On Dynamite, Mining Troubles and Salty Coffee

I recognized the place, though I didn’t know its name; I had crossed the tiny adobe village while traveling between Potosi and Tupiza several times. But, this time something was different, the road was blocked.

Two hours earlier, at 4 AM, I had boarded the bus in Potosi. The driver was saying something about "passing before the blockade begins." The reference was too vague and roadblocks in Bolivia are too common for me paying attention to his words. I boarded the bus and sealed my fate for the next day.

6 AM, Vitichi

Rather sleepy, I opened one eye and tried to understand why the bus had stopped. We were meters ahead of a bridge I recognized. Being at the end of the rainy season I assumed that the area ahead of us was flooded. Usually that means a short delay until the driver finds a suitable place for crossing the stream. I went back to sleep.

Minutes later, people started shouting. "It’s time to find out what’s going on," I thought and left the bus. Unexpectedly, the tiny bridge was blocked by a crowd and a bunch of branches. Three tires where burning.

Next to the bridge was a big sign. It stated the name of the place was Vitichi and that we were ninety kilometers south of Potosi.

The Roadblock and the Assembly

An assembly between the local leader, the travelers and the drivers stuck on the place was called and soon the situation became clear. An hour earlier, five road blocks had been placed at the entrances of Potosi, Vitichi, Cotagaita, Tupiza and Villazon. That meant the highway connecting La Quiaca in Argentina with Potosi was blocked; moreover, we couldn’t move neither backward nor forward since we were between two roadblocks. Five buses and a similar quantity of cars waited in our side of the bridge, but the other side was empty, since nobody driving the highway northwards managed to reach Vitichi before the blockade began.

The drivers became agitated when they heard the roadblock was scheduled to last 48 hours. "It may be shortened and the road cleared by midnight," the local leader added with little conviction. I was happy; it was an opportunity to explore the place and to see an unusual event; the delay was irrelevant. However, for the bus drivers it meant a substantial lose of incomes and they kept trying to convince the local leader to let us pass. It wouldn’t have helped us, because then we would get stuck in Cotagaita, a narrow point that cannot be bypassed. I guessed the drivers assumed to be able to convince the people there as well.

Bearing an impressive moustache and a wide hat, the local leader kept refusing. At some point he almost broke into tears and said: "we are infiltrated, they cause damage." The statement made too much sense in the Bolivian reality; it also told me we would stay stuck for a long time.

The people were blocking the road as a protest for the stopping of the asphalting works on the highway. After two years of work, most of it is still unpaved. The works were stopped because of technical problems; apparently the equipment used was not suitable for the task, though nobody knew for sure.

In any case a roadblock in Bolivia is like snow in a Canadian winter: no news. The chance of the item reaching the news was low, especially since little merchandise is moved along this route. Except for the travelers nobody would suffer.

Vitichi is part of the Nor Chichas Province of Potosi, a department in which mining is still a main industry. Miners in Bolivia protest using dynamite sticks and accordingly until noon, three sticks were thrown in the bridge vicinity. Those stressed the protesters determination and send me away into the village.

Vitichi

Next to the bridge was the low structure of the local market. I entered it surveyed the stalls and asked for directions to the main plaza. "Just walk straight in that direction," they said and pointed. It was easier to say than to do, the village main road was featured a curve every few meters.

The village was larger than expected, simply it run perpendicular to the highway until it reached a wide and shallow river and thus it couldn’t be appreciated while traveling on the highway.

Most of the houses were of the adobe; many of them were sealed and in various states of disintegration. Bolivia is passing through a rapid urbanization process and most rural areas are being abandoned.

The main plaza featured a large church and was found next to the river; a bridge too big for such a tiny village was being constructed, though I could see only bare hills across the stream. Except for a few open grocery shops and a few people walking among them, I could see no activity. I returned to the bridge through a different route and visited another adobe church by the highway.

Soon, I was back at the market. The structure was surrounded by people waiting for the roadblock to clear and vendors selling all kind of snacks. Within a nearby tree was an empty shrine, its door seemed to be part of the trunk. A pyramid shaped hill in front of it featured a house on its top, no path lead to it. A grocery shop was run by an elder woman who had troubles dealing with her establishment sudden popularity. A communications services kiosk advertised an internet kiosk. "6 BOB an hour" I was answered; the price requested for the connection was three times higher than in La Paz and the computer twenty years older. I didn’t manage to check my emails there though to technical problems with the equipment.

