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50

sidewalk café for more arepa, chicharrón, salchicha and tinto. Across the plaza, well planted with trees, was the old church, white with two towers and two dark red bulbous cupolas that looked Russian, although the plain white columns looked Greek. Between the café and the plaza was an enormous ceiba tree (called silk-cotton in Jamaica). The silky fiber from the blossoms is the kapok of commerce and is used for stuffing mattresses and pillows. The Colombians call it lana de ceiba.
On the way back to Medellín we stopped in a narrow street close to the open window of a primary school; the children were seated on benches at long desks reciting in chorus. The yound maestra smiled at us.
Señora de Gonzalez was at the airport and gave Clara a huge orchid wrapped in cellophane. She told us that she had been to Ecuador lately and about the fine beach at Salinas, not too hot, where there were many sailors from U. S. warships. Also that last year 13 students from Yale, Harvard, Radcliffe, etc. had spent three weeks in Medellín, one in a family. The plane left late and the wait was long and hot. At least, there were curtains at the plane windows that could be snapped closed to keep out the sun. We landed at Cartago and the heat was terrific. Clara managed to get to the airport building where she had to meet all of don Adriano's family. Off again and our next stop was Cali, a huge airport with a row of huge hangars and many planes.
We were met by José Otoya, the brother of Francisco. He drove us around the city. Out near the monument to the founder of the city, Belalcázar he jumped a sharp curb and punctured a tire. We put on a new tire and went to the hotel Alférez Real. As soon as we were assigned our room Clara lay down and don Luis, don Francisco and I left for Palmira. The land is flat with much sugarcane and bananas. At the agricultural experiment station we found don Adriano, who had come by autocarril. He had been left behind, perhaps by mistake. We looked over the station and met Dr. Raúl Varela Martínez, the director. Varela was a student at Pullman, Wash.

[[image - black and white photograph of the Belalcázar monument on a hill.]]
[[caption]] Belalcázar [[caption]]