Horse riding in the Bolivian Wild West

15th May

A. Us in one of the amazing canyons

We decided to set off for Tupiza as soon as we got back from our 3 day jeep trip. The train from Uyuni was only oncer every two days, so if we stayed it would mean two days in a pretty baron town with only a great pizza place as entertainment.

So at 2am we headed for the station thinking that an hour and a half would be plenty of time to get tickets etc.. Oh no this is Bolivia.

Alex volunteered to queue. A line of maybe 12 people ahead of her, it looked OK. However an hour and a half later as the train was about to leave and Alex still had three people in front of her, the ticket office declared it had ran out of tickets and told us we should try to get on the train anyway. A very cross Alex and a slightly worried me, ran down the pitch black train lines with a few other worried gringos trying to find a way onto the now moving train. We managed to get on, and pushed our way down the very crowded train to a carriage with a tiny amount of floor space. We collapsed on or packs and realised we had an uncomfortable 8 hours to look forward to. Arse.

B. Cowboy country

About ten minutes into the journey the guard arrived, and with smile asked us if we were happy. We explained as best we could that we had no ticket and would be more than willing to pay for better seats, well just seats actually.

Here began another adventure, the guard sent us up the train, he´d told us that there were some seats in executive class which sounded good to us. So off we went. Our journey ended, two carriages later at some seats which really weren´t very executive at all. Ahead was the engine, so we excepted our lot and settled down. Five minutes later our smiley guard arrived and told us to follow him. Off we went through the engine, jumping across open carriage connections, climbing over the luggage car and the sleeping luggage guard. Eventually we arrived at executive, feeling like we had just been in a western movie, but none the less very grateful for our wide reclining seats.

C. Alex and Juanaco, her horse

We arrived early in Tupiza, got a room, and headed out to find somewhere to get some horses and a guide to explore the vast canyon lands which surround the town. Bolivia is fantastic for this sort of thing as the people are very friendly and they are always ready to organise a trip around your ideas.

The next day we were off, two days horses riding through the western style hills with an overnight in a small village. We were joined on our trip by another British couple, John and Becky and issued with our horses, complete with their western style saddles. We set of out of town along an old railway line and up into the hills. The horses were quite lively and we were shortly overtaken by a group of wildly out of control whopping Israelis. We rode past towering red rock formations and along a dry river bed before stopping for lunch beside a river were the local goats were keeping the make shift football pitch in good order. After lunch we forded the river and galloped across the sands on the other side. At this point Becky´s horse decided it was taking its own route and took off across another river and up the bank into the Pampas grass. She was a little shaken up so the guide decided she should swap onto a less ´loco` horse. We briefly rested our sore bums in a dusty village before continuing to our stop for the night. Our accommodation was an old farm house where we were joined by two other groups. It was an ideal setting where the horses could rest and we made a campfire want swapped tales with the Israelis. The next day we eased our aching backsides back into the saddles and made our route home passing through tiny villages along the river. After the lunch stop Becky joined some of the Israelis who had managed to negotiate a lift in a jeep back into Tupiza, allowing us to have a bit more fun on the return. We stopped again at the previous lunch site, where whilst munching on my sandwich I saw my horse with another galloping across the river and into distance. Great! As I was contemplating the long walk home a couple of the guides flew past to go and round them up. Much of the journey home was along the old railway and ridden at top speed with Graham out in front. He assures me he could have stopped at any time and was fully in control. It was great fun and much more than we had imagined we would be doing. We arrived home at about 5pm and both agreed we were exhausted but with less than a month to go before our trip ended we decided we better get going to Iguazu on the Brazilian/Argentinian border.

D. Graham and his horse Apachi

E. River crossing