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162 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
From Rio Verde to Bafios, a distance of some
15 English miles, the road runs near the Pastasa,
but only in two places, in each for near a mile,
along ;
the actual beach
in other parts it passes
over elevated pampas, or makes detours over hills
to avoid
Agoyan.
steep cliffs, especially at
For the first hour from
the cataract of
Rio Verde we
were on elevated, nearly level ground, called
Ouillu-turu or yellow mud. As to the mud, well
does it deserve to be signalised by such a name,
though the actual tint is as often black as yellow.
In no part of the Montana had we harder toil in
tramping through the mud than here ; in other
respects the road was a tolerably good mule-track,
not very wide, but kept clear of rubbish ; and after
passing Quillu-tiiru it was mostly sound and often
gravelly. At nearly two hours from Rio Verde we
came to a hacienda on a beach by the Pastasa,
called the Playa de Antombos, where the mistress,
a very hospitable lady, must needs have us enter
and take some refreshment. Here we learnt that
the late rains had been equally heavy in the Sierra,
and that on the preceding day the Pastasa had
swollen so much as to break the bridge of Agoyan,
though this is 40 feet above the river at low water.
She had yesterday sent a lad to the town with
aguardiente and counselled us to await his return,
as if he did not come it was a sign that the bridge
was impassable. Here was another delay, and it
seemed as if my progress must be arrested by
swollen rivers up to the very last day, as it had
been almost from the first. The lad did not
arrive until near evening, all too late for us to start
again for Bafios, although he reported
that the