DUCK Diaries

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The text below is transcribed from Fraser Shaw's Journal

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"Our first stop was Lima at 2:30 AM, the landing was quite smooth for a "thing" this size and the take off sh[illegible] for the Rolls Royce engines of 17,500 lb. thrust each. Then around 6:30 AM the mountains abruptly descended into the beautiful plateau where Bogota is situated and we landed several minutes later at the modern (?) international airport. Before we boarded more than two hours later we were treated to a little excitement. It seems that our traveling companion Mr. Roca had an enemy or two at the airport who when several photographers boarded the plane with the resulting confusion tried to do away with our dear friend. All of us except Bob were outside and after the officers of the plane subdued the armed would-be assassin (knife and piece of metal) [sic.] he was taken off the plane handcuffed while he put up a little fuss (Colin got some photos of this). Then came a bomb scare of sorts and for about an hour we were shuffled on and off the plane while the Colombian authorities "investigated," a la Latin America of course. Finally, we boarded and took off (Bogotoa by the way was a lot warmer than when we were there) for Mexico City where after four hours of flying the coast of Central America, the big blue Pacific we arrived, landing with the snow capped peaks of Popocatépetl (?) in view. Here we weren't allowed to enter the terminal building and so we just stood outside the plane and soaked up the very pleasent rays of the suny Mexico City also being a lot warmer than it was when we were there before. While we waited Colin took some shots of ourselves + the plane with its captian + [illegible] got a fleeting shot of Blas Roca + his cronies sneaking (?) off the plane by the first class exit instead of the tourist class exit. There wasn't any excitement that time and a while later we took off for LA, landing there some three hours at the "quite" (?) modern and huge airport..."

Dear Mom + Dad,

This is the plane we flew home in. Blas Roca, Cuba's number 3 man was on the plane, also. In Bogota some men tryed [sic.] to kill him, but failed. A while later the was [sic.] a call saying that there was a bomb aboard. None was found [sic.]. Our passage was "first-class" which normally costs $676 per person. We felt very lucky to get a ride to the States.

Dan

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