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National Geographic : 1968 Feb
Contents
- and economics-to the Colombian city of Ipiales (map, page 263). Because Ecuadorian currency holds steady while the Colombian peso slumps, goods cost less in Colombia. In Ipiales a merchant told me that heavy buyers often smuggle bulk loads back into Ecuador by mule on mountain trails. "We're outnumbered and outgunned by the contrabandistas," an Ecuadorian customs police officer explained at a checkpoint some miles south of the frontier. I had stopped to declare a case of Colombian chocolate bars, convenient rations for back-country travel. "Last week a contraband convoy of more than a hundred trucks with maybe a thou sand riders roared up to this barrier at two in the morning. They hammered their horns and shouted threats." "Did you try to search them?" "With three men? Death should be noble, Senior, not ridiculous." "The Old One" Runs Again Back in Quito, Guillermo offered his com pany and station wagon for a swing through southern Ecuador. Speeding down the Pan americana to Ambato, we noticed walls of many buildings freshly stenciled with a cari cature bearing the slogan "Ayer, hoy, y siem pre-Yesterday, today, and always." "El Viejo-The Old One-is back, seeking a fifth term as president," said Guillermo. El Viejo is Dr. Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra. His awesome energy and oratory won him the presidency four times. His equal genius at losing his temper and following got him un seated and banished in 1935, 1947, and 1961. He has spent most of three decades in exile. "Other presidents who have tried for a third term have paid with their lives," Guillermo commented. "Some argue that The Old One's a dictator; others insist he's a savior." "Now that he's home again, I hope to meet him," I announced. Straw rick on legs struggles up an unpaved portion of the Pan American Highway. Women walk and carry while men grandly ride horseback in the central highlands. Village sealed against time nestles in a highland valley near Alausi. Beside angular homes that often double as stables, threshers trample out wheat with a team of horses and donkeys. Spiked century plants yield fiber for rope, field stones form corrals, and lofty eucalyptus trees, introduced from Aus tralia, provide lumber and fuel. "It won't be easy," warned Guillermo. "He keeps on the move." In Ambato we visited businessman Robert Roberson, an ex-GI from the Watts district of Los Angeles. Roberson was proud of his hand looms, set up in an aging villa where 50 girls were weaving custom-designed rugs. "I learned how to weave in an Army hospi tal," Bob said. "'Occupational therapy,' they called it." Bob injured his spine in World War II and spent so much time on his back in U. S. vet erans hospitals that his legs began to fail with thrombophlebitis. "I was turning into a vegetable. One day my wife and I decided to head for warmer climates, looking for a place to live on my disability pay. The farther south we went, the lower we found the cost of living. Our search ended four years ago here in Ambato." Bob Roberson walks, I am sure, with much pain; Ambato's warmth has done little for his legs. But it has restored an enviable spirit. We drove south past enormous Chimborazo, which Sim6n Bolivar called "the watchtower 279
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