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39

and as the only camera offered as evidence against us was claimed by Otoya, we were released immediately by a very courteous desk sergeant. We passed through the other reten

[[image - black and white photograph with plants, trees, hills/mountains, and a distant view of a town (Pacho). With caption]]
Pacho

without questioning and continues our way down the valley of the Rio Negro. Pacho is a representative Colombian town that is evidently something of a summer resort as there are two better than usual hotels. The Astoria, in the town itself, is quite presentable from the road. The Claridge, on the road below the town, is more pretentious; it is a large two story building with outside recreation facilities, such as a swimming pool. Our destination was a citrus grove a few miles down the valley and we stopped there for lunch and collecting, which was not very good. We started back around three o'clock, collecting from time to time along the road. We were passed through the Pacho retens without discussion and between there and Zipaquira we stopped once more to collect, this time on the high ground above the city. It was almost dark when we reached the first Zipaquira reten and we were stopped on the grounds of having faulty licence plates! Much telephoning by the police and in perhaps 15 minutes a motorcycle with sidecar appeared. We were escorted to the main police station where we were accused of illegally taking photographs in and about Pacho. Evidently the Pacho authorities felt that they had made a mistake in releasing us and would thus put the responsability on on Zipaquira, a more important station. Murillo did the talking and in a few minutes the sergeant was satisfied. He sat down at the typewriter and picked out an open letter to all retens to the effect that we were the individuals who had been taking photographs near Pacho, that we had been fully investigated