A new year to read National Geographic Magazine, 1931, January, is begun. The first, 79-page article is "Skypaths Through Latin America: Flying From Our Nation's Capital Southward Over Jungles, Remote Islands, and Cities on an Aerial Survey of the East Coast of South America" by Frederich Simpich. This article chronicles a "10,000 mile exploration flight, from Washington (D.C., U.S.A.) to Buenos Aires (Argentina, South America) by way of the Caribbean" (p. 1).
Mr. Simpich reveals the purposes of the journey. "Our expedition was to fly around and over islands, up rivers, and as far into the jungles as safety would permit. We were to study the various races of mankind encountered, observe the wilderness, the farms, industries, and cities; land wherever we wished, make the best pictures ever taken along this route, and bring back an account of our experiences for educational purposes only - the assignment of a lifetime!" (p. 1).
The trip started in Washington, D.C., made six stops to refuel enroute to Miami, Florida, refueled again at Key West, Florida, then landed in Havana. It is amazing that in 1931, the air routes were established with plenty of refueling stations available, although it was more challenging in the jungles of South America. Please note: they traveled by seaplane.
"Cuba is a Garden of Eden, almost 1,000 miles long - a lush, luxuriant island anchored off the tip of Florida" (p.3). "Our world from the air seems an oddly empty place. . .I stood at the tomb of Ponce de Leon, in the cathedral at San Juan (Puerto Rico), and tried to imagine what that prince of adventurers might say, could he see Porto Rico now" (p. 25).
Next on the journey east and south were the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. "When the United States purchased the islands from Denmark, in 1917, they had a population of about 26,000. Since then, this number has considerably decreased, owing to migration to continental United States" (photo caption, p. 27). This information, both that the country of Denmark had once 'owned' these islands, and also that the United States 'purchased' them, was new information to me.
St. Thomas Island, "viewed from the sky, these islands are strangely beautiful. Only God's own hands could form these gracefully molded emerald hills and set them in turquoise seas with foamy waves as a white fringe about emerald-green shores. "Isles of Enchanting Views," the natives call them. A flock of sheep feeding far below on a golf course resembled white mice" (p. 34).
As an American, I'm interested in other countries' quest for freedom. "Ashore in St. Thomas, my parrot-infested hotel veranda faced Emancipation Park. Here, in 1848, the slaves tore up the public whipping post, threw it into the sea, and compelled the Danes to grant them freedom" (p. 34).
The author, photographer, pilot and co-pilot stayed overnight in hotels, where there was one, or houses of local officials, where there were no hotels. The author mused that the crew enjoyed the sights but missed the scents of travel on the ground. "Motor through Missouri on a June day and you delight in the fragrance of new-mown hay, plowed fields, and blossoms; but fly over it and all you smell is gasoline" (p. 34).
This trip sharply contrasts with that recently reported on in this blog, September 13, 2013, "A Primitive Flying Adventure," a flight up the west coast of South America. That trip followed the mail run both in route taken, time needed (67 hours), and mail delivered. This trip, south down the east coast of South America usually followed the mail route, sometimes delivered mail but took two months.
The east coast trip has progressed to the country of Venezuela and the Guineas, British, Dutch, and French Guiana. When the tide is low along the east coast of Venezuela and the Guineas, the mud flats "are often miles in width. . .and the many birds which patrol for food after the receding tide, are the only motion and life in these vast, almost primordial areas of ooze, slime, and silence" (p. 36).
Why did the Europeans want to travel so far away and go to the trouble of 'owning' other lands? "These once rich islands were in the eyes of all Europe in those days, for Europe was sugar-mad" (p. 36).
In Trinidad, "odd sights, sounds, and smells echo the clash of East and West: Chinese girls playing hockey. . .street signs pointing to church; a ring-nosed Hindu girl in a silk scarf smiling at a sailor. . .Hindus, Chinese, Moslems, Africans, Europeans - all mingling at a social affair" (p. 40). Trinidad profits by its "asphalt lake," a large pit which bubbles up more asphalt when it is removed; this asphalt is used by the locals and also exported.
Now I learn a new fact which might have contributed to the success of our own American Revolution. "These West Indies, measured by world trade at the time, were worth more to England than her North American colonies, up to the Revolution. Then sugar was king; now in Trinidad, oil and asphalt are above everything" (p. 40). Could it be, that to the British, America wasn't worth fighting very hard over?
