CHAPTER XIII

A THOUSAND-MILE TRIP ON MULEBACK--INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN BOLIVIA

[Illustration: POSTILION OF THE ANDES.]

The itinerary for the journey was arranged in the conference _sala_ of the office of the director-general of telegraphs in La Paz. By the courtesy of Señor Torrico, and through the thoughtfulness of Senator Jorge Galindo, of Cochabamba, a conference by wire was obtained with the Prefect of Cochabamba, Señor Dr. Isaac Aranibar, and at the end of a very charming conversation, during which the prefect expressed great pleasure in the anticipation of welcoming to Cochabamba the _distinguida Norte-americana y su secretaria_, everything remained settled, as to horses, mules, guides, and servants, for what proved to be one of the most interesting, delightful, and altogether memorable journeys in a record of many thousands of miles’ travel by land and sea. It may surprise many people that in remote La Paz such facilities were available for a long distance conference, and the travellers themselves were thoroughly astonished to learn that it was possible, from these comfortable headquarters, to hold uninterrupted communication with the Prefects of Cochabamba, Sucre, and Potosí, through the services of a telegraph operator, who conducted the conversation between cities several days’ journey apart, and inaccessible at that season, December, except by long trips on muleback. It was decided that the regular semi-weekly diligence should convey the travellers to Oruro, where they were to take horses and mules for the rest of the trip, the horses to be used on the less difficult roads. Through Dr. Aranibar’s courteous attention, horses and guides were engaged in Cochabamba and sent to Oruro to await the travellers, as the season of the year was not propitious for securing animals at short notice in Oruro, especially to serve on such a long trip as the one proposed. With the shortest possible delay the best animals for travelling over the precipitous trails of the Andes and across the rocky beds of the cañons were selected, and the expedition was placed in charge of an _arriero_ who had conducted families from one end of Bolivia to the other through a period of twenty years, a conscientious, shrewd, capable, and thoroughly excellent guide, named Indalécio Palácios, who deserves the highest praise for his faithful services on this occasion.

Not heeding the predictions of disaster that were made by all who heard of the proposed journey, to be undertaken at the worst season of the year, when the rains were heaviest and the floods most destructive,--a journey generally pronounced _imposible! un suicidio!_ and otherwise of dire prospect,--the North Americans made their preparations with the same eagerness as if only hopeful prognostications had been offered, and at six o’clock in the morning of the day agreed upon to begin the trip, they were already seated on the _pescante_, as the coachman’s box of the diligence is called, saying good-bye to the numerous friends assembled at that early hour to _despedir_ them, including the American minister, Mr. Sorsby, who appeared a little doubtful as to the outcome of this expedition of his compatriots.

The old diligence was similar to most of its kind in Europe and America, with seats along the side and a high box for the driver, to which two passengers could be admitted in case of a crowded list. In pleasant weather the _pescante_ is preferable to a seat inside the coach; and even though it was a raw, cold morning when the diligence, with its eight horses, pulled out of the _carretera_ station at Challapampa, with the “Americanas” wrapped in their furs and waving adieus from their elevated seats, the prospect was pleasanter to them than it would have been inside, with sleepy people blinking at one another and grumbling about their “places.”

“Coaching” is a word which usually suggests high-stepping thoroughbreds, rubber tires, and all the accessories of a fashionable turnout; but a coaching trip may be a delight, as this one proved, in a rattling old vehicle drawn by eight mules unquestionably ordinary, evidently chosen for endurance rather than appearances. The old _diligencia_ climbed slowly enough until it arrived at El Alto; but once on the broad plateau, the well-trained mules tore over the level road at a surprising and exhilarating speed. The keen air at fourteen thousand feet above the sea was delightful; and when, after two hours’ riding, the coach stopped in front of a little _posada_, or inn, everyone was ready for a cup of coffee and a roll, which were taken without getting down. After riding on for three hours more, the station of Ayoayo was reached, at one o’clock; and while the driver changed mules for the second time that morning, the passengers had _almuerzo_, as the noon meal is called in all South American countries, meaning breakfast, the early morning coffee and rolls being _desayuno_. Ayoayo is pointed out to travellers not only as the birthplace of the celebrated Tupac-Catari, who held La Paz in a state of siege for more than three months during an insurrection against Spanish rule late in the eighteenth century, but as the scene of a massacre of Sucre soldiers by Indians only a few years ago under peculiarly sad circumstances, the young men representing the best families of Sucre society. It is a typical village of the plateau, adobe built, treeless, and dreary looking. A few leagues further on, the coach stopped at the thermal springs of Viscachani for a few minutes only, finishing the day’s journey at Sicasica at about nine o’clock at night. All day the snow-white peaks of the Andes had been in view, and, dotting the landscape in groups at short intervals, were seen curious-looking adobe mounds or towers of from five to ten feet in height, with a Gothic archway through the centre, giving a singular appearance to the structure. They are called _chullpas_, an Aymará word used to designate not only the buildings but their architects, though it was not applied to the latter until late in the seventeenth century. These _chullpas_ are generally regarded as the ruins of ancient Aymará burial places, though some authorities believe them to have been built for dwellings, and it is certain that they were used as such at the time of the Viceroy Toledo’s visit to Alto Peru, when he gave the order that the Indians should be forbidden to occupy them and should be compelled to form communities around a Christian church. That the _chullpas_ have been used extensively as burial places at some time is proved by the great number of skeletons found in them. Next to the colossal ruins of Tiahuanaco and the remains of Inca palaces on Lake Titicaca, these _chullpas_ are the most interesting pre-Columbian relics of the plateau.

[Illustration: ANCIENT SEPULCHRES, CALLED “CHULLPAS,” BETWEEN LA PAZ AND ORURO.]

A long day’s ride, from six o’clock in the morning until nine at night, is sufficiently fatiguing to make any kind of lodging desirable, and no one appeared to take much notice of the surroundings at Sicasica. At four o’clock the next morning the diligence was on its way again. The air was cold and clear, and from the _pescante_ a fine view was to be had of the whole country. The moon was just disappearing in all its silver splendor behind a bank of black clouds, still illumining with its weird light the towers of a distant church and shedding a white radiance over the broad expanse of plain. Within half an hour more the sun came out, at first rosy as a child from its bath, and then gol