The East Bolivian Andes

UNIVERSITY Or CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN GEOGRAPHY Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 85-210, 23 pltleg, 12 figures In text, I nup November 10, 1126 THE EAST BOLIVIAN ANDES 8OUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE OR GUAPAY BT OSCAR BCHMIRDER INTRODUCTION My first expedition into Bolivia was undertaken in July, 1924, from La Quiaca, the northern railway terminus of the Argentine Republic. This small town on the Argentine-Bolivian border was especially convenient as a starting point, since a railroad from La Quiaca to Tupisa, and also an automobile road to Tarija, had lately been completed. Thus two new routes into Bolivia were available. Fully as important was the resultant fact that the muleteers, or arrieros, of the northern frontier had in large part lost their occu- pation, so that mules and men were to be had promptly and moot reasonably—a decisive consideration, as these studies were undertaken on my own limited means. That I always had proper animals for mountain travel, and in particular that I had as arriero Martin Maizares of Yavi, to whom all difficulties of the road yielded, was due to the good offices of Don Francisco Thiel of La Quiaca. I traveled always with one pack mule and was accompanied by one mounted arriero. The first trip took me across the Puna to the valley of Rio San Juan del Oro (fig. 1). This valley is passable only during the dry winter months, since for long distances it is so narrow and the sides so steep that the only path is in the river bed, and the summer floods sometimes cover its whole floor for months at a time. It was my intention to ride down the valley to the Rio Pilaya, but in Escapana I rested in the hospitable house of Dona Mercedes de Campero, who lives upon- the remnant of what was considered a century ago the 86 Univerrity of California Publications in Geography tVoL-2 most extensive and valuable estate of the New World.1 Dona Mercedes gave me my first knowledge of old ruins nearby, three of which I visited. Thus I lingered in the interesting valley of the Rio San Juan a 64 6 Fig. 1. The main landscape* and the routes of travel. 1, Puna; 2, Front Range* of the Eutt Bolivian Andea; 3, el Orun Chaeo; 4, flnt trip; 5, *acond trip; 6, third trip. del Oro, and finally, ascending the Puna to the east, rode back to La Quiaca on the Tarija road without reaching the Rio Palaya. > Temple, Edmund, Travel* in various parta of Peru (1830), vol. 2, pp. 357-364. 1926] Schmieder: The East Bolivian Andes 87 On December 1, 1924, I came again to the Argentine-Bolivian border (fig. 1). This time t went straight east from the Puna to the margin of the Chaco and on Christmas Day came to Villa Montes, situated where the Pilcomayo leaves the Andes to enter the Chaco. Here I was the guest of Consul Carl l'flanz, recently come from Buenos Aires to inspect the large estate of Staudt and Company. His interest and training in scientific observation and his long experience of life in the Chaco enabled him to give mi many useful suggestions. Only a few weeks later he was drowned. In the closing days of 1924 I rode northward along the eastern front of the Cordillera as far as Boyuhibe. There I turned west and entered the forest-covered mountains of eastern Bolivia. By way of Monte Agudo, Padilla, and Sucre I got to Potosf. Although the mules were in sorry condition we pushed on with very brief stops. The year had been abnormally dry, the harvest was very short, and feed was almost unprocurable. By way of Vitiche and Tupiza we came back to La Quiaca. After a short rest I started again from La Quiaca on February 15, 1925, with fresh mules. I crossed the Cordilleras of Santa Victoria and Camacho and descended eastward into the valley where the Antigal de Camacho, an Inca outpost in ruins, lies at the base of the steep Puna slope. From there I went to Tarija and on to the north. It was my intention to cross the Rio Pilaya at Cuchipuchro, where an English mining company years ago had tunneled tht neck of a meander, diverting the river underground, but an accident sustained a day's march from the prospective terminus forced us to return by the shortest route possible to La Quiaca. GENERAL VIEW OF THE REGION i CABTOOnAPHIO STATU8 The region visited, especially the front ranges of East Bolivia south of the Rio Grande, is not represented truly or even approxi- mately in any of the published maps. On most of them the position of the settlements, the courses of the streams, and the forms of the land surface are inaccurate. The large French map, drawn on a scale of 1:750,000 evidently is based largely on hearsay.1 Important, for 1 Crequi-Montfort, 0. de, nml Senechal de la Orange, B., Region* del limit* plateaux de l'Amcnque du Sud parcourues pnr In Mission franfalse. Carte dreuee par V. Hout (1903). 