At dusk we arrived at Totora, the approach to which reminded me very much of a ride in the Black Country of home, for the numerous chicherias on the outskirts of the town were belching forth many-tongued flames of fire into the gathering darkness. Totora is a place of considerable trade, and contains about 15,000 inhabitants. It is the chief emporium in Eastern Bolivia for “coca,” which is collected here from the plantations of the Yungas of San Antonio and Espiritu Santo, etc., and despatched to the towns of the interior. The tax levied on this article forms a principal item of the budget of the treasury of the republic, and my friend the Bolivian contractor received payment for his road from Arani by the hypothecation of this tax for a certain number of years. Coffee, flour, sugar, and potatoes are also articles of export to other departments, while foreign merchandise finds its way here from Sucre and Santa Cruz, numerous droves or “recuas” of mules and donkeys being met with between Totora and Sucre.
In Totora I sought information with reference to roads leading to the head-waters of the Chimoré, and was introduced to two of the principal men of the place, Don Eugenio Soriano, and Don Saturnino Vela. These gentlemen are owners of “cocales,” or plantations of coca, in the hills which form the watersheds of the affluents of the Mamoré, and of those of the Rio Grande, Señor Soriano has made a track from Totora to Arepucho, where his cocales are situated, and is now cutting a further track from Arepucho to the Chimoré. He assured me that a much better road is found by Arepucho than by Espiritu Santo and the Yungas of San Antonio, and gave me the distances thus: Totora to Arepucho, fourteen leagues, and Arepucho to the Chimoré, twelve leagues; total twenty-six. The road from Cochabamba to Coni, viâ Espiritu Santo, is forty-four leagues. If the road from Arepucho to Totora be made, the twenty-six leagues can be easily ridden in two or three days at most; and from Totora to Cochabamba, the road being good, can be done in two days, making, say, five days in all, the last day of which can be done in coach from Arani. The Espiritu Santo route cannot be got over with any degree of comfort in less than seven days, and the road is not susceptible of much improvement; whilst the wide crossing of the river San Antonio renders the route almost impracticable for general traffic. It appears, therefore, that future efforts for the opening up of the interior of Bolivia by the Amazon and Madeira route, should be directed to the construction of a road from the Chimoré, viâ Arepucho, to Vacas or Totora, this latter place having the advantage of being a good starting-point for a road to Sucre, as well as to Cochabamba and Oruro. These roads may, at some future date, be developed into an internal system of railways for the eastern part of Bolivia, in connection with the Madeira and Mamoré Railway.
The next day’s journey was to terminate at Misque, distant about twelve leagues. The arriero and his mules were despatched early, whilst I waited till about nine o’clock, by which time a breakfast was prepared for me by the family that, through the introduction of my Bolivian companion, had given me lodgings for the night.
The height of Totora is about 10,000 feet above sea-level, and the surrounding country is rocky and barren. The road rises slightly on leaving the town, and soon falls on to a large plain, about 500 feet below the Totora hills. It then rises very sharply to 11,500 feet, only to descend, by a very steep and bad “cuesta,” into a narrow and tortuous quebrada, up which it runs for about a couple of leagues. This part of the route was said to be infested by robbers, but though I passed up it alone I was unmolested, except by stray cattle, that several times disputed the right of way with me. Certainly a better place for attacking travellers could scarcely be imagined, for the ravine was in many parts not more than twenty yards in width, its steep sides being covered with brushwood, affording capital cover for an ambush.
Road-making in Bolivia is still in its infancy, and in the hilly parts of the interior the tracks are taken up the bottom of the ravines, as, during the dry seasons, a better riding road is found there than could, without considerable work, be had on the sides. This arrangement is all very well when the ravines and rivers are dry, but in the rainy season they become quite impassable, and consequently all communication between towns situated as Totora and Misque are, is at an end until dry weather returns. Riding in these ravine roads is also very dangerous in unsettled weather, for a storm may occur on the hills from which the ravine leads, and a flood will then come down upon the unfortunate traveller, with but little warning of its approach.
I overtook the arriero, with his train of cargo-mules, about two o’clock in the afternoon, and the whole day was passed in very rough riding, the “cuestas” and “bajadas” or ascents and descents being frequent and severe. At Misque, where we arrived about 7 p.m., I presented a letter of introduction with which I had been favoured to one of the head men of the town, who I will leave nameless, on account of the shabby manner in which the people of his household treated me. The patron himself was not at home when I arrived, and it seemed that his people had been celebrating his temporary absence with a drinking bout; for when I knocked at the door, I was greeted with shouts of derisive laughter, and roughly told that I had better take up my quarters in the “cabildo,” or town gaol. This incivility mattered but little to me, personally, as I had my small tent and plenty of provisions, and could therefore pitch my camp in the plaza of the town with perfect comfort to myself; but I always preferred getting house quarters, if possible, as, the nights being cold, my arriero and servant-boy required shelter also. However, we found an empty room in the town hall, and took possession of it, cooking our supper in the courtyard; and during the night the patron returned, and immediately came to see me, tendering profuse and profound apologies for the way in which his people had treated me. Such an occurrence deserves noting, on account of its being the only instance that ever I heard of upon which a traveller has been turned away with inhospitality from a Bolivian house of any pretensions to respectability, and I am sure the owner, in this case, was very much annoyed at his family’s rudeness.
