The gold-hunters at various times have ruffled the placid life of the inhabitants. A ledge of quartz cropping out from the side of the sierra near Suipacha has been attacked viciously, but more promise has been held out by the placer yields. Its sands are not all golden, yet they have yielded enough to encourage the investment of a large amount of capital in companies formed for the purpose of dredging the river-bed. These enterprises have their headquarters in Buenos Ayres. During my journey I found the people impatient for the arrival of the heavy dredging machinery which was at the seaboard awaiting transportation. It arrived later.
After leaving Suipacha there was a very hot and dusty hill climb of three hours, although most of it was along a fine piece of mountain highway, really a splendid triumph of road engineering. The hills all around here seemed to be limestone, and the sun beating on them created the most intense heat that I experienced anywhere. In the morning at sunrise my thermometer registered 50° Fahrenheit. In the early afternoon in the midst of these limestone cliffs it marked 110° Fahrenheit. This was 15 degrees higher than at any other point in the journey. I might have questioned the correctness of the thermometer, but its previous and its subsequent registrations I was able to verify, so that there was no reason to doubt its verity in registering this locality.
But though the glaring sun and the choking dust made the afternoon very uncomfortable, there was compensation. It was almost dusk when we—myself, the muleteer, and the pack animals—descended into the vale of Santa Rosa and found it gloriously restful. A model ranch spreads through the valley. The bed of the river is among spur cliffs and broken mountain walls on either side, out of which plunge miniature Niagaras. The stream is bordered by willows. It narrows until its course is forced through a cliff which rises sheer in front to the height of 700 or 800 feet and is known as the Angustora, or Narrow Way. The needle-point chasm made by the river has been enlarged by artificial means, and the narrow way is wide enough for ox-carts.
After the Angustora the course broadens again into the valley. The stream is very crooked and has to be forded often. At this season the fording was not difficult, but in January and February, when the rains come, the only passage is along a trail well up the side of the precipice, for the river-bed is a tumultuous torrent.
Tupiza lies in this vale of Santa Rosa, the brook being an affluent of the San Juan and sometimes called the San Juan. I entered the village by moonlight. I left it early one morning by starlight. The night of my arrival fourteen hours continuously in the saddle had wearied me greatly, yet the physical sensation disappeared in an instant on entering the beautiful valley, bathed as it was in the soft moonlight. When taking a last look at it, there was the same impression of charm. The river is fringed by drooping, feathery willows of the softest and most velvety green. They seem to be taking a perpetual bath in the dews. There are also the pepper trees. After a long desert ride the sober verdure of these trees is always refreshing. It is a harbinger of revivified Nature, but here in contrast with the glistening green willows they are the merest drabs.
The mountains which shut in the valley are brown, with granite flanks exposed; and the sunsets—ah! the artist would have to penetrate this lovely region to see whether the miracle of silver gray changing into impalpable azure and then flaming into red prairie fire can be transferred to canvas.
Tupiza is the most important place in southern Bolivia. It is the gateway north, south, east, and west. It is 9,800 feet above sea-level. The town has 5,000 inhabitants, and is the head of administration for the department. The church edifice has twin towers and a blue front, with much gaudy and gingerbread ornamentation inside and out. The government building, which includes the custom house, post-office, and telegraph office, is more tasteful. It is of two stories, with brown front and with arcade windows. There are a few two-story houses with narrow window balconies, but the dwellings are mostly of one story, with sloping grass-thatched roofs and whitewashed or dark blue fronts. They have square inner courts, or patios, and are without windows opening on the streets. As the street door is kept closed, there is complete seclusion from outside life.
The plaza is ornamented with feathery willow trees, under one of which in the heat of the day the public business is transacted, the desks and chairs being moved out from the government building. I watched the process for a couple of hours one day, and found it a not unpleasing picture of local and patriarchal administration. A fountain in the centre of the plaza at all hours is thronged by the men and women with their earthen water-jars, gossiping and quarrelling. There are many small shops for the sale of fruits, vegetables, and gaudy handkerchiefs. The women venders exercise squatter sovereignty on every street corner.
Ladies’ fashions are of so world-wide an interest that I digress to describe them as they were seen at Tupiza, as I had seen them in the primitive villages of Nazarene and Suipacha, as I saw them afterward at Uyuni and other places, including the capital.
The prized possession of the Bolivian Indian woman, and her chief pride also, whether she is pure Indian or chola, is her petticoat. Her dowry is in this garment. Like the Dutch woman of tradition, she carries her wealth about her. These petticoats are of all the colors of the rainbow and divers other hues not found therein. I first noticed them at Nazarene, and remarked the love of color, which must be inborn, for the garments were of purple, violet, fiery red, crimson, scarlet, subdued orange, glaring saffron, blue, and green. They were very short, reaching barely below the knee, and no difference was observed between childhood, maidenhood, matronly middle life, and wrinkled old age. Glancing from my window in Tupiza, I thought it was a parade of perambulating balloons.