Going Gaucho

Trip Start Oct 05, 2007
1
76
97
Trip End Oct 04, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Bolivia  ,
Friday, June 6, 2008

We finally made the bus and began an incredibly long, dusty and bumpy journey to Tupiza - refuge to Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid..sort of!  It was so bloody cold that the condensation on the windows turned to ice....by the afternoon of course we were being roasted!  As for the bus we thought it looked a bit hard core - complete with taped up windscreen and mammoth wheels - which we soon realised were ablsolutely neccessary as were were offroading it all the bone jarring way there - sod bridges and all!

On the bus we met a lovely Aussie who was also going all that way to ride, so we hooked up with her and arranged a 5 hour expedition the following day!  Then we tried to book a train ticket for the same day to Potosi...but no īblockagesī... so a bus to Sucre then .....no īblockagesī....bugger stranded in a dust bowl!

Fiding the following day was great fun - allthough I did feel very out of practice!!  My horse Spirit reminded me somewhat of Money, so we got along just fine and we had a very funny 17 year old guide who taught me a new word - calor mealning slow - in reference to the other 2 horses!!  We rode over country that looked how I imajine Arizona does!  The rock formations were incredible, ranging in colour from red to grey within the same bit of rock!  We went trough canyons, cantered up dry river beds, saw the magnus (upright formations resembling male genitalia) and saw large slices of rock surrounded by nothing but goats and scrup - very strange!

After 5 hours of dust and sweat we were very glad to get in a shower that was actually ot!  To our relief we also managed to book ourselves on a bus to Topzi the following day which didnīt leave at sparrows fart!  We actally managed to catch this bus first time round hooray!!

The road even had concrete for some of it and we arrived in Potosi (the hightest city in the world) in enough time to catch another bus to Sucre....no sign of blockades at all!!

We arrived in Sucre - having sat in what felt lke a giants VERY smelly boot at a 9 and cramed our bas into the boot of a taxi which then wouldnīt close!  Lukily the bags didnīt fall out and we were deposited at our hotel of choice!  Followinga dissapointing food hunt that produced a cartonn of peach juice and somthing rather rank that resemgled a scone we hith the sack exhausted and very glad we didnīt have to move for several hours!!
Print this entry Tupiza hotels