wrote quick letters and Nicholas found a very nasty hotel that stank of pee and had big bugs. It poured with rain torrentially and we slept and went out and had coffee and I feel mad.

Saturday 5th February 1966. Sullana, Peru

We went by truck to the river to find it flowing quickly with red muddy water and went across it in a tiny rowing boat, men in their bathing suits pushed it and caught ropes to drag it into land the other side. We saw a large herd of cattle being swum across with just their heads above the water. We thought they were contraband and were scared by their menacing looks as we walked to the immigration in Peru where after lengthy conversation we had to turn back to Machala to get our Salida. We traipsed around the town in blazing heat being directed by a little boy and paid for our salida stamp, a grouchy old man who put at least five more stamps in our passports – we walked through foul pig mud back to the river, having been told it was impassable, however we crossed it in a boat, full of turkeys and saw some being floated across the river. We managed to get a cattle truck and paid 100 soles to Sullana, quite a lot. We bumped along really muddy roads, our radiator overflowing and the driver, crossing himself at every corner. We had delicious steak and potatoes which the retired police inspector paid for and two gigantic pepsi colas. We peed in a round hole watched by turkeys and arrived at Sullana at ten having stopped at a gas station where the truck was washed by hand. We saw desert and we are now in the Peruvian desert. We walked around Sullana looking for a cheap hotel as the Hotel Wilson was too expensive – a nice boy came along and took as off very mysteriously to a house and a senor appeared and looked at us most suspiciously and brought his wife out to see us and after showing them my wedding ring and us being thoroughly stared at we were taken indoors and had coffee and stopped the night in their house which was all downstairs with high ceilings and an outside bathroom and I heard a bat flying around and a mouse scuttling around on the floor.

Sunday 6th February 1966. Sullana, Peru

We found a note when we got up from a mysterious person who turned out to be in the Peace Corps, an old maidenly bespectacled girl call Charlene, though nice who invited us to what she called a Fiesta in a hacienda – it turned out to be a gathering of the Peace Corps and three Peruvian girls on a rich man’s farm in the desert, but the land had been irrigated and the colour was fantastically green. It was a lovely house and had a swimming pool and we had lovely baked potato and avocados and meat. We drank a good punch made with oranges and wine and tea and had red very pippy melon. The mosquitoes were very bad and gnats sucked my sores which was revolting. I spent most of the afternoon in the swimming pool which was gorgeously warm and blue. We met some nice Peace Corp people, the most distinctive being one called Jim who worked ten years in Alaska. We had delicious cheese and biscuits and sweeties. It got dark quite early and the mosquitoes attacked badly. There was a large shining alsatian jumping around called Blas. We went back to Sullana in a truck and dried our clothes in the back

Monday 7th February 1966. Chiclayo, Peru

We woke very late and found Charlene rather untalkative. We had salty fried egg for breakfast and went out into the bright sun and got Tourist Cards and money accompanied part of the way by Senor Calderon. We had an enormous lunch including a mango and after giving the senora a bottle of wine, we went in a collectivo to Piura, through flat desert and caught an ex greyhound bus to Chiclayo through more desert, where we spent the night in a room that smelt of donkeys and overlooked the square which was very lively all night. I had the beginning of a headache.

Tuesday 8th February 1966. Lima, Peru

Our bus left at half past four and I had a foul headache - sunstroke it was – the bus went through endless desert some ? desert, some very scrubby. We travelled near the sea quite a bit and there was a strong smell of drying fish which was very powerful. The driver stopped for lunch at 3.30 and Nicholas had a frustrating time and got three meals altogether. We arrived in Lima about seven and had a depressing time finding a hotel – eventually arrived in a fairly dreary one who tried to swindle us. We were very tired and slept all the night with our clothes on

Wednesday 9th February 1966. Lima, Peru

We woke up still dressed and my headache was still there but improved enormously, throughout the day to extinction. We paid enormously for coffee and ham roll and went by the British Consul which had English newspapers and the cleanest lavatory. After much misfortune we collected our letters at the British Consulate, eventually we went off in a collectivo after a white coated cop had told us the wrong direction. We had quite a good collection, IAA,  Jill and Alasdair were missing. The lady in the Consulate was very garrulous and helpful. We walked back toward the centre of the town and collected tax forms from the US Embassy. 

Outside. we met rather a dreary teacher from the Canal Zone who was pallid and we walked with him to the square with the horse in it. Very exhaustedly, we sent off pcs at high price and returned to our hotel. Lima is a most attractive city, very spread out, with several wide streets divided into two with green leafy trees in the middle. There are several squares with impressive buildings round them, we saw military wearing gold helmets, white shirts and red trousers, guarding some very important place. All the people are very smartly dressed and everywhere is extremely expensive. Our hotel has improved, they have swept the floor and are doing our washing for a small fortune. Everyone in the town seems to be American and there are tourist shops full of stuffed llamas and llama skins for horrible rich Yanks. We had a good supper – funny mussel soup and breaded liver and then delicious flan, only it had no juice in it. Tomorrow we will go there and have delicious eggs and potato and coffee. We have to do lots of things like N’s passport and finding out about the Amazon.

Thursday 10th February 1966. Lima, Peru

We had a really disturbed night. I had to sleep in the other bed a result of fidgeting. Then we woke up late. Nicholas had two breakfasts and I had one. We took a collectivo out to the Booth Line, right out in the residential part and talked to an English man about the Amazon. It seems to be the best time to go, as boats don’t go aground, it is the rainy season. We collected two letters from the Consul and went into the middle of the town and spent quantities of money on an avocado pear and a really delicious bun. We spent a long time in the British Council and the rest of the day was spent in writing and having our supper, a mistake, disgusting tripe and then we had an argument over Nicholas’ mother’s letter.

Friday 11th February 1966. Lima, Peru

I got up feeling tired and everything today has seemed an unhealthy effort. So much that we postponed leaving until tomorrow. We spent a fortune posting letters, talked to a nice lady in the tourist place, about Sir Robert Perkins who found a ship buried in his garden and we saw him later in the day in the Consul. No mail and N’s passport rather disappointing. We had a drive down to the sea with a rich Peruvian who we didn’t like all that much. But it was a nice drive through rich suburbs. We arrived back and walked exhaustedly looking for our bus for tomorrow. Then we had liver and chips in our usual place and were in bed by ten

Saturday 12th February 1966. Oroya, Peru

Today was a repetition of yesterday in feeling tired. We dragged ourselves off to have breakfast and bought books and looked at Hondas and were tempted to buy one, it cost $320 but we didn’t think it could carry our baggage and ourselves up the Andes. We failed in buying malaria pills and slept on our bed till two thirty when we made a super human effort and set off to catch the bus to Oroya. We walked miles and a horrid boy threw water at me. I was furious. Our bus was very high off the ground presumably so that it can go through real floods. We climbed solidly until we reached Oroya at about nine thirty. The road was good for the first part of the way. We saw mountains and a nice river running by the side of the road. It got dark very quickly and all the windows of the bus were tight shut. We found a hotel and had meat and chips swimming in grease.

Sunday 13th February 1966. Huanuco, Peru

We woke up, Nicholas with an acute headache and me with knives in my stomach and we put it down to altitude. Oroya is twelve thousand feet high and an unattractive active town with a railway and little else. Nicholas saw a New Zealand car. We saw some drunk men and caught our bus at one thirty, unfortunately had no window. We sat right at the back and it was bumpy but we had quite a good view and the country was different, miles of plain with mountains in the distance. We were very excited to see herds of llamas grazing with sheep and cows. They were furry and all different colours. We saw some young ones which were snowy white. Also there were donkeys and goats. We passed through a town in which there was a procession against the Yankees. Then we started to lose height quite rapidly on a narrow road and it was quite hazardous when we met anything in the opposite direction. There was a nice little river which we followed for some distance. When it got dark the driver stopped for his supper and we arrived in Huanuco at 9.30 and found a very nasty hotel with a really disgusting lavatory. We had delicious orange juice and soup.

Monday 14th February 1966. Tingo Maria, Peru

We had delicious orange juice for breakfast and discovered that buses didn’t run until four so we went along to the Control place and waited while trucks went past. We had a good view of Huanuco which is surrounded by mountains and is very clean with a browny river. Mosquitoes attacked and it got quite hot. We went off in a truck which had seats in it for about twenty five people. We sat in the front. We stopped about an hour after we started and had soup and potatoes, Nicholas bought a lemon and some foul boys threw something at me. We climbed for miles and went into a cloud. Right on the top we had a puncture and it rained heavily on our way down. The vegetation became quite jungly and we saw enormous pale purple orchids which Nicholas said were daffodils, also large white flowers by the side of the road. He river was miles below us and we stopped when it was dark and had supper which was very expensive, breaded veal, right by the side of the river. We passed lots of trucks lined up waiting to start their journey to Huanuco and arrived in Tingo Maria behind a very smelly market. We were shewn a nice hotel by the lady in the truck and went for a walk round the town and saw gigantic bugs crawling along, five times as large as maybugs. We saw something really extraordinary, our truck stopped in front of a house which was on a river bank, half supported by the bank and half supported by stilts. There was a tremendous thud and crackling sound and the house had disappeared down the bank when we turned round. The light was on inside, but no one seemed to have been inside and it didn’t cause much excitement. We wished we had our torch working as the people were peering down the bank with a candle.

Tuesday 15th February 1966. On a bus between Tingo Maria and Pucallpa, Peru

It was tropically warm when we got up and there was an enormous moth clinging to the side of the door. It looked rather like a leaf. We bought disappointing buns and found the post office, in a nice square. We liked Tingo Maria very much. All the roads are unpaved and lots of people ride around on Hondas. The main street is very long and has a movie house and the river runs alongside it, no boats go from Tingo Maria so we were forced to buy expensive bus tickets and we waited all afternoon for the bus to arrive reading our books and eating buns and chocolate. There was a downpour of rain and it lasted for about an hour. At six o’clock two buses arrived at great speed and we started off at six thirty, having heard Beatles records played continuously. The road was extremely bumpy and we hit the ceiling. We sat right at the back, a hissing goose and a couple of hens were behind our seat. It started to pour with rain and the bus went very slowly and stopped for coffee where a great misfortune occurred. Nicholas’ glasses were missing from his pocket and after searching outside the bus and inside we concluded that they must have fallen out of his pocket while he was looking out of the window. The bus continued and we crossed several small bridges. We stopped at about half past two for the night and had an uncomfortable sleep.

Wednesday 16th February 1966. Pucallpa, Peru

We woke up and found ourselves in a line of trucks on a muddy track. The trucks skidded up and down the hills and at about seven thirty we stopped in a little village made of wooden huts by a bridge where we stopped for hours and had a delicious cheese sandwich and coffee and peppermints for breakfast. It was humid and my feet had swelled up in the night from mosquito bites. At about twelve our bus jumped the queue and we had an uneventful ride to Pucallpa. The road was paved after the first ten miles. It was quite jungly and there were fields full of Mexican type cattle. We arrived at about three in great heat. We walked to the river which was wide and had lots of little boats tied up. We had soup and there was a nice grey monkey tied up. The river shore was really foul, great pigs snorting about in disgusting mud and horrid black vultures eating dogs heads and dead rats. We visited the Tourist place which turned out to be a school called the Lincoln Academy run by quite a strange man, half Peruvian and half Scottish. He invited us to spend the night in his schoolroom. He had a wife of eighteen and a baby and we later learned the history of his marriage. We had a good supper of steak and chips and delicious cheese which was cheddar. Our mosquito net was quite successful and we spent a very hard night on the floor and on the ceiling we saw lots of immobile lizards, then suddenly they all ran away. There were disgusting huge black beetles lying in the streets, their legs in the air. The man showed us two huge ones in a bottle and gave us an Indian blowpipe which later disappeared, so we thought he had mysteriously taken it away.