The Next Step

Before noon I found I have exhausted the place capability to entertain me. In the best case I assumed to have at least another twelve hours of waiting. Eating became the only entertainment option.

Inside the market, a woman standing in a clean stall was holding a big chunk of meat and chopping it in what looked as in a random fashion.

"What will you prepare?" I asked hoping to taste some local delicacy.

"Food!" she said in an extra-dry tone and sent me running away. Who knows what would be the next target of her knife.

Another vendor offered me coffee despite the fact the coffee hour was over. That’s one of the strangest peculiarities of Bolivians. They don’t care about time. Once they made me wait three hours for a meeting and didn’t even apologize for the delay. But they run their eating schedules with the precision of a Swiss watch and the temper of zealots. Soon a "destilado" coffee (see the Imperio Inca entry in this journal for details) was placed in front of me with a round loaf of local bread. The radio playing in the background was bilingual Quechua-Spanish.

Later I tried an unremarkable lamb dish – though only pigs could be seen on the streets - and left for the bridge.

Waiting

At noon, the altitude sun sent everybody to search for shelter. The bridge was almost clear, only a few branches blocked it, yet nobody spoke of crossing it. Another striking characteristic of the Bolivians is that road blockades and road blocking marches are used as a protest against any imaginable thing; however, protesting against the protest and the roadblock is unthinkable.

People returned in the late afternoon, when menacing clouds and lightning appeared southwards. "Would the blockers stay in the rain?" I thought but didn’t ask that aloud. People were touchy and I didn’t want to agitate them.

There were talks of opening the bridge around 7 PM. At 6 PM, some people approached the protesters and started arguing with them. "They are Peruvians," the people kept saying, referring to the arguing people; usually, Bolivians share their blames equally among Chileans and Peruvians. The only thing they managed to reach was to make the protesters angry. An assembly of the entire village was called and afterwards they started exploding dynamite sticks. I counted almost thirty.

Now there was no chance they would open the bridge before they got a signal from the protest headquarters in Potosi. Tired, I went to sleep in the bus.

A few minutes before midnight the road was opened and we left; soon we entered a rainy area.

Three hours later, amid a torrential rain, the bus got stuck in the mud.

Interface points between cultures are of special interest for travelers; in no other place the essence of travelling is so distilled, nowhere else the little local nuisances are so might and bold. When crossing from Mexico to the US or from Thailand to Cambodia, the changes are obvious. Cultures, languages and sometimes even the alphabets are not the same. Other borders are subtler but not less real. That’s the case while crossing from Bolivia to Argentina.

Roughly half the South American people – on the western and southern parts of the subcontinent – speak Spanish, and are divided into various countries. Spotting the differences there is trickier for the casual traveler and sometimes even dangerous. An Argentinean sign explaining how to open a door gets an obscene meaning meters away, across the Bolivian border.

La Quiaca, at the Argentinean side, and its counterpart Villazon at the Bolivian one, seat high on the Andean Plateau amid a barren landscape known in Argentina as the Puna Region. The towns are separated by the La Quiaca River, a semi-dry stream which forms the international border.

The native people are Coya – or Kolla in Bolivia – Aymara and Quechua people which were denizens of the Inca Empire’s southeastern corner. The typical awayo clothes used by the women to carry around food, merchandise and … babies, are a telltale of that ancestral link.

Climate

The barren valley in which Villazon seats features extreme temperatures; its being three and half kilometers above the sea level means sweating during the day and freezing at night. Some people may suffer of mild altitude sickness if they arrive without an acclimatization period.

Reaching Villazon

Several private bus companies reach Villazon from Potosi, Oruro, El Alto and La Paz. The prices can vary wildly between the companies and along the week, especially after the Sunday’s Feria, when many sellers return to their homes.

