Bolivia by Train: Through the Heart of the Andes | Free Documentary

Bolivia is a breathtaking country. Anyone wanting to discover this Andean state personally will find this to be true quite literally. Most of the landscapes and the most beautiful images are situated at an altitude where Europe's mountains end. It's also where you'll find extraordinary rail vehicles and often idyllic scenes along the most beautiful railway lines of South America. People don't take the train in Bolivia because they have to, says Juan Carlos Quintilian. Taking the train here is a question of feeling, of the heart. You don't have to work for the railway for that. For our trip through Bolivia we chose the train, which was once the most comfortable way to travel the country. Today, with the new roads, it's at least still the safest. Bolivia has two train systems that aren't connected. In the highlands, to the west of the Andes, the Ferroviaria Andina, and in the lowlands, the Ferroviaria Oriental. The more important one for Bolivia's supply chain, the Ferroviaria Oriental, connects Santa Cruz with the cities on the borders with Brazil and Argentina, Quijaro and Yaquiba. The whole of Bolivia is supplied with petroleum products and industrial goods via this single track line. There are freight trains several times a day on both routes. However, passenger trains only depart every second day from and to Santa Cruz. The area around Quijaro, the border town in Bolivia's Pantanal region, is one of the largest inland wetlands on earth. It's also home to the country's only port. It connects Bolivia to the Atlantic via more than 1,500 kilometers of river channels. The calm in the port hides its true significance, says Jose Luis Vasquez. The railway and the port are extremely important. The freight and tank wagons supply Santa Cruz and the rest of Bolivia with everything we wouldn't otherwise have. It's a significance you wouldn't guess from looking at the harbour idyll. Walking through the market in Quijaro, you find all the same products you'd find in the huge wetlands of the Amazon and Rio de la Plata. These are growing food crops, so to speak. You buy them as chicks and let them grow, so you can use them in a pot at a later date. Those who can't wait or don't want to can buy empanadas ready-made. They're pastries filled with chicken, potato or cheese. They're an important snack in Bolivia that can be eaten at any time of day. Whatever's prepared at the market is prepared fresh, right in front of hungry eyes. The atmosphere at Quijaro's station is quiet. Since the state built a surfaced road parallel to the railway line, the demand for passenger trains to and from Santa Cruz has been declining steadily. The Expreso Oriental costs 127 bolivianos, around 15 euros, and will take passengers comfortably and safely to their destination in 12 hours and overnight. But nevertheless, most take the bus, which departs more often and is a cheaper, faster connection between Quijaro and Santa Cruz. At 5 to 10 euros, the road competition is unbeatable. Anyone who takes the train today will have good reasons, like Maria da Silva from Curumba. The train's better than the bus because the bus is very full. Here you can go to the toilet in peace and quiet. You've got air conditioning and a television. Everything's clean and simply much better than the bus. The Expreso Oriental departs at 20 past one in the afternoon. Unlike passenger trains, there are up to four freight trains a day departing Quijaro for Santa Cruz. The city primarily needs fuel, which comes from Venezuela via Brazil and Paraguay. In return, Bolivia exports natural gas and soybeans via Puerto Quijaro. Bolivia, the country without its own seaport, is dependent on the lifeline through the rainforest and the savannah. The section from Quijaro to San Jose is the most beautiful stretch of the railway line in the Bolivian lowlands. You have to be in luck and get a punctual departure to see this part of Bolivia by day. This close to the equator, the daylights switched off by half past six at the latest. It happens very quickly, with only a brief period of dusk. Today is one such lucky day. The train leaves on time. Nevertheless, not everyone will experience the beauties of the Bolivian lowlands. San Jose's definitely worth a stopover on the way to Santa Cruz, 290 kilometers away. The Jesuit order founded the mission of San Jose de Chiquitos in around 1750. The mission's architectural style is a mix between western church architecture and the traditional building method of the native Chiquitano tribe. The six Jesuit settlements that still exist today were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. The missionary work in Bolivia is by no means done, as Father Elvio Pinto Rios assures us in the church. When the Jesuits came here, they ordered and organized the life and work in the villages, completely afresh. Much has survived of the culture of the fathers from those days, the music in particular. It's the legacy for all musical groups, even symphonic orchestras. The indigenous population has managed, with few exceptions, to overcome their old culture and become part of civilization. Around 700 kilometers further northwest, we can find those stubborn indigenous individuals and their culture. Those who, according to Elvio Pinto Rios, still refuse to join the Jesuit civilization. According to legend, the sun