In the middle of nowhere like so many other towns and small cities in Bolivia stands Julaca, a town of only 66 inhabitants in the altiplano. It is located at 3,665 meters above sea level and its average temperature is 6.6ºC. It does not rain much either: 78.7 l/m2 per year.
The houses are made of adobe bricks and – as in the rest of the country – it has a soccer field with lines painted on the ground but no goal net.
Also basketball court, with only one hoop and an impossible floor for the ball.
Julaca is crossed by a railroad track in which the sleepers that have been patiently hidden by the sand of the altiplano desert are barely distinguishable. A freight train still runs along them, linking the route between Rio Grande and Chiguana.
The train only slows down, it does not stop. There are no level crossings or Empresa Ferroviaria Andina personnel at the abandoned station.
Julaca is also a passing point for the 4×4’s loaded with tourists on their way to the Uyuni salt flats. A small grocery stand offers them a beer brewed with quinoa while the national flag and the flag of the indigenous peoples wave proudly at its door.
