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Show :vbtisher tours South America and at 1 a.m. a floor show gorgeous costumes good dancing danc-ing and singing with gusto and throbbing music. Our trip to the top of Sugar Loaf by cable car and to Cor-covada Cor-covada the statue of Christ overlooking the city from the top of a 2,500 foot granite hill by cog railway, present mag-.uficent mag-.uficent views. We went on a twelve-hour tour that took us into the mountains north of Rio where we visited a national park, the summer palace of Don Pedro the second of two resort towns Petropolis and Therezopolis beautiful places set in superb sup-erb mountain scenery. We were very surprised how mountainous mountain-ous it is around Rio. Another tour took us to Tijuca Forest and to the suburban communities communi-ties and farm areas surrounding surround-ing Rio. tl I tor's note So interesting; lhe accounts of the tour taken by Harrison Con-publisher Con-publisher of the Spring-3erald Spring-3erald and his wife Mar-to Mar-to the countries of South ica, that we are publish-arts publish-arts of their letters each LWih' IIarrison Conover, "l publisher continue with the account r trip We stayed at the 1 Hotel with a superb Ikover Rio de Janeiro Har-S Har-S t is built facing the beach le base of a hill so that N lining room and terrace n the third floor over-ig over-ig the harbor with the ming pool directly at the in a large patio. We went ,tour (Rio at Night) along 'ie beaches with the tall, OT,,rn hotels and apartment 'W.ngs as backdrops. Up on conuts, truck gardens and flowers. There is an air of prosperity. pros-perity. Nearly everyone here is black and we were surprised to hear them talk in correct, clipped British English. Here we heard the calypso and the steel band which consists of steel drums of varying tones beaten to calypso rhythm. The visit to the botanical gardens was extremely interesting Here they . have growing so many varieties of tropical trees with dozens of varieties of palm trees and orchids. Two days in Trinidad and we were off for Curasao with a thirty minute stop at Caracas, Venezuela. Caracas occupies the foothills and a narrow strip on the north coast of South America. The terrain is dry and semi-desert. The apartment ap-artment buildings are painted many colors with many colors being used on a single build- h hill overlooking all the Nwas the most impressive "'iew we have ever seen ler than the Top-o-the IWAi1! in an Francisco. The "1 club was very interest-so interest-so dark the waiters use no lights to see what they M giving us continuous ! music changing orches-in orches-in the middle of a number Five wonderful days in Rio and we were again on a jet headed for Trinidad with a stop at Brazilia, the new capital cap-ital of Brazil, 580 miles northwest north-west of Rio. It is still under construction but many of the modern architecture buildings are completed and the seat of government has been there for a year. Next the long 2000-mile 2000-mile hop over the Amazon basin ba-sin with a panoramic view from 33,000 feet seeing the network of rivers and especially espec-ially the broad Amazon winding wind-ing through the green jungle. Trinidad is a lush tropical island with farms on every hand sugar cane, cocoa, coffee, cof-fee, citrus fruits, bananas, co- ing. Curasao is a Dutch island off the coast of Venezuela, has only low hills and is desert-like looking like Arizona with cactus cac-tus and desert plants. William-stad, William-stad, the capital, with its gabled gab-led roofs and narrow buildings, looks like the Netherlands. Curasao is a Dutch possession. posses-sion. The signs are in Dutch, the speaking is nearly all Spanish Span-ish and they use American money, but make out all their bills in Guilders, which you never see, but then convert it into terms of dollars. The Intercontinental In-tercontinental Hotel where we stayed is built over the famous fortress where large ships are sliding past at a stone's throw carrying oil to and from the large oil refinery on the shores of the land-locked harbor. Oil is mostly from Venezuela. Friday, April 21, we arrived at Miami after a 30-minute stop at Port O Prince, Haite. We were met at the airport by Mrs. Maud Stifel, Louise Reid's mother, and Mrs. Stifel's brother bro-ther and his wife, Jack and Jean Allison. We are staying with them and it's like being home again. They have already taken us to downtown Miami, Miami Beach, and to the Top of the Columbus that overlooks the entire area. Today we are going down on the Florida Keys and visit the Bogners in Holmsted. Jim Bogner died two years ago but we will see Faye, Anne and her husband and Jimmy. We plan to leave here Wednesday Wed-nesday and head for home via New Orleans, Rosebud, Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Kan-ab. |