Buses to and from La Paz can cost anything between 40 and 120 BOB, i.e. around six to fifteen dollars. The trip takes twenty hours if there are no problems; I recommend taking snacks, water and hot clothes as a protection from the cold nights. Buses connecting Tupiza and Villazon cost between 10 and 15 BOB; the trip longs a couple of hours.

See the railways article in this journal for more information on that option.

Accommodations

There are many basic hotels around the main avenue; they offer basic rooms with shared bathrooms for a little more than one dollar. As usual in Bolivia, showers are an extra, and can be rented for a bit above sixty cents. A few better establishments surround the main square. Luxury hotels are not available in the area.

The Town

Villazon is small and built around the axis connecting the railway station, the bus terminal, the central plaza and the border cross to Argentina. The many inactive buildings in town hint of the changes in the last decades; today, the main business is the commerce brought by the constant stream of tourists, Argentineans and backpackers from all over the world. The population is approaching rapidly the fifty thousand, making thus the town the size of Oruro, a town several hours north of there.

The town's centre is the wide Antofagasta Avenue, which has the railway at its centre and creates a great open surface for the strong winds to run on; adobe houses are spaciously scattered around it. If visiting during the cold months, hot clothes and some protection from the chilling, dusty winds are needed; the few puddles in the streets freeze up during this period. The grass at the avenue's median is surrounded by barbed wire, which is used as a base for a plastic cover put overnight to keep the delicate plants from the freezing temperatures. The avenue changes its name to Republica Argentina while approaching the border and along it are all the town's attractions: the main market, the plaza, the bus terminal, the railway station and the Feria.

Plaza 6 de Agosto is the central plaza and hosts a church, the municipality and several other public buildings. The bus terminal is at its northwestern kitty corner.

On Money and Markets

In Argentina it is possible to pay only with local money, while in Bolivia both currencies are accepted; note that while the Bolivian currency is difficult to exchange outside the country, it is much more stable than the currencies of the other countries in the area. Thus, paying with it is wise since the vendors do not inflate the merchandise price to defend themselves from currency fluctuations. Argentinean pesos are notoriously unstable.

The largest markets are in the Bolivian side, hordes of Argentineans can be seen crossing the border to buy the cheaper merchandise. The money exchange services are concentrated on the Bolivian side, just before reaching the border cross.

The central market in Villazon, called Mercado Central Gilberto Cortez Millares, is within a two-story, covered structure behind the central plaza; it offers decent Bolivian meals at low prices, a tasty lunch costs there around half a dollar.

The most interesting food served here is the "Chicharron de Llama;" small chunks of llama meat fried in deep oil and served atop "mote," or huge corn grains boiled up and separated from the maize ears. The corn appears in a rainbow of colours; black, violet, and red grains can be seen. Tamales with "Charque Khan" are tamales filled with dehydrated and fried pork or llama meat.

Another market, the Mercado Municipal is in front of it and specializes in fruits, vegetables and flowers. On the street parallel to the central market toward Argentina there is a shoes and clothes market; the small Mercado San Martin at its end and sells general products.

Once a week, on Sundays, the town hosts a Feria, a huge open market at Calle Santa Cruz, between the bus terminal and the railway station, which attracts many households’ goods shoppers. Then all the markets in town seem to unify into one giant feast of shopping.

Crossing the Border

If crossing to Argentina just for a couple of hours, there is no need to stop at the immigrations. However, beyond La Quiaca, the Argentinean authorities perform several checks, thus the passport should be stamped before leaving the town southwards. The checks include luggage inspection and may be performed even twice during a trip to Jujuy and once in the way to Salta. On the Bolivian side the customs checks are rare, but identity checks are frequent and often are performed by heavily armed policeman.

Nearby Attractions

A couple of hours north from Villazon, Tupiza offers one of the best tourism infrastructures in Bolivia. A small town within a narrow valley surrounded by gorgeous red cliffs, it is a fantastic place to recover from the hardships of travelling in the area. Guesthouses, restaurants and travel agencies offering treks in the area are scattered among smiling, friendly locals. Its night market is fabulous, acting as a major gathering place for the denizens.

