Scheduled to leave Sunday Feb 27th at 2:00 am. Destination Trinidad. Didn't leave - motor trouble - landed with me in nose because of runaway propeller. Did not leave until Friday March 3rd when we flew to Borinquen, Puerto Rico. Slept overnight at Borinquen. Bitten by mosquitos. Awakened at 4:00 am by native boy to go to flight line. Ate terrible fried bread for breakfast. 3 men went on sick call. Came back and we finally took off near 7:30 am - already light. Home of real rum. Any mixed drinks or shots only 10 cents. Now "flying down to" Atkinson, British Guyana, S. America. Lost Adele's Eversharp pencil which she gave - on the way down to Borinquen. Plenty mad too. We arrived in Atkinson about 2:30 in the PM. It's a base traded to the U.S. by England for 50 old destroyers. Everyone drives on the left of the road here. The people are Puerto Rican, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. It rained just before we landed but cleared up in a few minutes. Georgetown, 60,000 pop. is 21 miles up the Demerara River. They have trees which are of smooth bark, towering to heights of 30-40 feet, clean save for a clump of bushy leaves at the extreme top. All types of vegetation is abundant. We parked our plane way off in the woods on a private little spot and rode into HQ. We got on a bus with a good looking native (?) girl (yellow dress, white blouse) and rode to the B.O.Q.  Got cleaned up and went to the Officers' Club to eat. Had an awful meal. Cabbage and stuffed meat (?). Then went to PX. Nothing to buy for souveniers except 2 newspapers. I also purchased 2 $1.00 bills. American bills are worth $1.17 over here. Slept for first time in mosquito netted beds. Entirely enclosed on all sides and top with holeproof cloth netting. Not a bit of difference in my sleeping except the dampness in the air. At PX they had silk stockings for $1.48 and $3.12 in 9˝ and 10's only. Didn't buy any - waiting for nylon. We awoke at 20 to 5 and had breakfast at Officers' Mess. Then to flight line and we took off about 6:37 AM. We first sprayed our plane with fumes (aerosol bomb) to kill any mosquitos that may have gotten in over night. Just about all the way down we had an undercast of pillowy soft white clouds with an occassional look at the ground for check points. At the present time we are crossing the Amazon River (11:17 AMEST). Boy, what a big, brown, muddy stream!!! There are 2 C-47's to our left making the same trip. Some clouds are really big ones running up to as high as 11-12,000 feet - we go around all the big ones as they are too dangerous to go through. We are making quite slow time as we have a strong head wind (129-133 Kts).

This is the land of Carmen Miranda (Brazil). Finally arrived OK at Fortaleza at 12:20 PM - we went here instead of Natal because there would be too much traffic if everyone went to Natal.

We checked in and found out that we had to sleep in tents. We brought 4 meal tickets for $2.00. After eating we went to the PX where for the next day and a half we practiaclly lived. Everyone spent a fortune in that place. They had lots of silk hose for $19.85 a dozen and up. I bought a hammock for $4.00 for Uncle Jack's yard this summer and I sent Adele 2 blouses and walnettos and perfume - also Uncle Jack a box of Brazilian cigars. They had a soda drink called "Champagne" of which we drank gallons, also fruit juices and beer. We sure have had swell meals since we have been in Brazil. They have been real swell compared to Puerto Rico and Atkinson. Slept overnight after going to town through a back gate. Got up about 7 AM and wrote to Adele. Roamed around all day back and forth to the PX, plane and tent. Slept in an open air tent #43 behind the latrine. Mosquito net bed on mattress on cot. Just like good old Durand Eastman Park and Jerome - them were the days, oh boy.