Thursday 17th February 1966. On Ucayali River between Pucallpa and Iquitos, Peru

The man went off on his bicycle at six. We both felt tired and got up when his first student had arrived. We washed near his funny lavatory and went for an incomprehensible conversation with the military on our boat. We had delicious coffee and orange juice and flew around agitatedly for the next hour buying cans of food, alcohol and things. The man went on at great length and I was in a dreadful hurry. He sent his wife off shopping and we last saw him looking like a long thin worm on his bicycle. But there was no hurry as the boat delayed and delayed, so off we went to have our lunch at the monkey place, delicious chips and egg and coke. The monkey had a blind eye and looked quite nice. We had an exhausting fruitless search for hats and had a ? ice cream, white inside and chocolate outside. We saw hordes of vultures sitting on top of the slaughter house, poor cattle sitting outside awaiting their fate and there were enormous cattle being skinned inside. The people on the boat are very nice, even though they are the military. There are two other passengers, a family with a little girl who has hardly any hair. The boat is carrying chicken meal. There seem to be two boats tied up together and they are quite little with tiny mosquito proof cabins which we hope we might sleep in. We have delicious tins of food and hope they will give us coffee and other things. We saw some Indian women, very like the San Blas only they had silver rings in their noses. They were cooking a foul fish in a pot. Eventually we left at five and a wind got up and the sky got dark but there was no rain. The water came inside our boat and the cabins got wet. We went along quite fast and were very excited at being on the river. The crew were all very jolly and one arrived quite tight and looked through his binoculars until it got dark. The river is extremely muddy and quite wide; so that it is difficult to spy out monkeys and alligators in the swamps. We tied up about eight, having had coffee exactly the colour of the river. Our mosquito net proved successful.

Friday 18th February 1966. On Ucayali River between Pucallpa and Iquitos, Peru

The engines started about four and we got up quickly in case our cabin got flooded out and there was no wind and it was quite cold. We were given cups of a very strange mixture and went to sleep on the hatch at about eight we stopped at a little village with houses on stilts, very large with thatched roofs. There were pigs grunting away, skeleton dogs and two tiny puppies. The army bought quantities of thin looking fish and we bought eggs and bread. Then we set off again and sat in the front of the boat watching the jungle – the trees are still not as tall as I expect, though the undergrowth is dense and there are banana trees and swamps of tall grass in which we expect to see alligators and crocodiles. Lots of the trees have thin white trunks, so it should be easy to see monkeys. The sun is not really out and Nicholas wears his sweater and my dark glasses. At eleven we were presented with two enormous plates of very boring food, stuff like marrow, nice red peppers, rice and an obscene dry banana which went overboard immediately. We ate quite a lot of it even though it was riddled with bones. The Captain who is a very jokey fellow came and startlingly read the first line of my diary. He says we will be in Iquitos on the 24th, however we don’t know what to believe as he laughs when he tells us seven days. The other two passengers are not communicative. Last night we gave them our mosquito stuff. We are not suffering much from mosquitos but have noticed some large black insects flying around with intent to bite. The captain tells us there are no alligators which is disappointing. We have no books to read, anyway Nicholas can’t read because of lack of spectacles, so we may get a bit bored at times; especially as no-one except ourselves speaks English. My diary will probably be quite boring; I doubt if we will see many animals. Occasionally we saw tiny canoes with fully clad Indians in them and every several miles we see little habitations with thatched houses and little boats tied up to the bank. The boat is carrying hen food which I think is probably made out of fish food. There are sacks of it everywhere and perhaps the stuff we drank this morning was made of it. We see lots of pieces of wood floating along and we smell orchid smell occasionally and in the distance see bushes of nice flowers and giant heads of tall grass. We slept for two hours and woke up and ate a roll and cheese just before we landed at quite a large village with nice green grass by the river and several little boats tied up. The Captain strode off with his documents and so we walked around looking for Peace Corps and deliberated whether to hire a Honda and arrived back at the boat just as its engines started up and was about to leave. The lady told us we were spending the night, so we were fortunate to get back. We took on two people we thought were missionaries, they kept to the other boat. We were given another meal of foul fish, rice and really monstrous dried bananas which went overboard as soon as we thought they weren’t looking. We had quite good black coffee. There was a beautiful sunset which started early and we saw dear little birds sitting on floating logs. Also we saw a great tree crashing down into the water as its roots were weakened and little trees ? There was difficulty in finding somewhere to tie up for the night and after the searchlight had been on for an hour or more the boat was moored in dense undergrowth and there was great snapping of branches and it was mosquito ridden jungle. Our mosquito net was not very effective, my side was too low and they stung through. Everybody else had trouble and we heard noises of mosquitos being killed all night

Saturday 19th February 1966. On Ucayali River between Pucallpa and Iquitos, Peru

Rain woke us up very early and we did not get much sleep as were plagued by horrid mosquitos which were still flying about when we started off. We got up quickly and had a delicious sleep until about eight when our fried eggs arrived which we ate with the remains of our bread. We were given a curious liquid which seemed related to porridge, it tasted a bit burnt but got quite good towards the end. The rest of the crew ate horrid fried bananas. The Captain tells us he expects to arrive on Wednesday so time is going quite quickly. The other two men definitely are missionaries as saw them reading holy books. We stopped at one house in order to catch a chicken for our lunch, the Captain and crew chased a poor flock of chickens and caught a brown one. They picked lovely smelling lemons and we saw some cows, one half cow and half bull and a dear little calf. It was very warm and the grass felt hot and swarmed with busy insects. There were some nice trees, one looked rather like a chestnut. Later on we stopped again and went aboard a tiny canoe which wobbled perilously as Nicholas paddled it ashore with the clueless lady jumping about inside. We bought some strange kinds of fish, one with whiskers which proved a failure as the cook didn’t want them and we didn’t feel like gutting them and pulling their insides out, eventually the Captain did it for us and we were very thankful. The boat bought masses of fish, in enormous baskets made out of banana leaves. They were all salted and it was all weighed which took quite some time. It got very hot and we were being constantly attacked by small black beetles. Lunch was chicken soup and rice and chicken. We bought some tomatoes from a boy in a boat filled up with them and they were delicious. We started off again and the sky became dark and remained so all day. In the evening we had torrential rain which made everything most uncomfortable and wet. We had quite good, boneless fish for supper accompanied by our fish which the lady smoked, our fish had gone quite hard and looked like a preserved alligator. We stopped to let the missionary off at a little habitation which had a sawmill. There was great difficulty in tying up our boat and we went off again for a short distance, water came in everywhere and the planks in our cabin were getting wet so we were very pleased when we stopped for the night and tied up in a dense jungle and there were immense shiny leaves on the deck. The mosquitoes bit even though it was still raining and we went to bed very early, about seven. Our mosquito net worked very well after tremendous effort to get it right and the sleeping bags and mattress were a bit wet and it got excessively hot, otherwise we slept quite well

Sunday 20th February 1966. On Ucayali River between Pucallpa and Iquitos, Peru

We got up later than usual ? o’clock and slept on the hatch until breakfast, horrid dried up fish and bananas and a delicious rice mixture like rice pudding but not so creamy. We had two cups each. The river got calmer and everything got dry, we saw lots of whirlpools and a funny balsa raft in the middle of the river, cooking its breakfast, as there was smoke coming from it. It was trailing a canoe behind it. We stopped next to a Booth Line boat and followed two of the boys into the middle of a village – it had a green square in the middle and there were houses on stilts. It was quite primitive and everyone stared at us. When the boys had finished buying matches a guardia appeared with a moustache and demanded to see our passports. They were in the boat, so he marched officiously behind us all the way back, stopping to have a drink of beer from one of his friends. When he arrived on the boat he saluted the man who looks like Peter Ustinov and wrote down the wrong passport number and would have written Accountant instead of Harding had Nicholas not stopped him. The boat had to wait for our enemies who appeared laden with bread and funny looking herbs. The sky got dark and it was quite windy and we felt very hungry. A nice boy gave us a delicious fruit, we think it was a papaya. It had seeds which looked like caviar and was delicious, orange and very juicy. We ate it all and sat on the chicken food sacks till lunch – quite good fish and rice and funny things rather like chips, probably some sort of root. We felt rather bored after lunch and I opened the evaporated milk which meant great disgrace. Nicholas dictated two letters to me which filled up most of the afternoon. Supper was nasty fish and I had three cups of very sweet coffee. There was a sunset behind us and it got dark quite late. We saw lots of birds sitting on logs on the water and I saw a very strange, enormously long canoe with a fluttering sail. As it was in the half light it was probably a spook. We went for ages looking for a place for the night. There were millions of mosquitoes and we both had to pee in the middle of the night which was a nuisance. We heard the bullfrogs croaking away.

Monday 21st February 1966. On Ucayali River between Pucallpa and Iquitos, Peru

We found some horrid mosquitoes inside our net and there were mosquitoes inside our cabin. The boat started off about six and there was a poor duck in the lavatory, we think to be eaten for lunch and we saw a man sharpening up a horrid knife to slit his throat with. I did some washing in the ? and the Captain who is very jokey today gave us some delicious papaya. Nicholas lay in the hammock. We had some nasty liquid for breakfast and some quite good biscuity things, but they were rather greasy. The sun came out and the river became very narrow, we must have been in between two islands but we saw no monkeys. N saw a long yellow tailed bird and there were tall trees with immense growths hanging off them. I washed my hair in a bucket in the river water which is always brown but is probably quite clean. It was very sunny and there was no wind at all until the evening. I slept in the hammock and read Exodus till lunch and Nicholas sat in the front. Lunch was very good, duck soup with rice and tomatoes which tasted peculiar, we had two helpings each and were replete afterwards. It got hotter and hotter and at three thirty we stopped at a very large village which had an enormous church; it looked as if it had two storeys. It was fantastically hot and we were quite pleased we could not go off the boat. The Captain went off with his documents and was gone about thirty minutes while we expired. There were masses of military on the island and the Captain appeared with three very important ones who inspected the boat. We went off and there was a gorgeous breeze, I sat with my legs in the water and Nicholas was in the hammock. Our enemies are much more chirpy today and have started again on childish games. We had fish mixed with rice for supper and we stopped just before it got dark at a fairly large village where we spent the night and walked around and saw strange things on poles, circles made of leaves. It got dark very quickly and after having drinks which tasted like inca cola we had difficulty in finding our way back to the boat and fell down ditches and I collected terrible insects between my toes. The mosquitoes were extremely bad and we had a troubled night, it was fantastically hot and I had recurring claustrophobia and the mosquitoes came in and attacked. Fortunately there was a tremendous rainstorm which made it much cooler and the mosquitoes subsided. Our suitcase should have arrived in London today with my Rabbit Mimi inside.