Misque is an old cathedral town, once of considerable importance, as is evidenced by the many pretentious buildings, now empty and falling into decay. It is said that the abandonment of the town during late years has been caused by a curse that has fallen on it, because of the murder, during a revolution, of one of the bishops of Misque, who, after death, was dragged through the town at a horse’s tail. The true reason for the desertion of the place is more probably to be found in the prevalence of an aguish fever, caused by bad drainage. The town is situated in a beautiful plain, about 7000 feet above sea-level, and should, therefore, be very healthy. Irrigation has been carried to some extent, several fields and “pôtreros,” or feeding-grounds for cattle, in the immediate neighbourhood of the town being in very fair order. Due provision for the escape of surplus water has not, however, been provided, and the stagnant water, left to dry up by evaporation, is doubtless the cause of the sickness.
The next stage, done on September 4th, was from Misque to Aiquile, about ten leagues. The first half of the day’s riding was made up a very wide and almost dry river-bed, the slopes of the hills on either side being dotted with comfortable-looking farmhouses. The road travelled over during this day was much more level than that of the previous days, the greatest altitude passed being about 9000 feet, and we arrived at Aiquile early in the afternoon. The corregidor of the town was a very amiable and pleasant man, who soon procured very comfortable lodgings for me, in the house of an old lady said to be 105 years old. This age was duly attested by the church books, and certainly the appearance of the old lady seemed to give authenticity to the statement. She herself told me that she attributed her great age to the miraculous care of a “Crucified Christ” that she had in a glass case, and under lace curtains, in her principal room; but the climate of the place seemed to me so delightful, that I should not have been surprised to have heard that people generally lived to great ages there. The town is a thriving place, of about 4000 inhabitants, the streets being broad and well laid out. The trade seems to be entirely in agricultural products, principally carried on with the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, to which place a road branches off from Aiquile. Flour, potatoes, coca, and salt are sent to Santa Cruz, in return for sugar and chocolate. Aiquile is 7850 feet above sea-level.
September 5th. We were in the saddle by 8 a.m., and on for Chinguri and Quiroga, another stage of about nine leagues. Both these places are small hamlets of little importance, the only thing worthy of mention being that at Quiroga, about 7000 feet above sea-level, there are several very large and fine “cañaverales,” or fields of sugar-cane, small in height and of slender growth, but said to yield good produce. Cultivation was well carried on, considerable work in aqueducts, channels, and other irrigational requirements having been executed. The corregidor of Quiroga was not so amiable as his official brother of Aiquile, and refused to give me any assistance in obtaining a night’s lodging. We therefore looked about the town to shift for ourselves as we best could, and entering the courtyard of the largest house in the place, we found that the owner was absent, and therefore we appropriated the “patio,” or central courtyard, to our use, and made up our beds under the verandah, which protected us a little from the dew at night.
From Quiroga to Palca forms the next day’s journey of about twelve leagues, mostly through a succession of ravines, the bottom lands being cultivated with sugar-cane and maize, or lucerne (“alfa”), wherever irrigation has been found practicable. At about the middle of the stage the traveller enters upon the course of the Rio Grande, flowing between two ranges of hills, on either of which a road might, with considerable ease, be constructed. Bolivian road-makers, as I have already observed, prefer the bed of a river to its banks, and so the road or track is taken up the stream, crossing it about seven times. The river was rising rapidly as we rode up its course, and I therefore looked out anxiously for a bridge, which is much talked of as a wonderful work of art; but, on getting to it, found that, as is apparently customary with bridges in Bolivia, it consisted of abutments only, the roadway being missing entirely; so we had to ford the river again, the water coming well up to our saddles. This bridge had a suspended roadway on chains, to which so great a sag or curve was given, that during a heavy flood the whole top structure was washed away. The site was well chosen at two points of rock jutting out from the main hills on either side, and approaching each other to within about 100 feet, the foundations for the abutments being so good, that, notwithstanding the badness of the masonry, they had for some years resisted the frequent floods. The Rio Grande, therefore, does not offer any very great obstacle to the formation of a good road to Sucre, which will some day be constructed—that is, when the Bolivians begin to think more of road-making, and improving the interior of their country, than of revolutions. In the rainy season, when the river is full, and, by reason of its extremely swift current, quite impassable to animals, a “balsa,” or raft, worked somewhat lower down the river than the site of the broken bridge, forms the only means of communication. The day’s ride terminated at Palca, a small farm, or “hacienda,” where, the proprietor being absent, we could get no other accommodation than a bare room to sleep in and fodder for our mules.