In the Argentinean mythology, La Quiaca is a synonym for the world’s end, rather than that, I found it to be a crossroads. Beyond being the entry point for that country, it has little to offer, beyond a coffee shop in the terminal which reminds of a typical coffee shop in Buenos Aires. Long distance buses from here are expensive; the best approach is to take short rides to Jujuyor Salta the nearest province's capitals and continuing into Argentina from there.

South American railways barely exist today; buses have conquered most of the routes there, as it happened in most of the world. Travelling from Kathmandu to Pokhara by train is not possible. Try reaching La Quiaca from Mendoza by train; it is not possible. Many railways were closed and many lines were cut in length during the last decades; I did comment on that, especially on the situation in Argentina.

One clear exception is Bolivia. Maybe because the Bolivian railways system was never extensive, it did manage to survive the crisis and is still connecting several towns. The system is divided into the highlands railway and the lowlands one; two networks that are not connected between them and provide also specialized transport services.

On the highlands, Empresa Ferroviaria Andina provides mainly transport for travellers from Villazon to Oruro; the railroad crosses Uyuni and Tupiza. Some of its lines serve only merchandise, especially to and from the ports in Chile. Unluckily, the connection to the Argentinean railways through La Quiaca is not longer possible since the Argentinean counterpart stopped working a long time ago.

The Lines

The railway is used by the Expreso Del Sur and the Wara Wara Del Sur cars; the first company is slightly more expensive. Expreso Del Sur leaves from Oruro on Tuesdays and Fridays, and returns on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Villazon. The Wara Wara Del Sur departs on Sundays and Wednesdays from Oruro, and Mondays and Thursdays from Villazon. All trains leave from Villazon and Oruro at 3:30 PM; arrival times are 7 AM at Oruro and 7:55 AM at Villazon. The difference in the arrival time despite the distances being the same is the result of the changing altitude along the way.

One international connection to Avaroa at the border and Calama in Chile also exists; it leaves on Mondays and returns on Thursdays.

Prices

The Expreso del Sur is divided in three classes: ejecutivo ("executive"), salon and popular. A trip from Villazon to Oruro on the executive class costs 236 BOB (as of April 2009, divide the price by 7.05 for getting it in American dollars; the dollar exchange rate is volatile, but the prices in BOBs are fixed for several years now, thus I didn’t translate). In the salon class the price is 109 BOB and in the popular class 71 BOB. The Wara Wara del Sur is divided in the same fashion, but is cheaper; an executive ticket from Villazon to Oruro costs there 185 BOB.

Stops

It is possible to make shorter trips to Uyuni, Atocha and Tupiza. Atocha is of little interest, but Uyuni is a good departing place for visiting the Salar de Uyuni – the Uyuni Salt Lake. Note that the Salar is not next to the town and that a tour must be booked through one of the travel agencies in the town. Tupiza is a major tourists’ stop, the narrow valley in which it is found is surrounded by steep reddish mountains, offering awesome views and treks.

If leaving from Oruro, Uyuni is reached at 10:20 PM, Atocha at 0:45 AM and Tupiza at 4 AM. In the opposite direction, Tupiza is reached at 6:15 PM, Atocha at 9:35 PM and Uyuni at 11:50 PM.

Planning to arrive at Oruro or Villazon during the weekends is recommended since these are the main market days in both[W1].

The Trip

Being of the narrow gauge type, Bolivian train cars are rather small and sturdy; about half a dozen of them are attached to the locomotive. The railway has fame of being one of the few punctual transportation methods in Bolivia, except for the short rainy season – roughly between January and March – when floods may cause unexpected, but short, delays.

In Oruro, the terminal is placed almost at the town centre; the train travels slowly along one of the town main avenues, allowing good sights of it. Rusty steam locomotives can be seen in the rail yard. Strangely, there are no barriers separating the railway from the street; that means the train travels slowly while in the town.

The landscape in the Oruro vicinity is rather flat despite the altitude of the area (over 3700m over the sea level); low hills break the monotonous views. Only north of Tupiza the plateau breaks up giving place to impressive views of mountains and narrow, high valleys. After this town the railway runs parallel to the main road connecting the town with Villazon.

The executive cars feature movies, a dinner, and warm blankets; the last are needed since the place is cold and the dust of the plateau is eager to enter the car. The views are a bit happier during sunset, especially during the rainy season when the skies are often clouded; otherwise, even the skies are neat and monotonous.