Tuesday 22nd February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

It was still raining when the boat started off at six and Nicholas was slow in getting up. We sat in our cabin until the water got too rough and had dry rolls and coffee for breakfast. Towards the middle of the morning it got lighter and the Captain gave us papaya with dressing on it. I read Darkness at Noon. We stopped very briefly to buy what looked like asparagus. The Captain told us we had joined up with the Maranon, there was a river to our left. So we are now the Amazon; it doesn’t feel much wider. We saw a passenger boat, the largest boat so far. For lunch we ate a curious animal, we saw it hanging up. It looked rather cat shape and had claws. The meat was very white. We had delicious noodles and potato like things in the soup. Quite early in the morning a tiny boat empty, was drifting fast down the river se we stopped and now it is stolen property on our boat. It was lovely and sunny in the afternoon. There was a great surprise after supper – Iquitos was sighted. We arrived before the sun set and tied up next to lots of little boats with funny houses on them made of dried leaves. We got off after dark – it took ages to moor the boat and Cheno, the nice crew cut boy who always does the tying up had to swim ashore with the rope. We paid the Captain 400,100 less than our enemies. A little man collected us on the shore and carried our suitcase on his shoulder past little dark houses and rabid looking dogs up onto the street and along a modern looking street to the Hotel International where we got a room which is minute and quite depressing, though not too bad, we have no window and the light is atrocious. We think there will be mosquitoes. However, there are nice showers. We waked around and bought quite a nice bun and listened to a military band play badly in a square. Iquitos is larger than we expected and has paved streets and quite a few cars, many Ford Anglias. We walked round the expensive area and went past a huge touristy hotel with parrots in one of the windows and birds with huge fat bills. We had delicious ? ice cream and one orange cream Huntley and Palmer biscuit which cost one sole. But it was quite delicious. We had showers and made out an efficient list for the morning.

Wednesday 23rd February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

It was pouring with rain when we got up and we had an unsuccessful trip to the Chinese oculist who talked away very fast and loud the whole time. We had great difficulty in finding café con leche and bought a Walls pork pie from the Booth Company who have a shop of frozen food, ice creams too. It rained most of the morning but we walked under the ledges on the roofs of the houses so didn’t get wet. Eventually we found coffee in an expensive place called Charles Snack Bar. We found a nice boy in the Amazon Travel place. There were lots of Indian things like feathers and armadillo shells. We think we probably ate one yesterday. We bought large, very hot buns and funny pieces of meat inside them. It got very hot and we walked all the way along to the market which was very smelly and was infested by horrid vultures. We bought things like scissors and a papaya which was disappointing as it was slightly unripe. We replaced the Bulgarian basket and saw an interesting settlement of houses which were built on mud, partly submerged by water. We rested in our hotel and then set off for a long search for an oculist and got on a bus to go to a clinic run by 7th Day Adventists. We didn’t find an oculist but a nice lady told us about an exciting journey in Pucallpa. We went back into the town and had success, or so we think, with the spectacles. We had delicious chocolate ice cream and visited the air force place which caused tremendous indecision as the earliest flight to Pucallpa is on March 4th.  So we think we will stay here nine days and find a nicer hotel. We walked down to the river and slid around in mud, It is really filthy down there and I think my feet may get infected. Our boat had moved. We saw poor men carrying great sheets of corrugated iron on their backs up and down the steps. Our supper consisted of delicious beans in a tin and disappointing sausages. We had a short rest and wandered about looking for a cheaper hotel but were not very persistent. We walked to the large square and went to the place called Alaska and watched all the little Chiclet? Boys eating their supper. We saw our enemies, giggling as usual on their way to the cinema. We went to our ice cream place, which is becoming a habit. Tomorrow we start eating a good diet and we have to buy our tickets to Pucallpa and very early we collect Nicholas’s spectacles. The light in our room is exceedingly bad and can hardly see to write the diary.

Thursday 24th February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

It was burning sun when we set off to collect Nicholas’s spectacles, of course they were wrong so we were to see the oculist at four. For breakfast we had toast and butter. We spent quite a long time in the market buying our lunch, delicious papaya and walked round endlessly in great heat finding horrid crackly bread, eventually we found nice buns. Then we combed the town for a hat for Nicholas, finally finding an enormous straw one in the market, very conspicuous but it is very shady and has a piece of red tape though it otherwise it would blow off with the first gust of wind. All the men selling ice creams wear them. We bought a new, small torch and met a nice Frenchman in the bank who says he will come to our hotel one day and take us off in his car. He had worked in Brazil and North America and we hope he will come to our hotel as he may be quite useful. It seemed to get hotter and hotter even though we walked in the shade of the houses, over sleeping pigs and dogs in the direction of the airport alongside a little river which was very smelly and vultures hopped around. We walked miles along the runway and the sun was incredibly hot. We sat in the airport eating cheese and tomato rolls, watching Satco passengers go thro’ customs. It seemed impossible to hitch a ride anywhere so we ate our papaya in the shade of a tiny house and walked to the air force aeroplanes, several with floats were on the water. We walked past a dead snake, curled up. We had an exhausting walk back along the road; an old man walked behind us carrying a roof of a house on this head. The sky got black in the distance but still it was hot and I was incredibly thirsty. We bought our tickets to Pucallpa and waited in the oculist while Nicholas got his new spectacles. They are dark and quite like the old ones. We had delicious mokka ice creams and bought  “The River Line”. We had a very pleasant surprise back at our hotel. The nice lady who we are continually beaming at and who obviously runs the hotel knocked on our door and said we could move into a nicer, larger and lighter room with a fan, paying the same price, maybe they saw us looking at other hotels, so we are very happy except her screaming kids wreck our peace. We searched for an eating place and ate in the square, N had tortilla and I had a delicious mixture of chicken and vegetable, then we had can can ice cream which tasted quite like toffee. For the rest of the evening we read our books – I finished “The River Line”.

Friday 25th February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

It was raining when we got up but it soon stopped. We walked out of the American coffee place – twice they gave us cold milk – we found a cheap place near the market where it was better. We had a successful time buying fruit etc and set off in the direction of the Santa ? Hospital and started on an extremely long walk. The road was deserted, a few trucks, jeeps and Hondas passed by occasionally. It was not jungly to start with, there were a few houses and cows in fields. A truck gave us a short ride, driving with great speed. He dropped us off at a turning and we continued on, it was getting hotter and the clouds were in the distance. The road was soft and sandy with puddles and bad patches. It was quite jungly either side of the road, thick undergrowth and funny insects and bird noises. We saw dragon flies and butterflies and an array of red and black ants crossing the road. Nicholas diverted them with his machete and they proved quite intelligent. There were several dwellings on the way, some with just roofs and no sides. We saw natives cutting down the undergrowth and some of the trees had been burned. At about twelve thirty we reached the Fish Museum which is in a large lake. We saw giant black fish in the ponds and a little one with a red underneath. We ate our lunch on the landing stage and had a delicious ? and papaya. The fish, small ones chased after fruit skins. We saw a dear little turtle, perched on a branch in the water; he was collecting flies and soon swam away. We walked on, a long way, past a place which made bricks and came to the end of the road, a track went into the distance but we decided to turn round and walked back, it rained quite hard and it was refreshing although we did not manage to drink much. At a cross road we ate our interesting fruit which was very sweet and quite juicy. Further on we met a native chewing a wild guava; he gave us one which consisted of many pips and was rock hard. We went back to Iquitos in his truck which was filling up with white sand. All the people were very friendly and gave us a spray of small blackish berries, we hope they won’t affect us badly. On the way our truck pulled a larger one out of the mud. We arrived back and had delicious drinks and ice cream. Nicholas read Exodus and I wrote the diary and then Nicholas suffered from beriberi, a disease incurred by the berries we were given. We are both rather sad and it is pouring with rain. We eventually went outside but managed to keep dry under the roofs. A disgusting supper, hard fried eggs and gritty rice at the second heledaria. Then we rushed off to have mocca ice cream but it was closed. We bought pink ice creams off the other place and went home. We saw a cat walking along the roofs in the rain, Iquitos is deserted at night and everywhere seems to be closed. The large square is more active, yesterday we saw a group of men playing guitars and doing a funny dance underneath the large statue. Tomorrow we are going off to the Nanay river and we hope to swim. We must try and get up earlier, my letter has to be posted and we have to go to the market. We are both very tired after our long walk.

Saturday 26th February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

We bought disappointing fruit in the market, an immense overripe papaya and a tasteless lime. We had delicious café con leche and mocca ice cream and set off in our bus along the road past the clinic and walked the last part, past middle class houses. We arrived at the end of the road and saw the Nanay river, slow flowing and about a quarter of a mile wide with little boats on it and houses at the other side. We found a boat, not a kayak but a small rowing boat, red and grey with one paddle. The lady who owned it lived in a house on stilts half in the water. So we started off, the boat rocking dangerously at our every movement and it felt as if it was capsizing. For ages Nicholas paddled about in a maze of little channels formed by bushes growing in the water and having missed our way to the river, we found ourselves in a lake with trees on all sides and calm dark water. We saw an old couple fishing from a kayak and paddled right to the far end of the lake before we realised there was no way out so all the way back we went and arrived in the river as rain clouds were gathering. We crossed to the far bank and tied up to a rock made of clay. It started pouring as we were eating our sardine sandwiches and a kind lady let us sit in her house. In pouring rain we crossed back and made our way to the house on stilts and made the mistake of giving 10 soles to the lady’s quite small son. We were quite pleased to have finished our boat ride as paddling was hard work – on our way off for a drink, the lady caught us and said her son had not given her the money, we were not sure whether she was being crafty or not. Anyway eventually both the children were searched but no sign of the money, just as we were about to give up, I spied it stuck in the eaves of her house and from her expression when we gave it to her, we thought she was guilty. We started walking home and halfway a nice jeep gave us a ride. We had delicious mocca ice cream and went to the market for my clothes line – it was extremely crowded and stank of fish and vultures stalked about on rubbish heaps. In the evening we had delicious supper at the Bambi and saw Zorba the Greek – quite atrocious. There were quite a few Americans there.

Sunday 27th February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

Nicholas read Exodus and I re-read The River Line and we got up about twelve. The market was stinking and nearly empty. We walked round Belem and saw charred remains of the fire. We tried to find the museum and spent the afternoon reading in great heat, attacked by spiders and ants out of trees. The town is deserted and I wish it was Monday. We had supper, delicious chips and coffee and had very English biscuit afterwards. We walked to the main square and saw The Horse Without a Head - Walt Disney. We sat in the balcony on hard benches with scores of children who were a wonderful audience and very noisy. There were scores of little boys with Chiclet boxes and it was stiflingly hot. We walked round and round the square afterwards and listened to songs played very loudly by the ? party, later there was a speech by the Minister of something  but we went home. Nicholas immersed himself again in Exodus and I took up the blue and white dress. It rained as we went to bed.

