Today in Postal History

This airmail cover was mailed in Guayaquil* which is the port city on the
river Guayas at the head of the Gulf of Guayaquil on the Pacific coast.
The CDS is designated CORREOS EXTERIOR for foreign mail.

There is also a CORREO AEREO | PANAGRA handstamp.
Panagra was the name of the Pan American - Grace owned airline
which operated in South America in competition with SCADTA.
Panagra routing would probably have taken the letter
through New York City on its way to Sweden.

Its destination was Ãppelviken which is a few miles west of  Stockholm.**
My Atlas doesn't locate Äppelviken.

The cover is franked with a single 2 sucre dark blue and black from
the 1930 Centenary of the Founding of the Republic issue (Scott 313).
The stamp is a portrait of Antonio Jose de Sucre for whom the currency is named.

The corner card was from SKF (click on the About SKF button)
which was, and is, an important supplier of bearings.

*John McPhee tells of a visit to this port while on
the M.S. Stella Lykes in his 1990 book about the Merchant Marine, Looking for a Ship.
Pirates actually boarded the vessel while the ship was motoring
up the river and removed contents from one of the containers.
This was not considered unusual in the 1980s!

**Thanks to Maarten Willems for correcting my poor geography!

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