The scenery early next morning was not impressive. Before long, however, gigantic volcanic peaks twenty thousand feet high rose into view, one of them, the volcano of Ollawe, emitting a tiny cloud of sulphurous steam that gives a yellow stain to its snow-capped peak. We soon left behind the great sandy tableland of Bolivia, that veritable Thibetan Sahara, and began climbing out of the great plateau through the western Cordillera.
At one of the stations an Indian came aboard the train with a young vicuña that he had raised as a pet and which he was taking to be sold to a gentleman in Chile.
About noon we crossed the frontier. Our train was boarded by two officials. One of them was a Bolivian, seeing to it that departing passengers did not take any gold out of the country and violate the law which prevents any exportation of the yellow metal. The other was a polite Chilean customs officer. Their inspection of the luggage was very superficial. In the afternoon, at Ascotan, after crossing a pass thirteen thousand feet high, we commenced the descent and soon reached the banks of that wonderful white sea of borax, glistening like snow in the sun, which has made this region famous.
The mountains were grand and inspiring but we were so tired of seeing barren brown hillsides that we longed for something green, and yet the further we went, the more desolate became the country. We had entered the nitrate region which is part of that magnificent desert that extends for two thousand miles up and down the west coast of South America.
In the evening we stopped for a few minutes at Calamá, a small town but important as a nitrate centre. It has a moderately good water-supply which enables it to present an attractive greenness in contrast to the absolute aridity of the surrounding desert. In this region are several mines of silver, gold, and copper.
Calamá was the scene of some skirmishing during the revolution against Balmaceda in 1891, but its chief claim to fame rests on a battle that was fought here in the war between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru in 1879, when Bolivia lost her seaport and Chile made a large increase to her territory at the expense of her two northern neighbors. The first thing that Chile did after war was declared was to attack the unprotected Bolivian seaport of Antofagasta. The majority of the population of Antofagasta were Chileans and the small garrison was quite unable to offer any adequate resistance to the Chilean invaders, so the Bolivian authorities retreated at once to Calamá. Thither the Chileans sent six hundred men to attack one hundred and forty. Although the Bolivian forces took up a strong position the Chileans had the advantage of superior numbers and won an overwhelming victory. The affair was insignificant except that it destroyed all the hold that Bolivia had on her seacoast.
During the night, we passed through a large number of little stations in the nitrate country. Early the next morning, as the last half hour of the railway journey, came an exciting ride down a steep grade in full view of the beautiful blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. After weeks of everlasting browns, it was a tremendous relief to our eyes to see such an expanse of blue. Of course no green was to be expected in this vicinity. But blue did just as well.
The railroad runs for some distance parallel to the shore back of the town until it enters the terminal station. We had left Oruro Thursday at 6:30 P.M., were in Calamá by nine o’clock Friday evening, and reached Antofagasta soon after seven o’clock Saturday morning.
Hardly were we established in a hotel when we learned that the steamer Mexico, of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, was to sail that morning for Valparaiso. We had had no chance to explore the sandy streets and well-stocked shops of Antofagasta, but this was the first steamer to sail for six or seven days and it might be a week before there would be another. Furthermore, there was little to tempt us in this modern seaport with its ugly, galvanized-iron workshops and warehouses. So we decided to board the Mexico as fast as possible.
The harbor was crowded with boats and barges. A few steamers and sailing-vessels were lying at anchor waiting for cargoes of minerals of one sort or another, mostly nitrates and copper.