16-18 May....Tupiza - all this way just to ride a horse?

Lynne says...

Our alarm went off in Uyuni at 4.30am and by 4.45am we were standing in the bus company waiting room with the locals - a couple of them were wrapped up in blankets and looked as if they had spent the night there. Outside, a few women stood around a fire, warming their hands against the biting cold air.

Our bus turned out to be a jeep and we were crammed in with no room to move. Behind me, three men joked around with cries of "vamos, vamos" until a rather large lady with a huge bag squeezed herself into a non-existent space and they soon fell silent.

Eventually we arrived in Tupiza in the far south of Bolivia. Our reason for enduring such an uncomfortable journey was to fulfill our cowboy fantasies and ride on horseback through the area´s badlands.


Big, big rocks in the amazing countryside near Tupiza

It didn´t take me long to realise that "Tonto", our guide for the day, wasn´t the broody, silent cowboy type I had hoped for. Instead, he was a sixteen-year-old moody teenager who only succeeded in making me feel old.

The adrenaline cursed through my veins as my horse first cantered and then broke into a gallop. After seconds I was out of breath and clutching hold of my saddle for dear life. For a split second I started to worry about my lack of helmet but the thought was quickly brushed aside as I concentrated on staying upright.


The smile stayed on Lynne´s face all day

After a few minutes my horse slowed down on his own accord - I hadn´t quite managed to take a hand off the saddle to pull back the reins - and I started to appreciate the surroundings. Strange formations of red-brown rock rose on either side of us as we passed cactus covered hills. Ahead, the track was dry and dusty and we were completely alone.

After a few hours we stopped for lunch in a beautiful clearing next to a glistening river. We had a brief discussion with "Tonto" about the length of our lunch break - he was clearly after an easy ride. Young, lazy and no doubt completely exploited by several people taking a cut from the cost of the day, he was definitely wishing he was somewhere else.


"Man, I´m on this damn horse, in the wild west, and I still don´t look like Robert Redford..."

Thankfully our surroundings were simply too beautiful for a moody teenager to spoil it for us. During the afternoon we rode through gargantuan canyons and crossed several rivers - by now my now my confidence had grown and galloping became a real thrill.

Seven hours on horseback was enough for the two of us and by the end of the day we were saddle sore, dusty and weary yet completely exhilerated by what we had seen - Butch and Sundance, eat your heart out.


Late evening sun makes for poncey self-portrait shadow pictures