god Inti brought his son, the first Inca, and his wife down to earth here on Isla del Sol. As is well known, those who believed in Pachamama built the powerful and civilized Inca empire long before the arrival of the Jesuit mission. Starting in the 16th century, missionaries from Europe built temples of their own faith on the sites of Inca worship, such as here in Copacabana on the shores of late Titicaca. Other cult sites were also built on or destroyed. The sacred Inca mountain high above Copacabana is now a place of Christian pilgrimage. But the indigenous population are still proving stubborn. Around the crucifixes and statues of Mary, they've set up altars to Pachamama. Candles in the colors of the witches and fortune tellers. Red for love, green for work, and blue for studies. Fortune stones in the same colors to make the spell last longer. And all this in Bolivia, a country professing to be devoutly Catholic. But it wasn't just the Jesuit settlements that were honored by UNESCO. 120 kilometers to the southwest of Santa Cruz, El Fuerte de Samaypata, the fortress of Samaypata, has also been made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Only 10% of the Inca ceremonial sites have been uncovered to date. It's a huge complex for those indigenous people and their terribly inferior civilization. The people here still believe in Pachamama, in the old traditions and cults. The Inca descendants just mix the mother earth of their old faith with the worship of Mary in the Catholic Church. Virgins like Candelaria and Cotoca, that's how they hold on to their old faith. Time to leave San Jose. We can't answer the question when, or even whether, the last indigenous individuals will join the civilization of the Jesuit fathers. It's another 290 kilometers to Santa Cruz, and getting there entails solving some problems other than just finding the correct faith. There's no sleeper car on the Ferroviaria Oriental, but there are comfortable seats. They'll have to do for the nighttime trip. The Espresso Oriental is due to arrive at Santa Cruz station at half past five. We're not there yet. The Espresso is keeping us waiting. The competition on the road is already heading off in all directions. All around the station, tickets are being sold for the Lato luxury bus, but outside the entrance to the station all is quiet still. Doors to the platform are closed. Even the guard dogs know about the late arrival. After 17 hours and more than 600 kilometers through the rainforest and the savannah, the Espresso Oriental arrives at All the travel guides say the train is notoriously unpunctual, but nobody in Bolivia gets het up about that. When it comes to travel time, the train can't compete with the buses anyway. Instead, the passengers are still quite relaxed when they get off after 17 hours. Could they do that after a bus journey on a narrow seat? You're not greeted as warmly at the bus station as you are here either. The plaza of the 24th of September at the center of Santa Cruz. The people of Bolivia erected a monument to the freedom fighter Ignacio Vargas in commemoration of the start of the successful struggle for independence against the Spaniards in the 19th century. Like everywhere in Bolivia, the square in the center is the poster child that indicates how a town or city is doing. That would suggest Santa Cruz is doing very well. The further you go from the plaza, the more the city loses its colonial character. The facades become plainer, the traffic increases, and the differences between the social classes suddenly become much more obvious. Towering in majesty above all this is the statue of Christ looking south, where the desert starts right beyond the city boundary. It's hard to believe right next to this city with a population of one and a half million, there's an area of 133 square kilometers consisting of shifting dunes and lakes. It's been protected since 1990. Ranger Freddy Vidal knows all about the fragile nature of the park. There are five species of duck in the reserve that are found nowhere else. If you leave them in peace, they'll stay here. If not, they'll move away. The Lomas de Arena park is a must for any visitor to the Bolivian lowlands. Nevertheless, the park tends to be deserted. It's a real oasis of calm, the kind you'd be hard-pressed to find in Santa Cruz and all the surrounding tourist attractions. Bolivia's economic heart beats in Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz is most alive at Bimodal station. Every minute there are departures to all parts of the country, and every minute people arrive too. Primarily, it must be said by bus. Trains miss out every minute. People come to the station to queue up and buy bus tickets. The queue to buy train tickets is much shorter. Allowing rival tickets to be sold in the train station isn't really a promising business model. But the Ferroviaria Oriental has no choice. The state owns half of the business, and it wants both modes of transport to flourish, rail and road. Pena lists the advantages of rail travel. The big differences are comfort and safety. The trains better. Buses are good, but the drivers are irresponsible. The buses are clearly faster. They go 100 kilometers per hour. On our gauge, we can't go faster than 60, with an average of 45 kilometers per hour. The train tracks are as old as the veteran outside the station, from the 19th century. The