Panama to Patagonia

by Charles M. Pepper

The more well-to-do of the Indian women have stockings and shoes, but the love of color does not extend to the hosiery. Most of this wear is of ordinary brown or black. There is, however, pride and something like social distinction with regard to the footwear. I was amused on seeing the number of russet gaiters. Later at Uyuni I remarked that the prevailing fashion was high-heeled French gaiters, but in Tupiza and the other villages the extreme was not so great. Nor does the possession of the shoes make stockings necessary. Many of the Indian women with their plethora of petticoats apparently consider the acme reached if they can also have shoes, and do not fret themselves over hosiery.

These women have a habit which the bashful traveller does not at first understand. When he sees one of them calmly removing a petticoat, he is apt to turn away, but he need not do so. It may be that the advancing heat of the day has caused the wearer to discard the outer skirt, but more likely it is the vanity of her sex, and the desire to make her sisters envious by showing what is beneath, for each new vesture disclosed is more brilliant than the one which overlapped it. I sat in the plaza at Tupiza and watched two Indian women try to make each other envious. The first one removed the outer petticoat, which was of purple. This divestment disclosed another garment of blazing red, and after that came a brilliant yellow. The other woman started with a green petticoat, and gradually got down to a mixture of blue and yellow. By that time I had begun to fear for the consequences, and made a pretence of turning my back by strolling to the hotel.

From Tupiza to Uyuni is three days’ hard riding with horse or mule, and usually it is nearer four. The region is graphic in its grandeur of conical peaks, Chorolque, Guadalupe, Cotaigata, Ubina, eternally snow-covered, which hold beneath their granite domes a mass of mineral wealth that is for the centuries. The trail by which one passes is along the torn flanks and through the harsh passes of the Chichas and the San Vicente ranges.

Sandstone Pillars near Tupiza

The morning we left we followed the river-bed, passed some good farms and mud huts, and continued through a pasturage on which were grazing goats, llamas, and sheep. The vegetation was of yellow mustard flowers in bloom, pale cactus stalks, brown thorn-trees, and clumps of russet grass. There are a big, gaudy ranch-house, which looks like an imitation French castle, and an ornate little chapel at the head of the valley before it narrows into a chain of crooked gorges. The mountains seem to lie squarely across the way in irregular masses, like gigantic wedges, but there are abrupt hatchet gashes in the sides and many defiles, crevasses, and chasms.

A few miles from Tupiza the geological formation is very curious. At a distance the appearance is that of an old city of crumbling brown cathedrals, towers, buildings, and solitary sentinels. The sandstone formations resemble brown instead of crystal stalagmites. Some of the figures are strikingly grotesque. It is really a series of crenellated mud mountains which have been worn by the atmosphere and the water cutting down and washing away the earth.

The first stopping-place is the hamlet of Ingenia. This place has a tambo and a mud chapel and church. The Indian natives were blear-eyed, dirty, and the most repulsive that I met anywhere, but they were devout and hospitable. They escorted me to the chapel to see the image of the Virgin, which had some special history, and they got some fresh eggs for me. The altitude of Ingenia is 10,200 feet. I set out in the early morning with my pack animals and muleteer, all of us in ill humor because of a bad night’s entertainment. The day’s journey to Escariano, the next lodging-place, was not a long one. Beyond Ingenia the river course is narrow, and allows no room for ranches or even farms of the ordinary size, though there are some pasturage and a weedy kind of grass, scrub fir, or juniper. I was surprised at the number of quail which started up from every bush, and also at the variety of song-birds that hardly would be looked for in a treeless country.

Two or three hours from Ingenia the thread of the trail along the margin of the ravine narrows until it is not possible for animals or persons to pass. On entering the long cañon it is necessary to call out and make sure that no one is coming from the opposite direction. The echoes rumble through the gorges and finally die away. If no answering call is heard, it is safe to go forward along the edge of the sloping precipice. Sometimes tropas, or droves of burros and llamas, get into this gorge from both entrances, and then there is a controversy, and also a difficulty about backing out until space can be found for passing.

The cañon opens into a circle of slaty limestone hills, which have to be climbed and descended with considerable care. There are some white cactus bulbs with yellow flowers, and also in this locality some abandoned mine shafts. The cost of fuel and of freight transport made it necessary to close the mines until a railroad shall be built.