Monday 28th February 1966. Iquitos, Peru

Nicholas got up very droopy and remained so all day. We had a fruitless search for fried eggs but found none, expensive buns and ice cream before wandering rather aimlessly around. We visited the boy in Amazon tours, bought a very expensive post card for Ursula and set off slowly to the lake, along past the airport. The lake was rather interesting, lots of logs made into rafts and floating houses. It was cloudy and dark so we ate our lunch in an empty building with no sides and the papaya was not perfect but better than the last one. Nicholas did not feel strong enough for a kayake ride so we went back in pouring rain along a different road past an interesting cemetery where the bodies were buried in identical boxes in enormous boxes. Our room had been cleaned and we had clean blankets. It was pouring with rain harder than before so we retired to bed and slept; Nicholas stayed behind while I made an abortive attempt to post Ursula’s card and bought a furtive bun, quite enormous and expensive. We had ice creams and had a great success in changing the Seymour book for A King’s Story. We sat in the tourist hotel and heard a horrid American conversation. We had delicious supper in the Bambi and saw our enemies in the cinema in the large square – they had failed to book on the aeroplane and were staying in Iquitos for fifteen days. We read our books and had a fruitless search for a bun.

Tuesday 1st March 1966. Iquitos, Peru

We spent the morning reading by the river and had lunch of sardine sandwiches and a brown skinned fruit, orange inside with an enormous stone. We went back to our hotel and the excitement of the day was that Nicholas found a Honda for 25 an hour so off we went to Qiste Coche?. I was quite frightened, the road was bumpy and skiddy. We had a brief swim, the water was warm but saw no turtles or interesting fish. Except one tickled me. We took the turning to the left on the way back but it led to a dead end. So we went homewards, stopping to explore the jungle and we fell off just as lots of men were staring. It was very undignified. We arrived back at six and had delicious supper in the place near us. Noodles and meat and chips. Later on we saw an English movie. Very bad but I enjoyed it. Nicholas gave me a fright in the middle.

Wednesday 2nd March 1966. Iquitos, Peru

We woke up and I felt bad-tempered. Nicholas felt ill. We did not go to the market spent the morning most lazily – Nicholas wrote to his parents. I sent off a PC. It was extremely hot all day and we were very greedy, we had egg and potatoes for lunch and two ice creams each afterwards. We caught a bus to the Nanay river, could find no Kayak and walked all the way home, stopping to read by the international pier where we watched a Booth boat being unloaded, in great heat. We found they had made a hash of my dress. We returned to the hotel and my clothes line fell down twice. We had delicious supper in the usual place where they understand us – a mixture of rice and meat and ? chips and tomato. We saw a movie called Young Cassidy – autobiography of Sean O’Casey which was quite good and sat in the balcony on stone steps which were quite comfortable.

Thursday 3rd March 1966. Iquitos, Peru

We got up very late and the sun was shining – in fact it hasn’t rained for days. We had good coffee in the place the little man keeps so clean and spent a desultory morning trying to go to the bank, have café con leche and collect my dresses and find deodorant. Nicholas had two ice creams and we retired to our hotel. I finished my book about water holes and bought a watery orange and delicious biscuits from the market which seemed to be closing down. The heat is enormous. We met the curious Frenchman, and he took us off in his jeep down to his sawmill very close to the Amazon. It was a nice road, very muddy in places. We got out when a truck got stuck in the mud and were attacked viciously by small red ants. The road became quite jungly, lots of banana trees and thick undergrowth. We saw rose bushes and a bird with a yellow tail. All the dogs rushed and barked at us and the Frenchman hooted his horn incessantly at people walking and on Hondas. We arrived back and collected my dresses before having delicious supper and ice cream. Nicholas had four today, thus breaking his record. Tomorrow we fly to Pucallpa and are getting up at five. We heard the nice people who run our hotel having a violent quarrel.

Friday 4th March 1966. Iquitos, Peru.

We woke up at five of our own accord and set off in the direction of the airport, catching an empty bus on the way. We waited for hours, having had our luggage weighed which amounted to fifty kilos so we put the blue sleeping bag in too. Then it was put into the little aeroplane, my dear little suitcase being horribly squashed under the rest of the luggage and there is a giant crack in it. We saw an English family, the father with an over aristocratic voice, a Priscilla type mother and a conceited son. At ten it was announced our aeroplane was not leaving until tomorrow. As we were drinking our second cup of coffee the airline man we met yesterday found us and took us off in his blue car to his apartment in the rich part of the town. It has a bathroom though the water is temperamental and a rocking chair. It was enormously hot and sweat poured down all day. We went to the bank and post office, had ice cream and rice pud and at half past twelve he came along and took us off for lunch – we had delicious food, the best Peruvian food so far – pork chop and fish and potatoes and a mysterious yellow drink in ketchup bottles. Afterwards we read – he lent us a trashy American murder. We went off into the burning heat and found the museum shut and bought deodorant and had ice cream. We had a lovely shower and wondered whether the nameless man would collect us for supper. We are very worried about getting up in the morning – our aeroplane being meant to leave at six. We went outside and walked down to the Bamber where we had lomo saltado and a yellow fruit drink called Yula which was made of the drink which often smells foul in the streets. We went to bed quite early in view of the morning and Nicholas killed an enormous black cockroach scurrying around the room.

Saturday 5th March 1966. On or next to bus from Pucallpa to Cerro de Pasco, Peru

Nicholas woke at five and off we went again. We caught a bus and arrived at six. Just as we were having coffee the loudspeaker told us the aeroplane was leaving so we rushed off and found it to be very different from ordinary planes with seats along the sides. We took off at seven and in spite of being next to the wings had quite a good view of the jungle and muddy rivers with oxbow lakes. There were little clearings in the jungle and tiny native villages. Toward the end it became quite bumpy and we were in a cloud. We arrived in a strange part of Pucallpa and found our way to the ? place where an empty bus was outside but not due to leave till six. We bought tickets to Cerro de Pasco and got seats right at the front. It poured with rain and the streets were sticky, slippery mud and had great trouble with my shoes. We bought cheese and had very milky coffee and visited the holy book shop and posted my letter. The stamps were all Father Christmas ones. We sat in the bus place. Nicholas read his book and we heard nice music for the first time in months – probably Swan Lake and the Nutcracker Suite. My pen has gone quite broken. I am very bored while Nicholas reads his book, except for the music. Soon we will have lovely fried eggs and chips down by the river. Now the record is Carmen and is being played on a very scratchy 78 record. We killed the time till six and had delicious egg and chips in the place overlooking the river. We had front seats in the bus – one drawback, a horrid smelly lady who perpetually encroached on our space. The driver was quite daring and drove past trucks stuck in the mud. We had cheese sandwiches for our supper, further on we got stuck again and again behind lines of trucks wallowing in mud.

Sunday 6th March 1966. On or next to bus from Pucallpa to Cerro de Pasco, Peru

We slept on our sleeping bag on the ground as there was a long line of trucks ahead. There were no mosquitos and we got up at four and made quick progress until breakfast, everyone had eggs and rice. We stood outside in the rain watching a family of white ducks. A few miles further on we found a landslide and it looked very formidable to move, the natives seemed to think so and there was great discussion between them and the passengers of the bus as to how much they should be paid for removing the roots and rocks and earth. The matter was dropped and the bus passengers started digging. Nicholas became very energetic and worked practically non-stop till three when it was all clear, obviously gaining admiration from the funny man in khaki who paid for our supper later on. We were given bananas as a reward from the nicest fat lady and an orange from another. I saw an enormous black ant which a boy cut in two. And a curious insect looking rather like a twig. So off we went to Tingo Maria in lovely sun, we saw an overturned truck on the river bank. We met a fair Peace Corps boy, the one with the Peruvian lady we saw in Pucallpa. We had coffee with them and then tore off and arrived on the stroke of five, just in time to be let through the one way road. We had a lovely drive up the mountainous road, there was a rushing river which we lost when we came to the top and started down the other side. We stopped and had soup and coffee in an upstairs room, in the company of the Peace Corps boy who proved disappointing. We reached Huanuco at ten and went and had a really good piece of meat cooked by the nice lady. We set off again and had a fairly horrid night very little sleep, even though we had moved seats and the nice tourist sat in front. There was a curious family who kept guinea pigs in white bags and the father and the nice man with the little girl with fair streaked hair started fighting, very harmlessly though. The smelly lady had vanished. Our seats were right over the wheel and we itched from the vibration.  

Monday 7th March 1966. On bus Cerro de Pasco to Ayacucho, Peru

The early part of the morning was spent in getting past trucks and cars until we reached Cerro de Pasco, a really bleak town 14,000 feet up. There was snow on some of the roofs. We saw llamas with ribbons tied in their ears. I saw tiny hairy guinea pigs eating grass. We stopped and had foul coffee and bought good rolls for our cheese. We reached Oraya and decided against going by train – it takes seven hours to Huanayco whereas the bus took only two.  The country is very bleak but nice, we went through a valley with very high mountains either side. We were on minute excessively uncomfortable seats, the road was quite good, paved most of the way. We bought some delicious potatoey things to eat from a little girl. We reached Huanayco and found a bus leaving for Ayacucho. I raced all the way to the post office and all the way back and of course the bus was late. We ate English type donuts and Nicholas bought four buns for the journey – it will last for about ten hours and we will have spent our third night on the bus and it will be our fourth free night. H seems like quite an ordinary Peruvian town, very cold and the women look like Ecuadorian women wearing masses of clothes and those curious men’s hats, some made out of strange white material, our fellow passengers are mostly Indian with their gigantic white sacks. The bus arrived at seven, a really old one. We got front seats and wrapped ourselves up in our sleeping bags as it was freezing. We stopped incessantly to fill up with water, cross a ? torrent and have supper in a very primitive little place. We bought rolls and finished our supper with delicious sweeties. We both slept quite a lot.

Tuesday 8th March 1966. Andahuaylas, Peru

We arrived at Ayacucho at about nine and a funny old man found Nicholas when he was looking for buses – he was very eccentric and had a wife who was a professor at Lincoln, Nebraska. He gave us a delicious enormous cup of coffee and drifted in and out while we were drinking. We got onto a bus thanks to a nice boy in a green sweater. We disrupted the whole bus and eventually left having bought immense tomatoes. Our seats were very uncomfortable – on the wheel. It was very dusty and we climbed for hours, once getting stuck in a line of trucks because of a landslide. Then it got quite cold and there were herds of cattle but no llamas. There were large mountains and pools of browney water and green mountainous grass. The road became extremely bumpy and at four thirty, having descended quite a distance into a green valley with high mountains either side, we bought some curious rolls which were quite good with cheese and tomato and very cheap oranges. Further on we stopped at a guard post and then for supper. We drove down the mountains for quite a long way, through cacti growing orangey fruit. It got dark when we reached the bottom and went alongside a wide muddy river. The road was surprisingly dry. We stopped and took on about twelve more people, turning the whole bus into chaos. Mostly mothers with screaming children on their backs. Eventually we started off again and it got freezing cold. The bus stopped, delivering parcels off the top. We reached Andahuaylas at midnight, the bus ran out of petrol as we parked for the last time. We found a hotel run by some Americans, holy fathers. We had a very disconcerting entrance, greeted by an enormous dog and two drunkards. We had a room with two beds but only slept in one. And used a candle and the lavatory was disgusting.

