Sunday 30 October 1994

The hotel was very pleasant and it would have been good to have stayed an extra day. We had a charter rail car and trailer for our run to Santa Cruz, some 640 kilometers. While the luggage was being hoisted on the roof we had a look around the local market and bought some bananas. It was good to be able to speak Spanish again.

Quijarro

The run was essentially through low swampy ground on the outskirts of the Amazon basin. There was a complete contrast between Brazil and Bolivia, Bolivia being much poorer and with many more local people, many wearing hats. The line was very busy and we saw evidence of much track work, particularly new crushed ballast. Colin bought four corn filled empanadas from a small girl at a station. He didn't have small change and eventually persuaded her to accept American dollars. At another small station a small boy was trying to sell a small green parrot which had had its wings clipped. His price was five boliviano's or just over one US dollar.
The land was well overgrown and at one point we crossed the bridge in a cloud of brown butterflies. The villages were laid out similar to Paraguay with white grass covered greens rather than streets. The people were in their Sunday Best and it was evident that the Avon lady had called.
After a stop to fix the air system and, later on to examine three upside down boxcars, we arrived at Chochis. This was a sleepy little village where the chickens were rooting around in the grass covered sidings. There is an impressive rock formation tearing up from the jungle floor. While we were admiring the view two donkeys caused a great deal of excitement and laughter. One chased the other onto the station platform and it tried to mount it in full view of everybody.

Chochis

We had a number of stops in the area of the rock formation. One of the most memorable items was the incredibly loud noise from the crickets and other insects, even during the day. Later on, one of these came in through the window. It was six inches long and almost an inch in diameter. No wonder it could make a lot of noise.

San Jose de Chiquitos

We continued on into the evening past villages where people were living in mud huts and the main form of transport was the horse. At Tunas we passed a local passenger train that was well filled and looked to be in good condition. One of the locals came out to speak to us but was pretty incoherent. Dinner, for US4.00 ,was prepared by the train crew. This consisted of meat and chicken with rice, fried potatoes, tomatoes, corn salad, fruit salad and coffee.

Monday 31 October

Another quick turn around this morning as we had to take a bus to Aquile which is the easternmost extent of the ENFA red Andina. There were four men in the crew and were ominously changing a tire as we loaded the bags. The baggage space was a little cramped because one part was used for sleeping by the bus crew. The first part of the ride was fine but when we got into the mountains it was clear that there had been a recent rain that caused some problems on the dirt (mud) road. At one point the right front wheel sank into a large mud hole right at a hairpin bend. The driver skillfully managed to get out of this. Several of the river crossings had been washed out and the bus merely drove through the water. Much of the area was through interesting desert scenery with large cacti, many of which were just coming into bloom.
We had a flat tire at a most fortunate location - right in the middle of one of the few villages that we passed, and right in front of the only restaurant.

The restaurant

Colin and the New Zealanders had a couple of beers waiting for the tire to be changed and were disappointed when the time came to continue. We burst another tire at a more remote location and this took longer to fix as the crew had to repair the one that had gone flat earlier. As a result we arrived at Aquile at dusk and the ride to Cochabamba was in the dark.

This was likely the last train out of Aquile and the station safe was strapped on the back for safe keeping

This rail car and crew stayed with us right through to Antofagasta and we had our first meal. This alternated between chicken and meat (the chicken was best) with french fries, tomato and corn salad with mayonnaise. This was the first train over the top end of the line for over a year although there is freight service further down towards Cochabamba. We hit a local who was lying down asleep between the rails. The driver saw him in the headlight beam and made an emergency stop. The crew got out and they reversed the car off him and found he was unhurt even though he finished up with his legs under the pilot. They picked him up and dusted him down. He only spoke quechua and seemed to be pretty confused - so much so that he didn't even realize that he had come close to being killed. At Cochabamba two buses took us to the hotel where we had our first brush with the altitude. We took three flights of stairs up to our room and were gasping for breath even though Cochabamba is only at 8,400 ft.

Tuesday 1 November 1994

A fairly late start this morning and Colin went out for a stroll during which he bought a rose from a flower seller sitting on the sidewalk.

He then walked down to the station through the local market. They were selling all manner of things including such delicacies as alfalfa juice. Before leaving Cochabamba we visited the shed where the railway has stored three steam locomotive since 1987.

Steam locomotive #161 stored at Cochabamba

The line leaving Cochabamba is flanked with eucalyptus trees. The first part is along a wide valley in which people were cultivating onions, sugar cane and other crops. The valley became narrower and we could see people tending their sheep. The line is well engineered and climbs through the use of many rivers curves. Llamas were visible on the hillside as we approached the summit for a meet with two freight trains. The summit was at 13,573 feet.