In Villazon the terminus is located a bit north of downtown, walking to there is possible and recommended, but if carrying luggage, taxis are a better option. The wide and dusty avenues of the town are most impressive during the cold winter months when all open water sources freeze up and dry bushes are carried away by fierce winds and seem to be the only bustle taking place in this Earth’s barren spot.

Location

Speaking of location in a place as small as Villazon may look superfluous, yet Imperio Inca enjoys a superb spot in town, right on the kitty corner of the central plaza and in front of the bus terminal. In a city that is nothing else but the main travel hub between two countries – Argentina and Bolivia - that means the main spot in town.

The Concept

Imperio Inca is a combination between a travel agency and a coffee shop. After a recent redesign process in which they gave up half the shop space to a phone cabins kiosk, not much was left of the coffee shop, but it is still the only one in town approaching what we could call a Western style. The few other options in downtown for a hot drink include Bolivian restaurants and coffee stalls in the markets.

The sitting area features stone tables and chairs, the last one shaped as llamas and bearing red, yellow and green pompons to remind the customers they have just entered Bolivia; the stone was left coarse and unpolished, adding to the general effect of being out of this world while in Villazon, between a rock and a hard place to be more specific. The inner walls are covered up with recommendation letters in an impressive variety of languages, though while waiting for the coffee, I couldn’t find even one message on them referring to the coffee quality. Soon I was to find why.

The Coffee

For hot drinks, the place offers coffee, teas and mates, and those can be accompanied with cookies, cakes or sandwiches. Not all the food items are always available. Funny enough, in two occasions when I was having a coffee there, the family running the place took out their lunch and ate it in a table next to mine.

A point to keep in mind, especially for those that just crossed the border from Argentina, is that "mate" in Bolivia refers to an herbal tea and not to the Argentinean drink. In Bolivia, the leaves are put directly in the cup, which is covered with a saucer for a few minutes until the drink is ready. The commonest mates are prepared with toronjil (a type of mint), manzanilla (chamomile), anis or coca. A "trimate" is a mix of three herbs, usually manzanilla, anis and coca; the last is considered on the Andean High Plateau as a universal medicine. While in tea, the coca is not active and is legal for consumption in Bolivia.

The local coffee is called "destilado," the name refers to the specific filtering process used in preparating a concentrate, which then is stored in a glass bottle. Later, it is used for preparing steaming cups of highly acidic, extra-sweet cups of coffee. This is the variety served at the Imperio Inca and is not very good; the best way of drinking it is to engage in conversation with the owners so that the taste is less noticed. The owners speak Spanish and English and are more than happy to explain about the tours they offer.

The Salt

The establishment’s main activity is the travel agency; probably this is the main one in town. Despite that, as of early 2009, the place offers only three basic trips, though it can provide good connections with other travel agencies in La Paz, Sucre and Potosi.

All the tours offered are of the Salar de Uyuni variation. The first is a two days visit of the Salar; if traveling in the train’s executive car and booking a room with a private bathroom in Uyuni, this option costs $67 for each person. To depart, at least six people must book the tour, but usually that’s not a problem. It is possible to travel in regular cars and book a simple room, discounts are offered the.

In this option, the Uyuni Salt Lake is explored on the second day by jeep, and the tour includes the Tunupa Volcano, the Isla del Pescado (Fish Island) and the Hotel de Sal in the dry lake.

The second tour offered is to the Salar de Uyuni and the Reserva Avaroa; it longs four days and costs $130. It starts as the first one but then explores the southwestern corner of the country, an area called Avaroa Reserve. There, the Siloli Desert, the Laguna Colorada (Red Lake) and the Laguna Verde (Green Lake) with the nearby Licancabur Volcano are visited. At its end, it is possible to cross the border with Chile to San Pedro de Atacama or to return to Uyuni and continue northwards into Bolivia.

Advancing in the opposite direction, the third tour also last four days; leaving from Villazon, it first explores the San Pablo and San Antonio de Lipez villages, then the Avaroa Reserve and ends with the Salar de Uyuni. This option costs $185 and departs also with only five passengers.