diesel locomotives used here were built until 1962. This railcar, made by MAN in Germany, went into service as late as 2010. Even back then, this model, a converted bus, had long since been retired. However, the idea of taking a road vehicle, and just giving it the undercarriage to run on rail tracks, is still going strong, in one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes of Bolivia, between Sucre and Potosi. Here, in a valley at more than 4,200 meters, onions are being harvested. The tree line goes up to 4,700 meters, provided anyone plants them. Suddenly, something moves in the middle of the rock. A ferrocarril, a small bus on rails. It contains two surprises inside. The Mercedes star shines in the high Andes too. And what's more, at the heart of backpacker tourism in Bolivia, on the way to Potosi, this bus seems to be carrying locals only. The train journey between Sucre and Potosi largely goes to villages that can hardly be accessed by road. But Tanzos is a case in point. It's the village with the rich onion harvest in the high Andean valley. Then we spot a tourist in the passenger seat, who managed to get this front row spot at the cost of a small tip. He knows exactly why he'd pay the few Bolivianos extra for this. Dietmar Ott is from Dortmund in Germany. This is one of the most beautiful landscapes there is. It's very diverse. You get lovely rock formations in many different colors. You need to speak a bit of Spanish and know your way around. I'm the only tourist here. All the others take the bus. You don't see anything if you do that. By taking the rail bus to Potosi, we left the rail network of Ferroviaria Oriental. We're now in the Andes, on the Ferroviaria Andina rail network. In addition to the Sucre-Potosi route, the rail bus also runs from El Alto in the south, from La Paz to Guaqui, but only on every second Sunday in the month. Trains from Arruro to Vilasón depart every two days. Freight trains laden with the oars from the mines depart daily. Our journey of discovery takes us via La Paz, Bolivia's biggest city. You can get to La Paz by bus or plane. And by train? We go in search of answers and see much that's typical of Bolivia. We learn that it wasn't just in the lowlands that the first Native American president of any South American country, Evo Morales, triggered a boom. La Paz now has a fabulously smartened-up old quarter, where tourists are quite clearly happy and where they'll find many a photo opportunity, like here at the Presidential Palace. The Bolivians prefer to travel around La Paz in communal taxis, seen here departing from the Plaza San Francisco. Such a truffie is cheap for tourists too, and it's a better way of getting around on the busy roads of this city than on foot. Bolivia's melody has become more cheerful. It's focusing increasingly on its indigenous structures. And not for folkloristic reasons, to sell tourist souvenirs or offer them photo motifs. In Calle Linares, Witches Street, amulets and talismans were sold for tourists and locals even before Morales. No Bolivian would refuse the help of Pachamama, of turtles for long life and health, of owls for wisdom and insight, or of monkeys for love and marriage. The llama foetuses definitely aren't a souvenir. They're walled up along with the foundation stone. No house gets built without them in Bolivia. The Spanish tourists are glad to refuse. There's no room in the rucksack or suitcase for this element of Bolivian tradition. There's a lot to discover in La Paz, but no railway. There is a station, however, and right next to it is a cable car that was only opened in October 2014. It connects the lower parts of the city with the suburb of El Alto, a thousand metres higher up. The cable car, built by an Austrian company, has four different lines and is almost 10 kilometres long. The trip's cheap for locals, too. In fact, it's the perfect mode of transport, high up above winding, clogged-up, dusty roads. Bolivia's president wants to build five further lines for La Paz. Anyone who's ever been short of breath during a sightseeing tour in the thin air of La Paz will wonder why this mode of transport wasn't built sooner. There's no functioning railway in La Paz. Anyone wanting to leave the city is dependent on the car or bus. The bus prefers to travel at night. It takes its passengers to Oruro, a city 220 kilometres away in four hours. It possesses the world's largest statue of the Virgin Mary, 45.5 metres tall. We want to discover the highlands in southern Bolivia from here. However, the Expreso del Sur, the Southern Express, first has to make its way through Oruro market. The engines for the freight and passenger trains battle their way from the depot on the outskirts of town to the station four times a day. When all the market stalls and parasols are taken down, the locomotive can carefully enter the station compound and be coupled to its carriages or wagons. The luggage is stored in the luggage wagon. It's not needed in the passenger carriage because the Expreso del Sur will reach a uni this same evening. That's where most tourists get out. There are no sleeper cars on the Expreso del Sur, but the seats are quite comfortable for sleeping. In that regard, it resembles the Expreso Oriental in the lowlands. But this train company cares greatly about punctuality. This is where the Andean version differs hugely from its lowland counterpart. As