Horseriding in Tupiza.
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2008
1
19
30
Trip End
May 01, 2008
Tupiza,
Bolivia
Sunday, February 24, 2008
We had to walk from the bus station to the actual border crossing - about half a mile. Getting out of Argentina was plain sailing, but we inadvertantly joined the wrong queue to get into Bolivia (we joined the one with all the locals in it), but after spotting gringo after gringo jumping to the front we twigged what was going on. After 30 minutes of chaos with lots of tourists with big backpacks trying to fight their way to the front of the immigration queue we'd finally entered Bolivia. There was an immediate contrast with Argentina but not to the extent that we'd feared (i.e. like India). We kindly refused the offer from an old man to carry our luggage to the bus station in his wheelbarrow and trudged the 1/4 mile up the street to the bus terminal
Just inside Bolivia
. A quick rush around the station got us our tickets for a bus leaving pretty much immediately to Tupiza. They seem quite keen to oversell tickets, even though each ticket has the seat numbers written on them. We had to return to the terminal when we found our seats already occupied. Fortunately we got two more seats (although not together) on the same bus. Some other tourists werent so lucky and found their seats occupied and with none spare they had no choice but to sit on the floor for the 3 hour journey ahead.Once in Tupiza we found a hostel easily and booked with them for some horseriding (on the following day) and the four day jeep tour around the Salar de Uyuni (leaving the morning of the day after that).
Tupiza, the town itself, doesn't have a great deal to offer the tourist - you can tell they're not really that pleased to have us with them by virtue of a lack of tourist infrastructure. No cash machines for example. Matt was queuing up in a bank to get an advance on his VISA card. He'd already walked out of there once in protest at their 5% commission but had to skulk back when he found nowhere else to change cash. The peaceful ambience of the bank queue was shattered by several huge bangs outside - gunshots perhaps? Not even the locals were entirely sure what was going on, but soon enough a group of miners marched through the main square protesting at something or another
Kat prepares to mount
. Apparently they like their protests in Bolivia... After changing his trousers Matt was able to return back to Kat and pay for the tours. We ate a rubbish meal at a supposed Italian restaurant and caught an early night in preparation for the 3 hour horse trek at 11am the following morning.We woke the following day to find Kat covered in what looked like small bites. We werent sure what had caused it, but to make things worse Matt was completely untouched...
We had a nosey around for somewhere to have breakfast, but despite it being almost 10am nowhere appeared to be open. In fact, we had to return back to the Italian. Somehow they contrived to take almost an hour to bring breakfast, so that when it arrived we only had 5 minutes to bolt it down before rushing back for our horseride. To be fair to them, we can understand why it took them so long - judging by the size of Matt's omlette they were probably waiting for the hens to lay some more eggs - it was huge, and Matt was gutted he had to bolt it down without enjoying it :(
Anyway, we made it back to the hostel with.... 1 hour to spare. Matt had got the time in Bolivia wrong and thought it was 1 hour behind Argentina when in fact it was two
Kat and horse
. D'oh.After a hour lazing back in our room we waited outside the hostel but no-one turned up to take us on our trek. Eventually the owner of the hostel found some women whose son took us out on a couple of none-too-well-looking horses. Matt's horse was partially lame and looked like it needed reshoeing. Every now and then it would step somewhere uncomfortable and take off with a jolt for 20 or 30 yards, with Matt holding on for dear life. Kat found this pretty amusing...
We followed a disused railway line for about 30 minutes before turning off into the canyons. It was like something out of the wild west with deep red jagged rocks and lots of cactuses. Despite being given a crash course in horse control (not helped by the fact that the guide didn't speak any English) the horses pretty much had a mind of their own - they would stop at any opportunity to eat, which was most of the time... After a couple of hours we stopped at the start of a canyon and went off exploring for a little while before heading back to Tupiza with some sore bums. Matt was reminded why it was so long since he last went on a horse when his hayfever kicked in and he spent the rest of the afternoon with eyes and nose streaming...
Matt and horse
Returning from the horseride we had a spot of lunch and then Kat went for a nap whilst Matt went to the local barbers. He wondered what sort of service he'd get for the 40p price. First of all he noticed the clippers were manual and the scissors were the same as the ones that he and Kat had in their kitchen. The barber proceeded to spray the clippers with parafin and set them alight before setting to the task in hand (the fire had gone out by the time he started to tackle Matt's hair but the warmth could definitely still be felt...
On his way back to the hostel Matt was curious how his new haircut looked (there was no mirror in the barbers). He spotted in another hostel some other tourists (3 Irish lads and a variety of other nationalities) he'd bumped into earlier in the day and so canvassed their opinion... With nothing much else to do in Tupiza, they had started drinking early and were very free with their opinions. The general opinion was that he looked either like a lego man or Captain Scarlet. Anyway, Matt got special dispensation from Kat to go off with this bunch for the evening. They were all due to come with us the following day on the Jeep tour and Matt thought it a good idea to make some friends.
Come the following morning Matt was feeling a little worse for wear, but we checked out of the hostel and waited at the side of the road for our Jeep to turn up, as well as the 3 Israelis who were going to be riding in the jeep with us...