Wednesday 9th March 1966. Abancay, Peru

There was a violent hammering on our door and the boy appeared demanding passports and Nicholas had to go off to the police station and he found a truck going to Abancay so we set off at nine with lots of nice people – two boys who will be on our bus tomorrow, one wearing a white llama fair hat. After driving round the town we set off and climbed high. We were sitting on our sleeping bags on top of sacks, quite comfortable and it became very cold as we went ? a cloud. Again the country is very bleak and we saw herds of llamas and alpacas, we can’t distinguish between them. The young ones are very attractive with snowy white ? Saw lots of potatoes with purple flowers and wheat – our truck carried the mail so we dropped off letters to people at the side of the road. We had a large lunch, very cheaply – soup, beans and rice, a funny turnippy thing in a nice batter and a cooked apple, then coffee – we sat opposite a secret policeman. The funny lady in the truck gave us ? sweeties and we went miles downhill and saw Abancay  two hours before we reached it, zigzagging down the sides of mountains. We crossed a bridge built 400 years ago and arrive at the town which is very sleepy and attractive, with narrow streets and nice flowers in the small square which naughty children were picking. We bought new blue sandals and a coke – the first one for ages and two delicious looking apples. Our hotel is nice though with a foul lavatory. The bus leaves tomorrow at eight thirty and we will reach Cuzco in about eight hours.

Wednesday 9th March 1966. Abancay, Peru

[Start of new diary, hence duplicate entry for 9.3.1966]

Arrived in Abancay by truck and met two nice boys and a secret policeman. Country was mountainous with llamas and potatoes. Cheap meal consisting solely of veg. Abancay, a nice, peaceful town with hotel with bad light, so we bought a light bulb.

Thursday 10th March 1966. Cusco, Peru

Perilous bus journey over gigantic mountains. Stopped by a large, fast flowing river and it was very hot. The country became green and fertile with walled gardens. Climbed again into snowy mountains and it was cold when we arrived in Cusco and found surprisingly cheap hotel – sort of dormitory with snoring guardia next door. Bought lovely llama slippers and met a funny Yank who bought an 80 cents ?

Friday 11th March 1966. Machu Picchu, Peru

Wearisome train journey to Machu Picchu – peasants smelling with foul sacks. Met Uri and Leslie and had a strained day. Climbed hill with Frenchman. Rivers fairly dull but scenery magnificent. Hot showers and slept in ruins.

Saturday 12th March 1966. Cusco, Peru

Woke, everything dripping wet. Expensive coffee. Foul journey back – wandered round Cusco and saw flower loving couple, Frenchman and wet English girl in tourist hotel.

Sunday 13 March 1966. Cusco, Peru

Missed bus to Pisac and went by truck with girls singing Spanish Marseille. Exhausting mountain climb with Uri, Leslie, funny Peace Corps boy. Llama slippers and furry hat. Procession to church – conch horns. American and German tourists, fat and unattractive. Back in crowded truck – supper with “the gang” – spaghetti – others had expensive steak.

Monday 14th March 1966. Puno, Peru

Nicholas felt ill. Long unexciting journey to Puno – children shitting everywhere and little to see. Met nice teddy bear who gave us large supper and found expensive hotel.

Tuesday 15th March 1966. Near border with Bolivia

I feel ill – we travel to a small dark town by truck, slept in a dingy hotel, the Pullman?

Wednesday 16th March 1966. Copacabana, Bolivia

It was sunny when we left Peru and walked into Bolivia by the side of Lake Titicaca which was vivid blue and we saw hordes of donkeys and jumping frogs. The rest of the day was spent in Copacabana, an attractive red roofed town on the lake and had coffee and beer in the most expensive hotel.

Thursday 17th March 1966. La Paz, Bolivia

A nice journey to La Paz, broken by a turbulent ferry crossing. La Paz is a seedy town and were perpetually exhausted by climbing hills. Spent the evening with a charming Bolivian non-English speaking couple – she looked like Margot Fonteyn. The hotel was very new and clean.

Friday 18th March 1966. La Paz, Bolivia

Spent a cold grey day visiting park, zoo and museum – eating avocado pears and arranging departure. Spent evening with the Bolivian couple drinking distilled grape juice and eating monster corn.

Saturday 19th March 1966. Oruro, Bolivia

A desert journey to Oruro  in gigantic bus. Nicholas feeling seedy. Ate grapes and had trying time finding hotel. Met bearded enormous Swiss.

Sunday 20th March 1966. Between Oruru and Chile, Bolivia.

Desert bus ride to little wide street town and stayed in funny hotel with dusty bed room and top hatted Indian lady who cooked and charged for special supper. Watched guardia dancing congo round bonfire and met Swiss boy again.

Monday 21st March 1966. Between Oruru and Chile, Bolivia.

Waited hours for truck in burning heat and wrote to the little ? Truck to Hauri? And had delicious supper and narrowly missed train. First class compartment with little sleep. Horrid smelling animals suspended from luggage rack.

Tuesday 22nd March 1966. Antofagasta, Chile

Delicious breakfast with Swiss. Cold, salty desert with smoking volcanoes. Customs men searching fat old ladies with voluminous suitcases. We passed salt lakes and tiny dusty stations. Arrive in Antofagasta which seemed gigantic.

Wednesday 23rd March 1966. Antofagasta, Chile

A terrible start to the day – improved enormously. Swiss boy vanished and we were taken about by nice Bolivian boy and went to police station and horses playing about. Coffee with policemen and English-speaking wife. Slept in bunks.

Thursday 24th March 1966. Copiapo, Chile

Truck through desert – lemon biscuits and lunch of tender steak and greenery in middle of the desert. Peaches in drab little town, grey and cold. Copiapo and found truck – had bad sleep for two hours.

Friday 25th March 1966. North of Santiago, Chile

Short sleep by side of road – oil tanker freewheeling dangerously down hills to La Serena – truck to Limache – two nice, young boy who we stayed with.

Saturday 26th March 1966. Santiago, Chile.

Delicious coffee in grape filled garden – all seemed rather French with tiny kittens. Pleasant train to Santiago. Stephanie met us – found Ricky playing football. Drink in Santiago and empanados.

Sunday 27th March 1966. Santiago, Chile

Up at one. Races in sunshine and lost three escudos. Ritsy evening in suburbs.

Monday 28th March 1966. Santiago, Chile

We collected disappointing letters and Spedding proved charming [David Spedding was introduced to us by a friend. He was working for the Consulate but it was probably for the Secret Service as very many years later I was amazed to here he had been made the Head of the Secret Service (MI6), he appeared fascinated by James Bond films]. Nicholas managed to change £20 into dollars and we had a most exciting time with the newspaper – were photographed, five times outside the Congress building. We hope for great things tomorrow. Nicholas slept the entire afternoon and Stephanie and I had English type doughnut with lovely apricot filling. Senora Alicia washed two of our shirts with startling rapidity and astonishingly they are now spotless. We went out to an expensive place in the suburbs, along an avenue of trees. We had quite a nice evening and had a delicious sandwich, beef and avocado. We arrived home at four.

Tuesday 29th March 1966. Santiago, Chile

It was a freezing day though sunny. No letters. We read newspapers at the British Council along with two ghastly ladies with affected voices. Lunch was macaroni and I washed all the clothes afterwards. We had a nice dinner with Spedding.

Wednesday 30th March 1966. Santiago, Chile

I feel drab – it is grey and cold and horrid. Podded beans and the American girl came to lunch – she was as expected. We went off to a seedy race track and lost money – then to the girl’s apartment which was pretty sterile. Our picture was in the paper with a crappy article.

Thursday 31st March 1966. Santiago, Chile

We spent a fruitful morning collecting letters, changing money, getting a Paraguayan visa and reading British Council newspapers where we met a ginger haired rather gloomy Englishman who had come from New Zealand. We arrived back late for lunch, stew and corn and had delicious rich tea – chocolate cake in an expensive place. We listened to the Election with the underlings at the F.O.

Friday 1st April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Great excitement was that we were scheduled to go on telly – when we arrived we were told the transmitter had broken – the party was okay – except for a drama over the fire Brigade – we had whisky in Spedding’s house which is Victorian and enormous.

Saturday 2nd April 1966. Santiago, Chile

The morning was spent washing, buying vegetables and fruit in the market and making fish pie, a fairly hectic procedure which involved great delay over lunch and spilling? in the vegetable pot. Nicholas and Ricky went off to play baby football. I wrote many letters and at nine thirty the AID couple arrived and we went off to the striptease which was disappointing, only one lady stripped and there were dirty jokes we didn’t understand. We ate expensive shrimps and Russian salad in the American’s apartment and got home at two.

Sunday 3rd April 1966. Santiago, Chile

David arrived at ten and we drove off to the sea – it was a lovely sunny day. We had a very expensive lunch – locos. The beach was deserted and the sea cold. We drove back to Santiago and had lovely hot baths in David’s apartment.

Monday 4th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We got up late and had a fruitless morning trying to change money – Stephanie went off to the American Women of Chile and we had a busy afternoon buying a potato masher and box of very expensive biscuits. Christopher Smith failed to find Nicholas a job. We had an expensive evening, first having cheap dinner, Ricky excelled himself with dirty jokes – we went to a ruinous place with singers and flags on tables and met a horrible boring Rotarian. We arrived home at four.

Tuesday 5th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

A dull morning and will be quite pleased to leave tomorrow I think even though leaving is always a great strain. We collected letters and said goodbye to Sped and the nice porter and saw the nice girl Wendy in the British Council and saw Mr Whistler and the bearded man who gave us good prospect of jobs. Spent the evening in an unsettled state as a result.

Wednesday 6th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

At twelve we arrived at the B.C. and found we had jobs, paid exactly the same, 12 escudos. Then we met Mr Macdonald, something to do with the Economist and drove out to Claud Whistler’s enormous house where we met his wife who is exactly like a vicar’s wife. We had delicious plum tart. The rest of the day was spent in doing nothing. Ricky’s father was quite drunk all evening.

Thursday 7th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

The morning was spent as usual. We visited the tailor. We changed money and I bought a dress with Vivien, the nice girl in the Embassy. A very drunken evening was spent in throwing wine glasses at a horrible man and being sick.

Friday 8th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We felt funny and had potato chips for lunch. Our television appearance was disappointing – we hardly said two words. We had funny corn in leaves for supper.

Saturday 9th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We bought Easter cows and shopped in the market and it was spaghetti for lunch. Stephanie and Ricky went to the races and we climbed the hill in a funicular – San Cristobal. We walked home – miles, and bought four easter eggs and had dreary supper and searched for green knickers and writing paper and listened to classical music. We are quite looking forward to leave and hope for Spedding to invite us or arrange for us to go to the Bomba.

Sunday 10th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Easter Day! We had our Easter cows and a domestic morning was spent. We went to the races with Phyllis and Bob – it was cold and drab. Ricky lost a fortune and spaghetti for supper. I scorched Ns shirt.