soon as we've left Oruro, there are plenty of photographic motifs. Flamingos fly over the Oruro Lake in vast numbers. The train crosses it ten minutes after departing Oruro. The passenger train between Oruro and Uyuni is particularly popular among foreign tourists. We take the train because this stretch between Oruro and Uyuni is perfectly suited for discovery by train. We're doing this journey to get to know the Salt Lake. It's 26 euros per person to Uyuni. It's just more comfortable than in the group taxi or a normal taxi. And maybe it's cleaner too. Everything's different here in Bolivia. There aren't as many railway lines. Maybe not as many, but those that do exist are perfect for journeys of discovery. To get to know the area around the region with the world's largest lithium deposits, for example. Bolivia has started shoveling its nationalised natural resources mined along the railway line into the wagons. The Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt lake, is one of Bolivia's top tourist attractions. The best way to get to Uyuni is by train, before taking a 4x4 and having breakfast on the Isla del Pescado, fish island. Sunrise or sunset on fish island. No tourist skips a visit to the Salar and the island when travelling through Bolivia. And of course, climbing past the cactuses is part of discovering the island. Whenever a train travels through Machacamaca on its way to Uyuni, there's an elderly gentleman waving to the train drivers and passengers. Ricardo Belsu Miranda knows almost everything about the history of the railway in Bolivia's highlands. He's written a book about it and oversees the railway museum in Machacamaca. There's not much going on here, even though the museums open every day. Visitors just have to call the mayor, then Ricardo will come with the key and personally give them a guided tour. The museum has a magnificently restored number 22, built in 1955 by Sulza Hermanos in Winterthur in Switzerland. Ricardo knows the history of every engine on display here. That's true for the 1937 Buick Al Capone too. It was used by the directors of the silver mine to get around. There were no roads, but there were rails, so it was fitted with railway wheels. Ricardo's favourite engine was delivered to Bolivia from Berlin in 1913. This gasoline-powered veteran from Pennsylvania went into operation in the silver mines in 1938. Ricardo could keep talking for hours. Taking a look in the first-class carriage shows how the operators adapted to some of the passengers' wishes, even though it won't have been as comfortable as today. The Machacamaca Railway Museum is home to many outstanding specimens. The Expresso del Sur is approaching Uyuni and therefore the station that's the last stop for most tourists as well. After they've been shaken about for two hours on the narrow-gauge tracks, the landscape isn't the only thing attracting passengers' attention anymore. Fortunately, there's a dining car, one that can easily compete with its European counterparts. Train enthusiasts should enjoy the view. It's the only time the Expresso leaves the competition from the road behind, at the Chai Pata toll booth. The landscape becomes more and more barren, the savannah drier and saltier. The salt lake announces itself long before the train travels along the Salar, taking a herd of vicuña by surprise. This relative of the llama tends to avoid contact with humans and their noisy technology, such as trains and cars, but the salt flats and the nearby watering hole have lured the animals right to the railway tracks. Anyone who's looked into Bolivia's railway history knows this site. The train cemetery of Uyuni has no problem being included in every postcard, calendar or travel guide about Bolivia. There are many stories about the bizarre collection of old steam engines. Unfortunately, these stories have also inspired graffiti sprayers from all kinds of countries. Uyuni isn't necessarily a gem of urban architecture, but it's the starting point for most excursions by 4x4 in southwest Bolivia. We're here for All Saints, a holiday with a special significance for the whole country. It's the day the people say goodbye to the dead. These wreaths are made all over Bolivia for All Saints. They're taken to the tombs of the dead, together with these loaves of bread and many drinks. It wouldn't do for the dead to feel hunger or thirst in the afterlife. All Saints starts at noon. The graves have to be decorated and well-filled by then. We've got a bit of time, so we use it to visit the silver mine of Pulacayo in the mountainous region to the east of Uyuni. The Juan Chaca mine was the second largest silver mine on earth in the 19th century. Silver, zinc and lead were extracted down to a depth of 1,100 meters. The ores were transported to the Pacific. The trains used at the time can now be seen in the mine's own museum. This is also where you can see the train ambushed by the American gangsters Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kidd. After fleeing from the United States, they were working near the mine. They ambushed a money transport when regular employment became too much like hard work. This number one is Bolivia's first steam engine, a Baldwin locomotive delivered from Philadelphia in 1890. It's high noon in Pulacayo. The doors open on the dot. Above them, the blue-black wreath shows that someone recently died