Except for the fine view of Illimani on the left in the early part of the journey, the ride to Oruro is of no great interest. Some tall mud built piers may excite curiosity: a few remaining from those erected three centuries ago which formerly, it is said, marked the entire route from Lima to Potosí. Before reaching Oruro, a ride of about seven hours, a snow-crowned volcanic peak may be seen at the southeast, Sajama, with an alleged altitude of 22,700 feet. A possibility, is therefore presented of its overtopping Aconcagua, or like Coropuna turning out 1000 feet lower.
INDIANS TRANSPORTING FREIGHT
PLAZA AND GOVERNMENT PALACE, ORURO
At a station called Patacamaya a halt is made for almuerzo. Strange to say, the restaurant, where a fair meal is served, is kept by an American and his wife who have been living there about twenty years. The gentleman remarked that he was contented, doing well, and had no desire to return to the States. Fortunate it is that all have not the same tastes, some enjoying the warm tropics, some the desert, some the cool plateau, some happy only in large cities, and others whom the solitary places please. Many who go down to engage in railroad construction, to work in mines or smelter, or even to fill office positions in cities, soon become tired and return; others are fascinated with the life, being successful, and persons of more importance than they would be at home, and they are glad to settle permanently in those countries.
Oruro is an important mining town of about 20,000 people, with a very good hotel, the Unión, facing the pretty Plaza. Arriving on Wednesday or Saturday at Oruro, one may the same evening at 7.30 take the express train for Antofagasta, a ride of 36 hours. The plateau seems rather dreary and only those who have an interest in mining matters will care to stay over. The various mines on the outskirts of the city produce both silver and tin. There are many foreign residents with several clubs and life is not so dismal as may at first glance appear, although the climate at this altitude of 12,500 feet in the exposed position on the plain is a trifle raw. The Government Palace and the University building face the Plaza, and the city boasts of a theater, a public library and a mineralogical museum, as well as the usual churches, hospitals, and schools. Oruro was noted during the colonial period as next to Potosí in the richness and production of its mines and in 1678 is said to have had 76,000 inhabitants. In the immediate vicinity are half a dozen mines, formerly great silver producers, but now worked chiefly though not entirely for tin. The San José mine, two miles from the town, several years ago was yielding $55,000 a month in tin and silver. It is an interesting place to visit, employing 1000 or more people and equipped with the best of modern machinery. There are workings 1000 feet deep. The Socavón de la Virgen, nearer the city, is one of the oldest of Bolivia. In all four provinces of this Department are rich tin mines. The ore is treated by grinding and concentration, the product exported averaging about 64 per cent tin. Copper also is found, and farther south borax, and metals of almost every kind.
For the through journey to Antofagasta, staterooms should be engaged in advance at La Paz and in the best possible car; as I was informed that there was considerable difference. Some persons complain about everything and I had heard much of the discomfort of the journey. But the accommodations which I enjoyed were decidedly superior to those of an ordinary Pullman and I never experienced a more comfortable railway ride. The road is of very narrow gauge, 2½ feet, so that an aisle passes along one side of the car with staterooms in a row on the other. In these the berths are not crosswise of the car as in Argentina but lengthwise. My room had two very comfortable leather-covered armchairs, facing each other, on which the berth was later arranged with none above it. A wash-basin with running water was at the side, a small mirror, and several nails on which to hang clothing. In a dining car good meals, dinner and almuerzo were served at a fair price, morning coffee in one’s own stateroom. Traveling from Oruro at night one misses the sight of Lake Poopo. Poopo is a curious shallow, salt, and turbid lake with no visible outlet, fed by the Desaguadero River from Lake Titicaca. Although 24 by 53 miles in extent it is at most but 9 feet deep, often less than 5, and seems to be shrinking. In this dry air and strong sunshine the water may in time disappear, leaving only a bed of salt. Uyuni, from which the railway is now being continued to Tupiza, 125 miles beyond on the Pan American route to Argentina, is also passed in the night. From Tupiza it is hardly 60 miles to La Quiaca which was reached by the Argentine Railway several years ago. A few miles from Uyuni are the Pulacayo and Huanchaca mines which have produced within the last quarter century about 5000 tons of silver, thus taking rank as the second silver district in the world (the first is Broken Bow, Australia). Electricity is here the motor power; Corliss engines render service; several thousand men and women are employed, the latter sorting ore with wonderful accuracy. The day following is spent among the desert mountains. The hills are red, yellow, white, and gray, dotted with black cinders. Volcanoes are numerous, mostly extinct but showing perfect cones against the blue of the sky. Large level sheets of saline material are frequent. Some jagged hills have streaks, blood-red or chrome-yellow. The volcano San Pedro, 17,170 feet may be smoking. From a smaller cone, Poruña, at its side, stretches a great stream of lava, like a glacier, half a mile wide and several long, through which in a cutting the railroad passes. Just before dark, close to the Conchi station, the train crosses a viaduct 336 feet above the Loa River, more than twice as high as the celebrated Forth Bridge. It is a graceful steel structure with six lattice girder spans of 80 feet each, on steel towers. Early the second morning one arrives at Antofagasta.