Motorcycle Explorer December 2014 Issue 3 | Page 129

I told myself to take it one step and town at a time, If I allowed myself to start thinking about all of it one go - I’d lose my mind. First stop - Santa Catalina. Santa Catalina is 67km west of La Quiaca. I later found out that, much like all the towns out in the middle of nowhere in South America, it was founded to support the mining industry. That was over 200 years ago, now, as far I could tell, it was a small dusty town in the middle of nowhere where the industry centered around llama herding. Incidentally, the only other reason towns exist out in the middle of nowhere down in these parts, is on account of the Catholic missions. 29