Monday 11th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We arrived early at work and hung around waiting for Claude Whistler and work and typewriters to be found. We had a very relaxed day and had chops at home for lunch. We had tea with the old gentleman of 77 – delicious orange biscuits and got two books out of the library. We realised we have to move from the Fuentes household and no call from Spedding so we are quite unhappy.

Tuesday 12th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

I had a very lazy day at work and had delicious coffee and two teas as was called down to talk English to lots of students. At lunch, we met Spedding who was talking to New Zealand boys and we rushed back to the Fuentes house and packed our things and dashed to David’s house arriving at work late but no one seems to mind. So we have broken with the gloomy household. We had a trying evening, trudging around, N with hurting feet and no money, buying our supper and arrived at our new house and cooked delicious scrambled eggs and met Philip the fair boy who lives with David. We sleep in the maid’s room and have our own tiny bathroom.

Wednesday 13th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We are driven to work – typed stencils and had coffee with Peter Harrison who I am typing for. Again a very lazy day – we had a frustrating time changing money – the lady looked thoroughly suspicious and at lunchtime we were unsuccessful. Stephanie showed little interest in seeing us and we dragged Ricky off to the tailor and bought a cheap, quite nice checked shirt before changing money. Ricky drove us home and we had coffee on the way, feeling awful as dropped endless hints about not coming to the house – we bought lard instead of butter and consequently ate disgusting scrambled eggs. We are both very tired.

Thursday 14th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Again we had a lackadaisical day except for our lunch hour which was spent in changing money and looking for barbers. I typed invitations all afternoon and made a muck of it. We both had our hairs cut, in a funny little arcade with pictures of lady weight lifters. We arrived home after waiting for a bus for at least forty minutes and found the gas out of order, it was very unhappy and we had sandwiches instead of macaroni.

Friday 15th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We had delicious toast and coffee in the town owing to the gas shortage. Peter Harrison invited us to stay with him which is very convenient as the Bomba is having internal quarrels. We ate a kilo of grapes for lunch and cheese sandwiches and changed lots of dollars. We went to get Nicholas’ suit which was a bit disappointing, so left it behind to have the padding taken out of the shoulders. We had a very successful supper of macaroni and I was very domestic and washed etc while Nicholas read this book unmolested. David arrived back and gave us whisky and too much water. We went to bed very late and I had toothache.

Saturday 16th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Scrambled eggs for breakfast and the house was cold and dank so we went outside and walked past the rich houses. David came back and took us off to the Prince of Wales Country Club and saw some dreadful people playing cricket, an old stupid man umpiring in white and a stupid man with a stripey blazer. I agree with Stephanie and think it is obnoxious. It is a very grey day and depressing outside. We had a deadly time in Ricky’s house, the only amusement was Ricky’s father with 4,000 escudos carrying a litre of wine in each hand and followed by two friends. Ricky’s sister was pretty dreary. We saw a splendid war movie about the air force which Ricky thought took place in America and had very, quite cheap steak.

Sunday 17th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We arrived at Peter Harrison’s house and found Marie Angelica and Peter Standen and Andre Gueblisky? - a terrible little man. Lunch was strained and found Peter Harrison to be quite nice. The house is a very super bungalow, a long way from the centre. I feel great Sunday afternoon depression and we arrive at the theatre and see very well from the top, “The Public ?” and a dull Shaw, I sell programmes, very few. We have a sandwich with David and go home.

Monday 18th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Usual work. Two letters. It was a rainy, dark day. At lunch we rushed off to the tailor and became very angry – Nicholas went again after work and I waited in the garden for David to unlock the door. Fish pie for supper.

Tuesday 19th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Horrid spaghetti for lunch. The second Pinter play is quite incomprehensible and I sell only three programmes. Ricky and Stephanie come and are bored. Nicholas buys Ricky’s sued shoes. Scrambled eggs for supper

Wednesday 20th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Type some of N’s work. At lunchtime spend ages buying butter and read. Lovely potato cake for supper and salad and very expensive ham. The boys were in briefly, then out. We saw the maid, a nice lady. We pass our days very pleasantly but don’t do very much in the evenings we are very lazy. David Spedding is always out on diplomatic functions and he has a superiority complex but we no longer feel inferior. We quite enjoy our work but will be quite glad to leave in the middle of May. We have lunch from 12.30 to 2.30 and twice have had sandwiches – sometimes we have disgusting meals, greasy casuele.  

Thursday 21st April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We were woken very early by a dripping roof. It was lovely and sunny by lunch time. I read the L Shaped Room at lunch. We had a tiresome day, getting out of Diana’s dreadful coffee party and my typewriter went wrong – the capital letters did not come out properly. I typed lots of Nicholas’ invoices, we both made mistakes and stayed later till half past six and saw Christopher Smith’s sexy wife. We have a supper of asparagus soup which had to be rebought and scrambled eggs. I am enjoying the Wayward Bus, by John Steinbeck very much. This weekend we are going with Stephanie and Ricky to the sister’s vineyard who has a figure like a bullock. We may go on Friday or Saturday morning. We hope to go on Saturday morning so we can see the country. I am sitting on the sofa and Phillip talks on and on about accounting. I think he must be very weak, he is very pale with red rimmed eyes. Our room is exceedingly damp. We have fleas in our bags and never catch them. It is freezing cold in this house. Soon we will have to move to Harrisons house who is not over friendly. Peter Hewitt has been out for ages and Whistler has just come back. Bianca wore a horrid white hat with shiny things on, like the ladies wear who shop in Kleins and on 14th Street. Nicholas’ firm used to do the Royal family’s tax. Very strange. Its now a very sleepy time and go to bed.

Friday 22nd April 1966. Santiago, Chile

It was quite a nice day and had successful time changing money and had disgusting lunch. A very busy afternoon and met Mrs Hewitt, a nice lady. We had a nothingness evening and Philip’s sister came, another nice lady.

Saturday 23rd April 1966. Valparaiso, Chile

We got up at two having been called up by Diana at nine in the morning. We decided to go to Valparaiso after lengthy discussion. It was a beautiful day, quite hot. We sat in a little park and read our books waiting for a bus and set off in a very old bus and went through beautiful poplar country and up and down hills and into darkness. We arrived and found a nice clean hotel called Herzog that was like a ship. We walked and found delicious supper, locos and tiny striped shrimps – served by a nice fat lady. We walked back past the arch donated by the British Colony. It has a nice lion on top. We ate grapes and went to bed.

Sunday 24th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Nicholas slept very badly due to fleas and noise so we got up at 11.15 and made off for the ? centre of course they were closed for Sundays so we trotted up the hills past slummy houses, mangy dogs and cats and children flying tiny kites. We bought locos which were deshelled and beaten in a large tyre. We wandered down again to the docks and looked at boats. Salina from Liverpool and a New York boat. We had delicious shrimps in a cosy place for lunch and watched the docks again and boys catching sardines and I saw a large crab in a corner caught by boys. We liked Valparaiso even though we didn’t see hundreds and hundreds of steps and funiculars stretching for miles as we saw in the movie. We had a nice journey back, though a poor man with a chronic pain. grimaced and winced away but would not sit down. We briefly visited Stephanie and ironed N’s shirt and collected the waistcoat. Ricky was out again.

Monday 25th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Quite a nice day. We toiled to the market in our lunch hour and had a grey time buying bad tomatoes and things from horrid old women. Delicious omelette and chips for lunch. Philip was ill in bed when we got home and David was wearing his fire uniform having been to two funerals. He was very civil and took us out to dinner, we had snails and squids and it was quite good.

Tuesday 26th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Mr Whistler discovered me reading a book and after lunch dictated a report on the Brenda Bruce Co. We had lunch with Diana and read in the library. I was exceedingly upset over the supper – chops and mashed potatoes and threw my share away, Very unhappy. Nicholas helped Phillip start his trolly bus? and gave us both a strong whiskey.

Wednesday 27th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

David got up late so we arrived at work late by bus and had a quarrel crossing the road which Whistle intruded on.  I retyped the Brenda Bruce report and started the Annual Report, Nicholas reconciled whatever they are. Delicious tomato sandwiches for lunch. We were frustrated, shut out of the library and sat in the green corduroy chairs. Mr Hewitt invited us to supper on Tuesday and we got home early even though our huge trolley bus broke down again. The boys are out and I have been busy most of the evening – we had what turned out to be casuela and washed our extremely smelly, red towel.

Thursday 28th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

We had an ordinary day. This is being written ten days later so most details are forgotten. I suffered from toothache all day so after work we went off to the dentist and were there for hours while holes were filled up with white paste and have an inflamed nerve.

Friday 29th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

A very sad letter arrived saying my poor cat ? has died and has been buried by the greenhouse. Usual work and in the evening, we went to Ricky and Stephanie’s house and hung around for hours before we went out for a disgusting supper of bloody meat and offal, cows udders and testicles. A fairly putrid evening and rushed home in a taxi.

Saturday 30th April 1966. Santiago, Chile

Nicholas was ill in the morning and threw up. David and I went off to buy aspirin but Nicholas recovered by the time we got back. In the evening went to Our Man Flint, quite an amusing movie

Sunday 1st May 1966. Santiago, Chile

A lovely sunny day. Nicholas burned leaves and we went off to the races where we met Ricky who was rapidly losing 300 escudos. We ironed shirts in Ricky’s house and had tea time and escaped to go to Lawrence of Arabia.

Monday 2nd May 1966. Santiago, Chile

No sign of Ricky to change money so we feel quite hurt as they are off to the States today. We ate disgusting fish pie for supper and heard David tell us stories he has told us three times before.

Tuesday 3rd May 1966. Santiago, Chile

A nice dinner with the Hewitts – David was there and Diana.

Wednesday 4th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

Dinner with the Lowes?, quite nice

Thursday 5th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

I feel tired all day and in the evening we go to have a drink with a second secretary called Alan Hird? Quite nice. Nicholas cooks scrambled eggs for supper.

Friday 6th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

Finish typing the Annual Report and type lots of silly invoices. We go to MacDonels party where everyone gets drunk on pisco, especially Sybil and we roll into bed

Saturday 7th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

A beautiful sunny day and Nicholas read his book while I cooked macaroni. We went to see the movie theatre in the afternoon and Diana arrived to eat a disgusting supper – it had possibilities but there was not enough garlic and too many noodles. The soup had solidified and was revolting. We had a very boring evening, with Diana chattering wildly away, managing to be amusing every hour or so. She left after twelve and we were very sleepy and dropped into bed.

Sunday 8th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

Our wedding anniversary. We had the remains of the macaroni for lunch and had baths and sticky cake in the Oriente. David and Ruth arrived back having been up all night. It was a very nice party. Diana gave us a record and we had scrambled eggs afterwards.

Monday 9th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

I typed the Annual Report and we had lunch with Sybil – delicious spinach cakey stuff and fruit salad and cream. David took us to the Whistler’s party and it was quite a nice evening – Diana was much discussed at dinner – it was rather disappointing food- some people stayed uninivited so the meat was cold and there wasn’t enough.

Tuesday 10th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

Our last day at work. We have a most indeterminate afternoon deciding when to leave – saying goodbye to everyone – so it was all a muddle. So we drifted home, running into David on the way so had a nice lift. We saw Thunderball, quite nice.

