Salta - Horse riding

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  Salta, Argentina
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

We checked out of the hotel today, but we donīt actually leave for Bolivia until 1am, so we have planned an afternoon of horse riding!!! We spent the morning lazing by the pool and writing our diaries and updating our blogs. Then we were supposed to be picked up at 3pm for the "cabagatas" as they call it here, horse riding to you and me! The pick up was over 30 minutes late, but that seems to be part of the culture here, there is very little that happens on time, much to my annoyance as those of you that know me will know, but I am learning to deal with it!
We had a bumpy ride in the van with David up into the mountains for the riding. We were with another girl from the hostel, Mivera, from Switzerland. It took about 30mins to get there and it was a beautiful journey, the mountains are so green. The recent rain had made part of the road collapse, so we had a little detour!
When we finally got there we waited for another 30 mins or so whilst they caught and tacked up the horses, hope I said that right or my sister and Wendy will be on to me!!! There were 3 horses they had selected for us and guess which on I got, yes the bloody massive one! The guy tried to tell me how to get on properly, but there was just no way my leg was going to get that high in my already ripped trousers, but he insisted and the inevitable happened. My trousers split from the bottom of the pocket on my arse right down to the knee revealing slightly more than my quite small knickers! I need say no more, embarrassed does not start to explain how I felt! But once I was on it wasn't that easy to see the rip so on we went!
The ride was amazing, through wonderful mountains.

Epi horseriding

The 3 dogs came along with us too and went off from time to time, to do whatever it is they do in the mountains! I was at the back of our small group, but I didn't mind as I didn't really want people looking at my exposed arse anyway! But when it came to actually getting the horses to go I realised why I was at the back, I had the laziest horse in Argentina! Epiīs horse just kept eating, so I donīt know if they tried to match our personalities??!!
It is really hard to trot on these horses as the saddles are true Gaucho saddles and really padded out, trotting is hard and hurts, so they don't really let you do it, it is walk or gallop - not something I had realised when we booked! Problem being that my horse didn't want to gallop, fast trot was as much as it wanted to do and it was killing me. The Gaucho told me to whip it, but I couldn't, so I tried to kick it on with my legs spread as wide as they would go, it was bloody hard work!!! The galloping was fantastic though when the lazy thing finally went! At one point he wanted to show me who was boss and took me straight through a spiky tree, but I didn't give up! My hands we blistered as well cos the reins are really rough, but it really was exhilarating. I think I had a full work out over the 2-3 hours!

When we got back we shared a ma-te, an Argentine custom and headed back in the van. On the way our driver spotted a tarantula on the road so stopped for us to take pictures, it was huge and very scary, especially when he put it on a stick and waved it around in front of us! It actually jumped at one point, yuk! He said it was a small one, probably a baby, the adults are even bigger. But they arenīt deadly, didnīt make me feel any better about it! We also saw a falcon in the trees too. Pretty good last day all in all. not sure which was more terrifying, galloping or the tarantula!

Went out for a final meal in Argentina, a very nice one too. Then went to the bus station to get the bus to La Quiaca, the Argentine-Bolivian border.

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Me horseriding

The Gaucho y perro!

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