View from the roof approaching Chancolla

Left - the climb to the summit  Right - at the summit (cumbre)

 We then dropped down to the main line at Oruro. This is a brown dirty place set on the flat altiplano. Nothing grows here and people use the approaches as a rubbish dump. You can tell that you're approaching a town by the plastic and cans lying around. These are well picked over by both pigs and humans. We saw a small boy squatting down in full view with his bicycle on the ground close by. We supposed that when he wanted to go he would just cycle out of town.
We then made our way north to Viacha and El Alto. The altiplano is remarkable. It is a dead flat plane running north and south for 500 miles with the mountains on either side. It is about 80 miles wide but gets narrower to the north at Lake Titicaca. There was very little vegetation and the villages were all constructed of mud bricks. Oruro is the largest town with the population of about 150,000. At El Alto (13,500 ft), we stopped for a little while and looked down on the lights of La Paz (12,000 ft). The hotel was not very good but La Paz was very full as a result of the additional business from the eclipse.

Wednesday 2 November 1994

La Paz is set in a bowl in the mountains. We were amazed at the way people have built dwellings right up to the side of the mountain. We first visited the car barns of the Ferrocarril Guaqui that contains old trams that were locked away about twenty years ago.

A few years later whileliving in La Paz I tried to find these cars but there was no reace of them or the building

From there we went to the station to join our railcar for the trip back up the hill to Viacha and then on to Guaqui. Mary managed a coup in saving a good seat by throwing her day bag in through the window of the car. An old woman was selling drinks at two bolivianos each. We did not have bolivianos so we gave her one US dollar for two drinks. The dollar was worth $4.60 so she made 60 cents on each transaction. She took the dollar, kissed it and then crossed herself. She did very well and had to go back for a fresh supply of bottles.
At Viacha we transferred to a steam engine for the trip to Guaqui on Lake Titicaca. This was a complete fiasco because the crew were obviously scared of the engine having had a burst tube last year. As a result the engine hardly had enough steam to move itself. This is high open country with the odd settlement but with many people looking after their herds so sheep and vicunas.

Train to Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca

Guaqui was pretty run down and the only real patch of color was the Bolivian flag that was flying over what is now the sole Bolivian port. We searched for some aspirins for Mary in some of the numerous small stores but when Colin found some they wouldn't take US dollars. Aspirins were sold individually. Back at Viacha there was a delay while we waited for two eclipse trains to clear. We then had a direct run to Oruro where we had a fleet of taxes to take us to our hotel.

Thursday 3 November 1994

We got up at 03:45 in order to leave town at 04:45 to be in Sevaruyo in time for the eclipse. All the buses in town were used to take people south to see the eclipse so we had a fleet of taxis. Each one went on to the station platform to drop off people and then there was a mad competition to turn on the platform and get back for another load. One cab drove out through the ticket hall and others made to follow but were stopped by a railway police officer. First time I have seen a traffic jam on a station platform.
We reached Sevaruyo just after 06:00 and after a great deal of debate, we were allowed to move a kilometer or so further south, under flag protection so that we could see the eclipse. There was some very high thin cloud but the view was very good. The partial stage commenced around 07:30 and became total at 08:23 as it became darker the colors of the light changed but not to the orange and red of sunset but more blueish. Just before totality it became quite cold and there was a rush of dark as totality engulfed us. The dogs in the village started to bark and the chickens started to crow. A few small birds started to settle down for the night. We had eclipse glasses with which to watch the partial stage. The sun then went black and the corona suddenly popped out. The corona was spectacular even though we could not see the flash because of the high clouds.

We went back to Sevaruyo where we had a wait of a couple of hours to get around the two eclipse trains. It seems that somebody had become lost in the desert and there was a delay where they sent out a search party. Sevaruyo is a small village with one main street of mud houses. The children were running around very excited about the sudden fame of their home. They had all been given eclipse glasses by the government but they were asking for ours as well. The whole town was a dingy brown and almost devoid of color except for the bright clothes worn by the women.
We set off south at 10:45 on our journey into Chile. There were many llamas that were very well concealed in the short scrub. People put different colored bobbles in their ears presumably to identify their owners. There were many rabbits in the area as well. At Chita we had a meet with a mixed train and another meet at Colchani with a passenger train. Chita was a very small village but it had a quote Club de Madres."
We then made straight across the salt flat with mountains in the background to Uyuni that is well known among rail fans for its lines of derelict steam locomotives including Beyer Garretts. They were very derelict. Unfortunately there was no time to stop. We then took the line towards Chile, rather than to Argentina and ran straight to Ollague. Straight is the operative word as the line runs dead straight for miles across the salt flats. The sky was a deep blue and this contrasted with the blinding white from the salt. There were mountains on the horizon that were blurred in the heat haze.
We reached Ollague at dusk and were quickly through Bolivian formalities. We then ran the mile or so through no man's land to Chile where the formalities were a little bizarre. It was first thought that the man could just come and look at us then stamp the passports. This became impossible when they found out that we were not leaving the country all at the same day. Another man then came through searching camera bags and looking for bananas. There was then a great deal of discussion about bags on the roof and the thought was that they would get them all down and ask people to identify their own bags. As a prelude we all got out of the train with our bags and waited in a corrugated iron shelter while they searched thoroughly the inside of the train. It was cold and there was a bit of wind that felt even colder in a thin atmosphere of the high altitude (12,000 feet). We shivered in the shelter that, mercifully, protected us from the brunt of the wind and waited. Then suddenly they said it was alright and everybody piled quickly onto the train and we left for Ollague station, half a mile down the line, before they changed their minds.

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