Wednesday 11th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

A grey day, cold – quite boring. Nicholas made a lovely bonfire and we stuck a potato in it which we had for tea and tasted a bit disgusting, of leaves. We read newspapers in the Library and had tea in the Institute. We ate dry fish pie for supper and cauliflower in white sauce. We stayed at home all evening and read The Mountain is Young – a dreadful book – we lay in bed without sleeping for ages – we counted up all our nights along the route and our honeymoon, without success.

Thursday 12th May 1966. Santiago, Chile

We wake up with a jump at eleven and had lunch with Diana, a ham and egg sandwich as usual and it was a very very cold grey day – we hopped into the movies and saw “Lady L”, quite amusing with Loren, Ustinov and Niven. We changed money and had really delicious tea at the Institute, lovely scones. We saw Sybil and afterward had a rather dreadful time finding a bath mat for David, eventually after much discussion and general unhappiness bought a blue one – we spent hours getting home and arrived just at the same time as David and arranged to make prawn omelettes when they came back from the Stirling cocktail party and Nicholas managed the supper and I made two omelettes . He also lit the fire and I washed my hair. Tomorrow we go to Buenos Aires on the train. We are very excited. The train starts off at 7.45 in the morning which will be a horrible experience. I am drinking delicious gin.

Friday 13th May 1966. Train to Buenos Aires, Argentina

It is dark and freezing cold when we get up and arrived at Mapocho very early in a trolley bus. We arrived at Los Andes at 9.30, having gone through indifferent countryside where we got on an uncomfortable little train with wooden seats. We went over quite snowy mountains, through little tunnels and the one two miles long that the lady got stuck in and all the cows were gr?ing etc. We did not manage to see Aconcagua but saw little clear greeny rivers. It got dark and it was a tedious journey to Mendoza where we waited for the next train for some time. Nicholas had a surfeit of wine and slept very easily. The Argentinian train is very comfortable and runs on a wider gauge so it goes faster.

Saturday 14th May 1966. Buenos Aires, Argentina

We woke to see miles and miles of completely flat land, enormous fields with wire fences and black cattle. We saw swampy pools but no flamingos, but three funny little animals, perhaps tiny little deer. It was a sunny day and warm. We ate delicious meat empanados and gigantic sandwiches and coke. The train journey became quite boring, endless miles of flat pampas. We stopped at little stations and ate delicious food. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 6.45, the suburbs are huge and very poor looking. There seem to be three or four stations, with lovely coffee shops and things. We found a hotel very quickly and set off to change money and walked for miles along the widest street in the world and saw the spike in the centre and were constantly nearly run over by dangerous drivers. We had supper, very delicious soup with spinach and grated cheese on top. Then underdone chips and egg. We walked along a road, barred to traffic, very crowded, past cinemas and restaurants with poor animals all ?ing , whole, even though it was a no meat rationing day. We had a tiny coke and beer in the restaurant nearby our hotel and both felt tired.

Sunday 15th May 1966. Buenos Aires, Argentina

We set off at eleven, a lovely, sunny, windy day and had delicious media lunes? and coffee in the station before walking miles to the docks, we saw an old sailing boat and hundreds of boats and the River Plate which is really dirty and brown. We went by bus most of the way to the Boan ca, a little harbour with funny variegated shaped boats, some were tugs, some river boats and all the houses are painted bright colours, even though they are mostly made of corrugated iron. We had cheese sandwich and coffee in a little place with pictures on the walls and went to the Plaza de Mayo, a large square with the Presidential Palace, enormous and pink and other important buildings. We watched children chasing pigeons and walked down a rather grimy street and had coffee outside. Nicholas bought the English newspaper. We wandered about along with thousands of people and went back to our hotel, visiting a funny round building close by the Spike, in it was a ? with a poor enormous Constrictor snake curled round himself unable to move. And an armadillo. The light in our room is very bad but I wrote a letter and Nicholas felt ill. We had good, very inexpensive supper – delicious soup with grated cheese and spaghetti and meat and wine and flan in a salubrious area with brothels and shady bars. We made an excursion on the subway – like an English one. We saw horrid MP sailors with direful weapons tramping about. Tomorrow we go on a hydro foil to Colonia and then on to Montevideo. We like Buenos Aires very much and walked miles today on pavements with horrible holes and corrunculations.

Monday May 16th 1966. Montevideo, Uruguay

We both woke feeling dreadfully sleepy and it was a sunny windy day. We had breakfast in the station and walked to Cooks where Nicholas was very pleased by unexpected rate of exchange. We tramped miles looking for the Alscopo (hydrofoil) and bought tickets for 2.30. Harrods was very Harrodslike and we walked along Calle Floride, the most expensive street, at least five times in the course of the morning. There are gorgeous very expensive shops, lovely leather though the leather here is just as ? and half the price. We read the newspaper in a mosquito infested park – we were followed by clouds of them and we had extremely good steak in an interesting part of the city near the docks. Our hydrofoil ride across the River Plate was very luxurious – we skimmed across the water quite fast, fed with sweeties and coffee, past several largeish boats, one of them Indian and stepped into a modern greyhound the other end and sped off to Montevideo along flat straight roads with some pine trees and cows grazing in the brown grass. The houses were suburban looking though we passed very few towns. We found a fairly cheap hotel run by a nice Chilean, very fat, and have four beds We ate delicious vegetables and quite good steak over the road in a curious place ?ing taxi drivers and it also shows university films. A funny little waiter in an immense starched white coat served us and we drank delicious pale wine. It was freezing cold when we walked down the main streets looking in endless bag and shoe shops.

Tuesday 17th May 1966. Montevideo, Uruguay

An exhausting day was spent in looking for bags and shoes. All the bags were dull leather and not nice shapes. In the leather factory there were gorgeous ostrich and alligator skinned bags and piles of suede. We made an excursion down to the docks. We were stopped going right down to the area by a befuddled sentry. We walked miles along a cement pier past endless fishers and a red eyed grey pony. We looked for the wreck of the Graf Spee and saw a boat in the distance, half submerged with two funnels sticking up. We spent a lot of the day tramping up and down the main street looking in shoe shops. We went miles down a seedy road toward the Government and looked for the 850 varieties of ?. We went back by bus and rested on our beds. Nicholas did the crossword and I slept before we set off for the Magnificent Men – with Robert Morley and Hancock and Terry Thomas. We had a delicious meal, a bowl of soup and fish and salad and flan and it only cost one dollar.

Wednesday 18th May 1966. Paysandu, Uruguay

I washed my hair in cold water and Nicholas was slow in getting up. We were not sure whether it was a public holiday, it was sunny and warm. For lunch we had Milanese and have come to the conclusion we spend far too much on food, about three dollars a day. Soon we must economise, when we have left the meat countries. Our bus was a Trailways and had darkened windows, difficult to see out so we had our window open, regardless of the discomfort of the lady behind us. The country was rolling and we duplicated about an hour of the journey. We went through a few little villages and Fray Bentos. We walked round a very sleepy town and saw gauchos and shiny old cars. The bus went extremely fast, over unpaved roads and we saw herds of steers and Friesian cows and sheep and tiny lambs. There were extraordinary birds’ nests on the telegraph poles, some symmetrical, like igloos and some great bushes of twigs. We reached Paysandu just before dark and found a very clean hotel and had delicious cheese and ham and media lunes. We walked miles to the river which is quite wide and called River Uruguay. Paysandu is a prosperous looking town with some quite expensive looking shops and people sitting in restaurants drinking coffee and coke. We had supper – steak and about seven chips and flan which cost about $1.50. Soon we must start eating less as this is the only way in which we can economise. Tomorrow we start off at 8.30 to Salto and cross the river into Argentina again.

Thursday 19th May 1966. Los Libres, Argentina

We get up early after a troubled night – Nicholas rushed off after he had gone to bed to investigate a loud collection of people which turned out to be watching a football game on telly. We had delicious breakfast, lovely jam and media lunes and café con leche and caught the bus to Salto, a shorter journey than we expected, through prairie land. We crossed the river Paraguay with little difficulty in a tiny boat loaded down with middle aged ladies and shopping bags. The town the other side, Concordia, was very dreary and we saw hordes of children in white coats. We had an exciting taxi ride to the northward bus and the rest of the day was spent on unpaved roads sitting at the back of the bus which was half empty. The country became flatter and more open, with some swampy land where we saw flamingo type birds sitting on fences. There were masses of horses, some scraggy and gauchos in fantastically baggy trousers and hats. We reached Los Libres as six and found it to be impossible to get any further on by bus so go off tomorrow on a horrible train. We are staying in a funny little hotel, a German lady talked about food and we are having two delicious meals tomorrow before we leave at twelve. This is a very countrified town with combine harvesters at the side of the street and horses padding along. The room is infested by horrible mosquitoes. Supper was quite good, meat and funny pancake. Nicholas drank nearly a whole litre bottle of wine and became quite drunk.

Friday 20th May 1966. Posadas, Argentina

We had the curious sweet stuff for breakfast and delicious butter and coffee. It was a hot, sunny day and we changed money and gave an old man a green note. Los Libres is a countrified town, quite large, with an airport and horse and donkey carts with milk churns. Lunch defeated us and we left for the station where we waited for an hour in great heat and impatience waiting for our train which arrived quite empty and turned out to be passenger only. We had quite comfortable tiny seats and good views out of the windows. The country was flat and interesting with swampy land and white flamingos in the water and other interesting birds. We saw a little grey ostrich walking in long grass and hawks and an owl sitting on a fence post. We saw a cart with eight horses in a swamp and a few little Indian houses. We ate our picnic, bread and cheese, tangerines and bananas at odd intervals in the journey. It got dark at five thirty and the rest of the journey was excessively tedious. We played geography games and boxes, all not really time killing. There was a half Irish, half Norwegian on the train who says there are big red ants and crocodiles in Paraguay. There is a horrible beetle walking about near my window and the train is having an interminable stop waiting for a train to pass. I should think we will arrive in Posadas very late and all the hotels will have gone to sleep. We arrived at about eleven and walked a long way to find a hotel. We had a snake in our bedroom to guard against mosquitos and had a drink of coke before we went to bed.

Saturday 21st May 1966. Encarnacion, Paraguay

I feel bad-tempered when we get up and the day starts off very badly as we arrive too late for the 10.30 boat across the river so have to wait till 1.30. All the immigration people are having lunch so perhaps we won’t be able to get across. We arrived in Encarnacion about two, finishing the journey in rowing boats as the pier had collapsed. The town was very sleepy and there were horse drawn carts trotting about and groups of moneychanger type people. The bus to Asuncion was due to leave at nine so we wandered around and changed a travellers cheque and sat for an hour in an enormous coffee place discussing our family trees. It was raining hard and we were told the bus had been delayed until the next morning. The nice boy let us spend the night in the bus station on an extra bed. We had delicious Milanese for our supper and retired to bed very early. Nicholas had little sleep owing to the strong coffee and things crept over my face. Encarnacion has lots of Japanese, very few shops and muddy streets and some quite nice little houses. There are no street lights and we got lost many times.

