RANSVESTIA

install them later. It is ironical that Columbia and Venezuela are the only two so-called Democracies on the continent-all the rest being military dictatorships-yet these two countries are the worst of the lot as far as crime of this sort is concerned. Well, I ended up having dinner with these four kids in an inexpensive little restaurant that they had found. We had a good evening.

Next day I did the usual tourist "city tour" and took in the gold museum where all the Indian gold articles that have escaped the Spaniards' appropriations are housed. It is an impressive collection. The delicacy of some of their work in gold is unbelievable, it would strain any modern craftsman to do such fine work I'm sure. That afternoon I took a tour out into the country about 40 miles to what is called the "salt cathedral." This is something of a misnomer since it isn't built of salt but it is built inside a salt mine. Salt here occurs both disseminated and in pockets in a gray shale-like rock which is mined and then extracted with water which is then evaporated to recover the salt. This has been going on since before the Spaniards came in the 15th century. Anyway the workman got the idea of making a chapel in the mine and some architect got hold of the idea and said let's make a cathedral which they proceeded to so. So it is all excavated out of the solid rock and it is immense, over 100 yards long and as wide. The height at the highest point is about 110 yards. Of course, it is not too bright back in there but they have services on Sunday and bring in an organ and they have all the rest of the usual cathedral contents-lots of separate chapels to this and that saint, a special station of the cross section, a choir, main alter, etc. I'm not much for cathedrals having seen dozens and dozens of them but this one was a real novelty and interesting to a former minerologist like

me.

Finally the next day, December 26, I took off for Los Angeles and not too unhappy to be leaving Columbia. I don't think I have much yen to return again. It is a beautiful and varied country geographical- ly and it has some fascinating new architectural structures but they don't go out of their way to make a tourist feel particularly appre- ciated. You can only cash travelers checks at special hotels or at the National Bank. There are a dozen other banks but they are not authorized to cash them. They will steal your gold fillings if you open your mouth, and apparently house breakings are equally common- bars on all windows everywhere. It just doesn't give you a feeling of comfort. We landed in Mexico City and stayed on the ground there

91