88 University of California Publication* in Geography [VOL.2 the eastern Puna, is the itinerary of the expedition of Steinmann- lloek-von Bistram.* The route from Yacuiba, Argentine, to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, has been surveyed by Th. Herzog,* and again by Kirtley Mather.* These itineraries represent not only the western border of the Oran Chuco but also in pretty exuet form the most easterly of the Andean front ranges. The most valuable map of the East Bolivian front in, probably, an unpublished map based on a recent survey made by the Standard Oil Company of Bolivia. My own itineraries* (see map) connect between those of Stein- mann to the west and of Herzog and Mather to the east. Together with an unpublished, rough yet valuable, sketch made by the Farquhar Syndicate when a railroad was projected from the Argentine frontier to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, these have been utilized in figure 2 to show schematically the characteristic major forms of the land surface. REGIONAL SUBDIVISIONS The East Bolivian Andes south of the Bio Qrande comprise three great natural landscapes (fig. 1). The normal Puna in the west is long since a well understood geographic concept. Only its eastern border is included in this study. This eastern border may be called • Iloek, Henry, and Bteinmann, Qustav, Erliiutoning lur Boutenkarte der Expedition in den Anden von Bolivien, 11)03-190-1, Petermunn's Mitt., vol. 52, Heft 1 (1006). * Die boliviaehen KordlUeren. Reiseweg voa Nordargentinien naeh Sunta Cruz, lVtennaun >l ifitt., vol. 60 (1011). • Front ranges of the Andes between Santa Crui, Bolivia, and Enibarcacion, Argentine, Bull. Cleol. Soc Am., vol. 88, pp. 708-764 (1022): Along the Andean front of southeastern Bolivia, Qeog. Her., vol. 12, pp. 850-874 (1022). •The itinerary contain* the following determined points: La Quiaea (Nat. Observ. of Argentine) Lut. 22* 6' 10" Long. 05' 86' 16.5" Villa Montes (by the Bolivian national geodesist, 1024) Lat. 21* 15' 86" Long. 63* 80' 14" •Sucre „ _.Lat. 10* 2'47" Long. 65* 17'60" •Toininu — ~ _ _.Lat. 10* 11' 4" Long. 64* 28" 15" •Puililla Lat. 10* 18' 23" Long. 64* 10' 48" "Monte Agudo Lat. 10* 48' 6" Long. 63* 54' 44" •Ouoro _ _..Lat. 20* 27' 17" Long. 63* 32' 11" •Macbareti Lat. 20* 48' 58" Long. 63* 24' 20" •Taralri Lat. 21* 5' 40" •Tarija .Lat. 21* 82' 11" Long. 64* 45' 11" * See Ing. J. B. Vaudry in A. Chervim Anthropologie bolivionne, vol. 1, Publi- cations de la mission sclentifique O. de Criqui-Monfort et E. SAnochul de la Orange (Paris, 1008). The Sierra de Aguarugue has been drawn after Herzog; the route from Tara- bueo to Sucre after Steinmann. The elevations are obtained by a single Qoulior aneroid, but differ largely from the results obtained on identical basis by Stein- maun and Vaudry. The figures are therefore given as a rule only to tho nearest hundred meters. 1926] Schmieder: The Eatt Bolivian Andes 89 9Q University of California Publications in Geography [Vou2 1»26] Sehmieder: The East Bolivian Andes 91 the Dissected Puna in order to distinguish it from the Puna proper on the west, which is still a plateau of interior drainage. The recent dissection of the eastern Puna has developed a characteristic series of geographic features that are wanting in the normal Puna. The Oran Chaco, at the eaRtern margin of the area studied, con- stitutes a natural landscape the identity of which is unquestioned, although large parts of it are still unexplored. The Chaco proper was studied only in its western border. Outliers of its surface penetrate into the Andes here and there. Mather has applied the term Front Ranges to the eastern versnnt of the Andes, for which German geographers have employed Ihe name "East Bolivian Bergland." In both terms lies recognition of the essential difference of this area from the Cordillera propor and from the Puna. The geographic individuality of this area remains to be specified. Not even its limits to the west have been drawn, although they are strikingly apparent. Hettner, for instance, includes in the Bergland large parts of the eastern Puna.* The nature of the East Bolivian front ranges in all respects is, however, so different from that of adjacent areas, that its geographic individuality may be established even in a summary sketch. CONTRASTS AND CONNECTIONS The first expedition, from La Quiaca on the plateau of the Puna to the more easterly lowland of the Oran Chaco, made certain of a fundamental geologic contrast between the eastern and western parts of the section traversed (fig.

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