I apologised, explained and tendered the oft-folded, torn and rather damp letter that Gonzalez and Campbell had written for me. He agreed that it had not expired. I thanked him. He regretted that warning of my arrival had never been passed to his office. So did I. How did I intend to proceed? I explained

fail

‘- Standard transition on eraalts, river: and lagoons. Honduras, Nicaragua

for the Miskito cause, and I had thanked him for his help when he had drafted the letter. Now, sitting across from the Subcomandante as he read through it for a second time, I felt perhaps I had not been wise to show it to him.

Rugama pushed the piece of paper across the desk towards me and

FROM LONDON 'TO: O/W

< HONG KONG £300

TOKYO £335

. CAIRO £150

' RIO £287

SYDNEY £340 JOHANNESBURG (ex Edln) .

NAIROBI £218

l

with Campus Travel

WORLDWIDE

USA&CANADA

\ \ FROM GLASGOW TO:

that I intended to return to the Coco tapped it deliberately with his O/W RTN River near where I had crossed, and forefinger. I held my breath. ‘With a TORONTO £167 £270 then follow it downstream to the sea letter like that in your possession,’ he NEW YORK £157 £312 before turning south down the coast said looking hard into my eyes, WASHINGTON £187 £373 and thus back to Puerto, before ‘travelling in Nicaragua at a time _. LOS ANGELES £227 £380 ' ° ' ° - continuing south towards Bluefields. when US-funded Miskito guerrillas "‘ AMTRAK, GREYHOUND AND AIRLINE pASSEs ALL I wanted his authorisation to make are fighting an undeclared war AVAILABLE FROM CAMPUS TRAVEL

this journey. ‘I wish I could help you,’ he said affably, leaning across his desk to

against the popular Sandinista government . . .’ He paused. I swallowed.

t1"

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EUROPE

Offer me a cigarette. ‘But we don’t . ‘. . . I would say that with this letter FROM LONDON 10; OM RTN . . have a single soldier anywhere you you can go anywhere you want on _ ATHENS £75 £139 ° . . say you are going. Having my written the coast and you won’t have any i; -_;-' pAms £38 £70 permission would not just be trouble.’ 5:“: MADRID £51 £39 worthless it would be dangerous. He smiled at the way he had taken {TI-3'; NICE £70 £139 " «K That’s all contra territory. What are me aback. ‘No, really, I mean it. In BARCELONA £65 £119 - you going to do about the contras?’ the places you are going an ,3 TEL AVIV £99 £193

I hesitated. To tell him that I would authorisation from Rivera is of much .7“; PRAGUE £69 £129 i\ merely deal with them when I found more use than anything I can make ~ ~;‘ SEVILLE £75 £139 '

them was not going to wash. He would not let me drive out of Puerto towards rebel-held areas so ill-prepared: he was, after all, nominally responsible for the whole of Speical Zone 1 and felt partially responsible for my safety. On the other hand, to tell the chief of ; Sandinista security that I’d cleared everything in advance with the enemy and that they had issued me safe-conduct passes seemed to be inviting suspicion. I coughed. The Subcomandante raised his eyebrows. I could not dissemble.

‘Well, yes, I’d thought about that,’ I conceded. ‘And, umm, to be on the safe side, you see, just in case, I umm, went to talk to one or two of

out. You are free to go.’

He rose to leave, but while he was there and in such a flexible mood I wanted to sort out a few details like getting an entry stamp in my passport. And would he mind, just for the sake of it, writing me out permission to visit all the villages I would be passing through? After all, they were officially in Nicaragua. and you never knew when a permit like that might be useful.

‘You write out the permit yourself

, and I’ll sign it on Monday morning

when I’ve told the army what you are up to,’ he said breezily, Opening the door and striding past Lieutenant Zuniga, who had been waiting outside. My erstwhile jailer smiled at

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ROUNDTHE WORLD

LONDON-BANGKOK-OVERLAND-SINGAPORE-

PERTH-OVERLAND-SYDNEY-HAWAII-

SAN FRANCISCO-LONDON £767

LONDON-NEW YORK-OVERLAND- SAN FRANCISCO-HAWAII-FIJI-BRISBANE-

CAIRNS-SYDNEY-OVERLAND~MELBOURNE-

LONDON-BUENOS AIRES-AUCKLAND-SYDNEY- SINGAFORE-OVERLAND-BANGKOK-LONDON

BANGKOK-LONDON £875

£907

ACTING AS RETAIL AGENTS FOR ATOL HOLDERS

SOME ELIGIBILITY 0R AGE RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY

them.’

me. ‘NO hard feelings?‘ he asked. I

‘And what did they tell you?’ acknowledged that by being an ' ' ° '5 Reluctantly, I pulled from my unhelpful bureaucratic bastard he 3 money belt the letter that Wycliffe was probably only doing his job. ~ TRAVEL Diego had written me, and one that Anyway, he was the only person in j? - the best-known Miskito rebel leader, Puerto Cabezas that I knew and I felt l CAMPUS TRAVEL CAMPUS TRAVEL Brook! R. h d . . t 53 FORREST ROAD STUDENTS ASSOC. yn Ivera, a made out a like company. We went to find a .

. . . . : EDINBURGH EH1 20H 90 JOHN STREET few months earlier when I VISIted drink. t TEL. 031 225 61 11 GLASGOW G1 him in Costa Rica. I was particularly Copyright © 1992 by Peter Ford. 2 é . TEL. 041 552 2357 nervous about showrng Rugama the Extract taken from Tekkin A Waalk 5 campus TRAVEL . letter from Brooklyn. More than a by Peter Ford, published by __ me HUB safe conduct pass It was awarme HarperCollins at £16. 99. E HILLHEAD STREET expressed recommendation typed or =""* GLASGOW Gt YATAMA-headed writing paper TEL: 041 357 0608 describing me as ’30 honest and t ACTING AS RETAIL AGENTS FOR ATOL HOLDERS

upright person’ and urging ‘indigenous brothers to give him all support and collaboration’ on my journey. He could scarcely have broadcast more clearly my sympathy

Peter Ford will be appearing as part of Collins Travel Evening at Waterstone’s Bookshop, 83 George Street, Edinburgh at 7.30pm on Monday 15 June.

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The List 22 May - 4 June 1992 63

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