The country of Brazil covers the great majority of the continent of South America. There were "anacondas big enough to swallow a calf" infesting the delta of the Amazon River (p. 48). Entering Brazil from the north, one wonders where its millions of people are hiding! For two hours, after crossing the Oyapock, we saw no human habitation" (p. 49).
In 2013, we worry about the encroachment of civilization paving over the South American rain forests. In 1930, it was not so. "An ocean of foliage prodigal with natural wealth - vast, green, and impenetrable except by steam and rivers - such is the infinite, unconquered forest of Brazil. All its trees ever cut by man are but as so many straws plucked from the wheatfields of the Dakotas" (p. 50, photo caption).
The vast grandeur of the Amazon River apparently must be seen to be believed. "We came soon to the mud banks of the incomparable island-studded Amazon - a vast, yellow, sinister sea, before which puny man can only marvel at the majesty of Nature. You sense the colossal power and magnitude of its mighty, moving bulk when you fly its far-flung delta banks and see its mud flats covered with countless thousands of forest trees wrenched up by the roots and scattered like matches. . .running 4,000 miles across the continent from the Andes, it drains about 2/5ths of South America, and the rainy season varies in its lower reaches from five to 400 miles in width" (p. 54).
Para, Brazil, marked the half-way point of this historic air flight. "If man ever conquers the jungle, this valley will hold many millions. Its resources are infinite. Forests yield more than 400 useful woods. Rubber, vanilla, sarsaparilla, many nuts, copaiba - these and many other things grow wild" (p. 56). I believe that the National Geographic Society played a large part in bringing the growing problem of exploitation of these same forests to world attention resulting in a drive for conservation.
Para is hot! "From 11 till 3 nobody stirs - not even the vultures that ride in flocks on open garbage wagons" (p. 56).
Mr. Simpich writes, on leaving the Amazon, "Looking back at the yellow tail of our ship (seaplane), it was with genuine regret that we saw the last of this great Amazon Valley, with its 20,000 kinds of trees, its infinite fruits and wild animals, and its infinite possibilities as the future home of millions yet unborn" (p. 60). What about America? What is our future? Will we have regrets?
The plane crew encountered many different languages on this trip: Spanish, French, English, Dutch, and Portugese. "Flying has brought a new American type to cities all the way from Havana and San Juan de Porto Rico to Para and Pernambuco (Brazil). Guests at hotels are accustomed now to seeing a crowd of sunburnt, khaki-clad flying Americans come trooping in to lunch, just in from a long flight and too hungry to stop to change clothes" (p. 61).
The author continues to describe the changes he has observed. "You sense the permanence and stability of air travel when in city after city you see new ramps, floats, and hangars, with shops, extra planes, spare parts, radio stations and all the paraphernalia of aviation. . .In 30 years of travel iin many lands, I have seen no phase of American activity abroad received with more friendly interest than our air-line excursions in Latin America. Ours is a new day" (p. 63).
Do you take air conditioning for granted? It was not always so! "I'll meet you just before the second afternoon shower," the Para man may say in making a business engagement" (p. 63). Young people may not understand this statement. When I was in college the first time, I had good friends from Puerto Rico and Cuba (just escaped, in 1961). Fernando, from Ponce, Puerto Rico, once said, "When I'm home, I take three showers a day."
After the Amazon Valley, there was a vast desert: "sand dunes, often sixty feet high" and "you would get as good a desert picture as any from Baghdad to Cairo" (p. 63).
There were plenty of cities whose name were new to me. "Bahia is one of the oldest centers of European civilizations in Brazil. Many years before the English established colonies in what is now the United States, the Portugese were here" (p. 70).
In 1931, Rio de Janiero, Brazil, was "a great city, with upward of 2,000,000 people.
The last stop in this epic journey was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The author compares it to Chicago in industriousness. The Rio de la Plata (Plate River) is 28 miles wide there, 125 miles inland. At its mouth, the Plate River is 120 miles wide!
Mr. Simpich concludes, "Like a mirage in a desert haze, we glimpse the majestic skyline of Buenos Aires, metropolis of South America, our goal, after 10,000 miles of flying over strange lands, up hidden rivers, around volcanoes, across forests primeval, and the jungle wastes of trackless tropics" (p, 79). This was an ambitious journey, to be sure, "the trip of a lifetime!"
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