inside. The spirit of the deceased comes through the open door to say goodbye. Anyone who wants to take part is also invited. The eldest son had a fatal accident seven months ago. The family holds a feast to express their farewell. And of course, anyone who walks through these doors can participate in the meal. Todos los Santos is the day on which nobody in Bolivia has to go hungry. The mountain landscape here has been seen only by very few tourists. For years, the railway line to the south of Uyuni was closed. A bridge beyond Tupiza had collapsed. As a result, only the most adventurous travellers came on unsurfaced dusty tracks. All the others miss this picturesque little town, framed by high, colourful mountains with breathtaking gorges and infinite trekking possibilities. Tourism is now one of the town's main sources of income. Since November 2013, the train has been travelling to Villazon again. Tupiza, La Joya Bella de Bolivia, the jewel of Bolivia, has started to recover from its years of isolation. Anyone who arrives here will have completed an 18-hour train journey, which isn't particularly exciting, especially by night between Uyuni and Tupiza. That'll change at a stroke when the train leaves town. The departure of the Expresso del Sur, the on-board entertainment programme runs non-stop. Concert recordings, thrillers, action films, and westerns in particular, are shown without interruption for the few passengers left travelling to the Argentinian border. The landscape starts to change spectacularly beyond Tupiza. The stretch runs through the valley of the Rio Tupiza and winds its way through a fertile green landscape with narrow canyon-like gorges and colourful mountains. Those watching television now are missing something. In this landscape, the schedule of the on-board entertainment could hardly not include westerns. After all, it was mostly here that Sundance Kidd and Butch Cassidy ambushed their trains. There was good reason for that. They could quickly come down from the mountains into the valley. After the ambush, it wouldn't be long before they were in inhospitable terrain again, where it was difficult for the army to hunt them down. If there was a bend where the driver couldn't see well, it was an ideal location to block the tracks with a tree trunk right behind the bend, forcing the expresser to stop. The drama of the thriller demands that the tensions increased inside the carriage, but everything remains quiet outside today. Today is the day after All Saints. The dead, whose spirits came through the open door a day earlier, are bid farewell at the cemeteries until noon. This is the case in San Vincente too, where, according to the case files, the shootout between the American gangsters and the Bolivian army took place. This is the last resting place of Butch Cassidy's mortal remains. All around his grave, people are saying goodbye to the dead. Less than 200 metres from the cemetery is a museum. That's unusual enough in a town that otherwise consists only of the homes of the mine workers. The unadorned brick building contains everything that could be secured from the past. The gang, headed by Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, is still alive here, at least on the pictures and wanted posters. Once again, the Expresso del Sur manages to get through the valley of Rio Tupiza without an ambush. We arrive in Vilazon. The train took exactly 22 hours from Oruro to the border between Bolivia and Argentina. The number of passengers alighting remains manageable. There's hardly any reason to visit Vilazon for those who don't live here, apart from the spectacular train journey through the Tupiza valley. It's not possible to take the train into Argentina. The tracks speak a very clear language. Beyond the car and pedestrian bridge, the border to Argentina, there's nothing worth visiting. And yet the plaza has something to offer, that you probably won't find anywhere else in Bolivia. No freedom fighters venerated here. Instead, they praised the bridge builders and their work through the valley of the Rio Tupiza. After years of inactivity, they were finally commissioned by the Bolivian state under President Morales to reconnect the south of the country to the rest of the world. The train once again rolls over safe bridges through one of Bolivia's most beautiful landscapes. On our return journey, we ask Bernard Malchor and Anne Petit from Brussels why they came to Vilazon. I think it's wonderful. It's a journey to another world. The landscape's beautiful. It's hugely exotic. I like it very much. It's completely unusual. Very beautiful and exotic. We're in a different time, a different world. It's hard to say what the most important development has been during the current president's term in office. Maybe it was that he has given the majority indigenous population hope for the future. But also that he's had new roads and bridges built that the Bolivians can use to head towards their future. Like this bridge near Tupiza, which collapsed and caused an entire part of the country to stagnate. The same stagnation as in the rest of the country. That's over now. Bolivia's railway travels all the way to the border again. For decades, Bolivia didn't have much more than landscape to offer. That's over too now. Since the railway has started operating again, much has got moving all over the country. And that's a good thing.