Sunday 22nd May 1966. Asuncion, Paraguay

The nice boy got up at six and we realised the bus was not leaving so stayed in bed till eight. We got soap and a clean towel and used the loo in the garden full of hens, pigs and cats. The bus left at nine thirty and we had delicious coffee and biscuits. We dallied for ages in the town waiting for people to arrive and saw a procession of cars, perhaps going to church with wreaths and flowers so started out about ten. The road was mostly straight and quite muddy and there were deviations from the road in many places which held up progress. We passed banana trees and enormously long-horned, ? cows, horses with sheepskin saddles and little muddy villages with tiny windowless houses. For lunch we had delicious empanados and locally made orange juice. Afterwards the country became quite flat with hills in the distance and we went along quite fast. The bus filled up completely collecting people on the way, some of the army who looked about sixteen. We crossed a river on a tiny ferry, it was precarious and we waited for quite a long time. A nice gentleman who had been learning English for three months gave us coffee and took interest. The rest of the journey was over quite hard flat road and we went quite fast into Asuncion. The economist man has invited us to supper tomorrow night and found a lady on the bus who has a pension. She is a very fat jolly lady and has a most infectious laugh. We are sleeping in an immense attic room and she has a duck in a shopping bag and a monkey in a tree. We walked into the centre of Asuncion – a very small town with little of interest we think and had quite good steak and chips and bought Time. We arrived back at the lady’s house and found a selection of people, ? Arab boy, a ? Paraguayan who teaches English and a portly man who has a powerful singling voice. The piano was played and the fat lady and portly gentleman sang and we drank a curious orangey drink. The old lady came up to our bedroom smoking a giant cigar. Today is Richard’s birthday we think.

Monday 23rd May 1966. Asuncion, Paraguay

We were woken up twice by hammering on the door and it appeared that the nice man had arrived at 8.30 and was again on the way to see us so I hastened out of bed and we found him drinking coffee with the fat lady who was not so jolly today. He took us in his car around the city, we saw the President’s White house, surrounded by trees and helmeted policemen. We saw the American Embassy enclosed in a garden and rich looking vulgar houses. It appeared that his brother had been designated to drive round the town but as he failed to appear we sat in the car and the nice man took us down to the river where we saw his textiles being unloaded and quite a large river boat being pulled by a tug. His brother was little use and drove us round the suburbs. We arrived back at our house and I did the washing. The monkey was swinging about and nearly landed in the sink. We went into the town to find everything closed and it was like Sunday and cold and windy. Nicholas changed money in the hotel and we had delicious coffee and orange and rested in our enormous room. Asuncion is a pleasant town, quite tiny with a nice square in the idle. We saw an Indian outside the Tourist Hotel with a long pigtail and obviously dressed up for the tourists. Later on a brother appeared and took us for another aimless drive to Trinidad which is along an appalling road by the river. We drove through nice botanical gardens. The other brother took us out to supper with his wife. First we went to their house, very large and saw their five children. We ate fairly disgusting parillada, a horrible selection of brains, kidneys, udders and black sausages. For pudding we had quite good flan with cream on top. We heard Paraguayan music on a harp and guitars. Then we were driven home and Nicholas after much dispute went down to the fat lady. In the middle of the night he heard a multitude of cocks crowing and thought it was a revolution.

Tuesday 24th May 1966. Ciudad del Este/Puerto Stroessner, Paraguay

We started off in a microbus to Caapucu in bright sun after the nice fat lady gave us some coffee out of an enormous thermos. We had quite a nice journey, the microbus stopped and started continually picking new people. Toward Caapucu the country got wooded and we looked out for the Eggar’s ranch. When we reached Caapucu we found an old man who took us off to another old man and we found out that the Eggars live at the place with a similar name the other side of Asuncion. We are very disappointed but decide not to retrace our tracks. We waited in hot sun for a microbus, there were lots of ladies selling cheese,  bread and oranges. The microbus became progressively more crowded and I sat right in the front for the first part of the journey and had a wonderful view of donkeys and cattle plodding about. Then I moved back and sat next to a stinking lady and dirty children – Nicholas sat with his knees squashed. Late in the afternoon the bus emptied and it got dark quickly. The road was paved the whole way and we sped along as all the junk off the top had been taken away. We stopped for delicious supper, Milanese and potatoes and coffee. We reached Stroessner in freezing cold at about 7.30 and saw the bridge but decided not to cross. We were put off at a very primitive hotel, no light or windows and we are about to sleep in a barn with funny home made rooms and the cold air is whistling in. Tomorrow morning we hope to get up early and set off to the Iguazu Falls which have twice the amount of water Niagara has.

Wednesday 25th May 1966. On bus from Iguazu Falls and Sao Paulo, Brazil

We woke up deliciously warm in our sleeping bags and washed in freezing water and had coffee before setting off for the bridge where we had remarkably little to do with Paraguayan customs. We walked over the bridge and the Brazilians were very interested. We caught a bus to the Iguazu Town where we caught a five dollar taxi to the falls which were impressive and there were about seven in different levels, some quite small and some enormous. We saw beautiful, various coloured butterflies, one giant blue and brown. The journey to and from the town was on bumpy ground, through sub tropical stunted forest. We arrived back and had disgusting empanadas and doughnut before catching our bus. The man I am following is on the bus and an ex-peace corps boy travelling round South America, on the same route as us. The bus is large and has a partition separating the driver. There are two drivers. We had an extraordinary meal, two sorts of meat, one on an enormously long skewer. It cost $2.50 and made Nicholas very unhappy. We went through quite ordinary country – jungly with houses with thatched roofs and banana trees. I saw a man sitting by the side of the road painting his shoes red. The road was bad and made of red mud. All the soil round here is very red. We saw lots of cats and people working on the roads. We were each given a pillow and with sleeping bag the night was quite comfortable. 

Thursday 26th May 1966. Sao Paulo, Brazil

We had quite a restless night, constantly turning over and woke up when light came. The road was still bumpy and the country quite dull with primitive little houses. We had good coffee and went on to Couritaba which is quite large and grey looking with a few skyscrapers. The road was paved from then off and the country became wooded and hilly with some little rivers under high bridges. It became drizzly and we became bored of the bus and read Time. The bus stopped in a modern, large coffee place which was convenient as I was pining to pee. The rest of the journey was spent in dictating letters and overtaking trucks, some laden with pigs going off to an enormous pig market we saw outside Sao Paulo. The outskirts of the city took a long time to get through because the road was too narrow and we passed modern, attractive houses in the suburbs. We were amazed by the bus station which is gigantic and teeming with people. It has shops and restaurants and endless television sets. We found a hotel in gloomy back streets, but its quite clean with hot water. I had a shower and Nicholas went off for a walk with Bob. We wandered about later on, becoming hopelessly lost and had a cheap meal of milanese and spaghetti.

Friday 27th May 1966. Sau Paulo, Brazil

Bob woke us up and it was a beautiful sunny day and Sao Paulo looks much more attractive. We had Chelsea buns and coffee and posted letters in a seedy post office in the station and changed money in the First National City Bank before returning to our hotel to find Bob disappeared. Later we learned he had been lost. We set off on a major excursion and went to Sterns which is in the expensive shopping district and bought a beautiful green tourmaline with a plain gold setting. We watched rings being made and saw very pale aquamarines and a lot of topaz stones. We set off to explore the city and had funny little empanadas and walked to a square behind the Opera House where we saw a giant family of assorted cats sitting on the statue and strolling about. A lady arrived with a bag full of fish and a great crowd gathered on the viaduct above to watch them being fed. We made our way to the top of the tallest building in the city and saw miles of skyscrapers. We went back to our hotel and made Bob unpack his enormous suitcase full of presents before going off for a very cheap, good supper of Milanese and noodles. I found a gigantic, horrifying roach in Donald Duck.

Saturday 28th May 1966. Bus between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The day was spent in filling in time until we caught our bus at 11.50 pm. We had an abortive time finding an art museum which was closed and had an exhausting journey to the park where we had a very rich chocolate sundae and felt very lazy and visited a museum full of aeroplanes and folk lore things. I felt dopey and had my usual museum feeling in the brain. We lay on the grass and did the crossword and had delicious yoghurt all frothed up and mixed with something delicious. We visited the planetarium and I went to sleep in the middle of a long and obviously interesting discourse on the stars, but it was in Portuguese so of course couldn’t understand. We sped back to skyscraper land and walked about disinclined to go to a bad movie so we went to our usual place and had our usual milanese and lasagne. We went to the bus station and whiled away our three hours wait by watching fat men wrestling on the television, one Paraguayan with long hair and horrid leopard spotted shorts. We drank an enormous bottle of beer and collected our junk and found Bob and our very luxurious bus which has a loo and thermos flasks so we hope for free coffee. We are constantly watching my ring.

Sunday 29th May 1966. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We arrived at the bus station, miles from the centre and eventually got on a bus to the centre where we parted from Bob who went to his expensive hotel followed by the little man who he picked up at the bus station. We managed to find a hotel for £3 and bathroom though the water is temperamental and a clean room with clean towels. We went down to the sea and started off on a very long walk to reach the Christ on top of the hill but gave up after walking miles. We saw appalling slums and middle class houses and got on a bus which took us to the museum of modern art where we saw extraordinary shapes which made horrid noises and flashed lights. We walked into the centre and found everything dead and had a fantastic bargain – bought ten books for a dollar. We wandered about having beer and potato crisps in a nice place. The walk home seemed endless and we had a drab little cheese sandwich for supper.

Monday 30th May 1966. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This morning we had bitter disappointment. We arrived at the Consul to find it was Whit Monday and therefore closed – we were most unhappy and went to the Canadian Consul who told us of a dentist. He filled two holes and did it free and we were very pleased though my teeth have ached all day. We wandered about the centre not enjoying it very much and had a bottle of beer before setting off for the bus station to buy tickets to Brasilia. We walked about, visited a monastery, sat in a cat infested park and walked home and had delicious supper, for pudding a rice pudding and fruit salad.

Tuesday 31st May 1966. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We were woken by squeaky wheelbarrows trundling past and had our buttered roll and coffee and collected a fairly disappointing collection of letters – nothing from Aunt Diana, Albert or Richard. Quite an amusing letter from Jill and a sick letter from Heather. We met Bob and the sky was cloudy. We visited the Peace Corps office and set off for Copacabana in bright sun. We lay on the beach in the cold and I spent a brief time in the water. We had an expensive lunch, a disgusting sausage and set off for Christ on the Hill which was obscured by fog so we set off for Sugar Loaf and had a super time going up in cable cars, first settling on one mountain and then onto Sugar Loaf where we had a fantastic view of Rio and aeroplanes coming in to land. We arrived home, a bit exhausted and set of for supper, delicious fruit salad.

Wednesday 1st June 1966. Bus from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, Brazil

We had no letters and sat on the beach and it was lovely and sunny. Bob gave us 5 books, all science fiction so we will have to learn to like them. We caught the bus at 1.30 and are in the front seats but one so have a good view. We went over endless twisty hills and climbed hills at great speed. It was very sunny and we stopped very two hours and the fat ugly middle class women spent hours in the lavatory each time in front of the mirror. We had very salty spaghetti bolognese with delicious bread and butter. We slept quite well.

Thursday 2nd June 1966. Brasilia, Brazil