But notwithstanding the rough nature of the descent to the Pacific, engineers bold enough to project a railway down it have been found, and we observed several bench marks indicating the course of the once-intended line from Tacna to La Paz. The obstacles to be overcome between Tacna and the summit pass, will, in my opinion, render this undertaking most difficult, if not impossible; but once the Cuesta of Tacora is passed, and the pampas entered on, the line would be comparatively easy, although, if the La Paz road is like the Oruro one, there would be some difficult cuestas to descend before gaining the lower plateau of the Desaguadero.
LA PORTADA.
About five leagues from the Tacora post-house the track follows a very steep and stony descent to the Portada, where there is a mining establishment belonging to Messrs. Blondell of Oruro and Tacna. The mines were not being worked, but one could not but notice the neat look of the buildings, which were mostly roofed with corrugated zinc, as also were the “pulperias” adjoining, of which there are four very good-looking concerns with well-stored shops and good rooms for travellers; but I wondered how so many of them could find a living for their proprietors. Alfa at eight pesos the quintal was to be had, but no “cebada,” and on this side of the Andes, alfa, or “lucerne,” dried or fresh, with an occasional feed of American oats, seems to be the principal fodder for the animals.
Entering another ravine, called Angostura, which forms the direct descent to Tacna, and is a very stony and bad road, descending probably one foot in every yard or thereabouts, we passed several pulperias or ranchos where the numerous arrieros stop. One of these, sometimes recommended to travellers, and called El Ingenio, must be avoided, as it is in ruins. We had arranged to close the day’s journey at Palca, where we arrived about 4 p.m., and found very fair lodgings, chupes and coffee, whilst alfa, now descending in price, was to be had at six pesos the quintal. At this posada we met a French Abbé who was going to Bolivia with intent to earn a livelihood as a professor of French, either in La Paz or Sucre, and as I could converse with him a little in his own language, we passed a pleasant evening, and he continued his solitary journey about two in the morning. He had only one mozo with him, and as he could barely make himself understood in Spanish, he must have had rather a bad time on the road. He seemed to have no idea of the hardships before him, but as I was very near the conclusion of my journey, and he was just commencing his, I was glad to be able to fit him up with sundry rugs, and a waterproof sheet, of which he would stand in great need during the afternoon storms off the higher Andes.
ANGOSTURA.
Leaving Palca at half-past seven, we rode down the quebrada at a slow pace, on account of the very rough and stony nature of the ground and the tired state of some of the mules, which were evidently beginning to feel the effects of the long journey. The bottom of the ravine, from Palca down to the plains of Tacna, is generally well cultivated, producing alfa and maize (“mais”) in good quantity, by dint of much irrigation from the small stream which flows down the ravine, aided by the water brought over the summit from the river Maury. About three leagues distant from Palca, we got on to the finished part of the new road, which was then in course of construction from Tacna towards Bolivia. Some hundreds of men were at work, and their rough encampments on either side of the ravine gave it quite a busy look. The road was being very well made, and was, I understood, being worked as nearly as possible to the lines laid down by the railway engineers; so that if at any time the railway scheme becomes financially practicable, the road will be partly available for the railway cuttings and embankments. But even if the more ambitious enterprise should never be attempted, the new road will be a great improvement on the old track, and proves that Peru is straining every nerve to keep her monopoly of Bolivian trade.
About two in the afternoon we rode out of the hills, and entered on the plains on which the town of Tacna and its environs stand. Passing through Pachia, the principal suburb, the gardens of which are all wonderfully cultivated considering the fearfully dry nature of the soil and the distance from which water has to be brought, we arrived at the city about 4 p.m., very dusty and tired, and put up at the hotel “Bola de Oro,” or “Golden Ball,” a very fair establishment, and decidedly the best that I had met with in all my journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, for even the town of Pará, Brazil’s principal city on the Amazon, cannot boast so good an hotel as the Bola de Oro of Tacna.