I recommend being careful while in the Salar and to demand from the drivers to avoid playing games with other teams, especially after the tragic accident of the last year.

There aren’t many options for a lunch in Villazon. Food plazas in the various markets do not offer attractive options and most of the restaurants are extremely basic. One of the best hotels in town used to have a good restaurant – it even charged Argentinean prices - but in my last visit the place was close.

Following a short tour of downtown Villazon, I found that Snack Pizzeria Don Vicco became the best option for a lunch in town.

Where is Don Vicco?

Villazon isn’t big, yet amid the many markets and the crowds exploring them, finding a shop may be difficult, especially during market days, when those swell up and the town becomes one large market. Luckily, Don Vicco is across the street from the back side of the bus terminal and features a large sign that eases finding it; one block separates the restaurant from the central plaza.

What is a Bolivian Lunch?

Even while literally understanding a language, at least a basic knowledge of the local culture is imperative for a correct interpretation of the words. "Almuerzo" means "lunch" in Spanish; yet in Bolivia the term is often used in a different fashion. When a restaurant advertises an "almuerzo," it means they serve a set lunch. Moreover, this is the most popular type of meal at midday.

The most basic "almuerzo" includes a rich soup and a main dish, while the more elaborated ones add an entree and a dessert. Sometimes the dessert is exchanged by a soft drink, though more often than not, the drinks should be purchased separately.

How Does the Altitude Affect the Event?

The fact drinks are not included is an important – but subtle – sign of the Andean High Plateau altitude. One of the ways the body fights the altitude is by making the blood thicker, in such a way the concentration of red blood cells is artificially rose and breathing in a low pressure environment becomes easier. Highlander Bolivians drink little water and never during a meal, though sometimes they drink a small glass of a soft drink at its end.

Don Vicco’s Place

The restaurant is long and narrow, with two lines of tables running along the wall and serving prelude to a television set. Its length and the fact there are no windows along the wall create a sharp and blessed shield from the altitude radiation and bright sun. The tables are separated from each other by small walls, a nice touch of concern for the customers’ privacy and a rarity in Bolivia.

At the counter by the entrance the order is placed, though the payment is done before leaving the establishment, a sign that it is a fairly upscale institution. Special dishes are also available, though asking them during lunch time would lead to a long delay.

The "almuerzo" offered costs 15 BOB (slightly over two dollars in April 2009), while in La Paz the cheapest similar offers cost about a third of that. By all means, this places Don Vicco at the top of the medium class Bolivian restaurants. Later, I found out that like most Bolivian shops, they had troubles accepting high denominations notes.

The Lunch

After picking a place, a waiter rushed to the table and placed a few slices of bread, llajua and a small plate with rice and vegetables on it.

The bread was closer to the Argentinean fashion than to the typical Bolivian types; that could have been a nice touch if the bread wasn’t a bit old. Complaining about that is useless. Bolivian breads contain bromates and thus behave different from regular bread; some types of it (especially the "marraqueta") are crunchy when fresh - on the verge of resembling stale bread - and then over the next days they becomes gradually soft (and not caused by absorbing water – the atmosphere on the plateau is extra-dry). Yet, here the bread was Argentinean style, thus it was probably a bit old.

Llajua is a spicy sauce prepared with a local variety of chilies, tomatoes and waters; it is added to almost every dish. The rice featured chopped vegetables and a slice of tomato; by local standards it was a good entree.

Soup is the main dish in a Bolivian meal; at least while atop the cold highlands. Usually is a thick and rich one on the verge of becoming a stew. Here it wasn’t different and it was based – again as usual – on potatoes. The last are native of the area and are part of every meal. Several types of vegetables and a small piece of meat played a secondary role in the concoction. Vegetarians should note that meat is added automatically to every soup in Bolivia (except at the cheapest market stalls) unless requested specifically not to do so.

The main dish here could be called spaghetti Bolognese. However, Bolivian spaghetti features no eggs (a way of saving costs) and thus they taste quite different from the original dish. The size of the dish was acceptable and the rich sauce saved it. For dessert a fruit was served.

Overall, the meal was quite big and of acceptable quality; especially if considering I was traveling around in a very remote area.