Tupizá in a Pod

Headed out of Salta on the bus and were stopped several times by numerous road blocks or strikes. The bus conductor tried to bribe them by passing bottles of tea, coffee or water out....sometimes this was enough for them to let us pass but other times the bus had to turn around and detour. We have no idea what the strikes were about but similar type road blocks have gained the locals concessions in Boliva recently.

Landed in La Quicá and made our way to the Argentinian border control. There were hundreds of Bolivians carrying huge sacks of food, cement and whatever else over the borders...some of these were little old ladies who looked as though their legs were about to give way. Through the control we went and this time we had a guard who had a bit of a sense of humour asking if I was 24 and was I sure this was me on my passport. We think he was trying to improve his English but he didn`t chat Chris up quite the same.

Then quickly through the Bolivian border control into Villazon. We waited for a few hours (this time remembering the change in time) and got on a bus to Tupiza. We watched as parcels, packages and huge poles were loaded on top of the bus and were worried that our rucsacks might follow....fortunately this wasn´t the case. I couldn´t believe it when we were asked to pay to leave the bus terminal....it had no toilets and very little anything else!! The bus was packed and several people also had huge parcels stored away under their and our seats.

We arrived in Tupiza and wanted to find the Hotel Torre which was recommended (by Larissa) and several young boys (one in particular with a toy gun) said they would show us the way....well we gave them a few coins for their efforts.

The hotel was really nice and the owners were friendly....we decided to go on a 3 hour horse tour the next day....well you know how gringo Chris wanted to be a proper gaucho!!

The town wasn´t that big and the following day we wandered around the markets seeing lots of older women in the traditional costume of meringue ankle length skirts with bowler hats (two sizes too small) sat precariously on top of their heads and large colourful blankets tied around their backs usually with a small child, animal or parcels inside. We saw many interesting sights one of the pictures shows the funniest - Vinny shampoo, anybody who knows Vinny will realise how ironic this is or maybe after using some of this stuff you will end up like it´s namesake.

Then we headed out for the horse ride of our lives. The first main job was to actually get up on the horse....well Chris had long legs - no problem as for me I was punted up and over. Then off we went up through the town and then round a hill outside the town. We trotted along a path which took us past amazing red sandstone rocks, boulders and hills and a dried up river bed. This area was called Colorado maybe showing a lack of imagination by the local namers but I could see what they meant. This is also the area where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent their last days and many of the tour operators offered two day trips to follow in their footsteps or should that be horseshoes.

We managed to avoid the dogs which constantly ran at the horses barking wildly. The sun was shining, the horses were plodding and we were having a ball. That was until we rounded a bend and without warning the guide geed his horse into a gallop and then ours followed. After a minute or so I was all for it but then I heard Chris yell ?'WHOAH' but his horse wasn´t for stopping....he was bouncing all over the place and so was the camera....He eventually got the horse to slow down and stop. I wish I had the camera at that point as his face looked even more petrified than mine on the cable car ride. After that we managed to keep the horses on a quick walking pace. We rested the horses for 30 mins and then headed back via a different route with the local children either shooting 'Hola' and waving or just standing back staring and pointing at the mad gringo´s on the horses. We finished our ride 30 mins earlier than planned but my knees and some other parts I didn´t know I had were starting to ache so that wasn´t a problem. Chris was fine until he got off the horse. I enjoyed this one (much better than in Greece) but Chris´s parting comments were 'Well I´ve been on a horse now, I don't need to do it again!´

We were well warned before heading to Bolivia that the standard of food left a lot to be desired and our first two nights in Tupizá definitely bore this out with one very average meal and one downright rubbish!!

If anybody is ever heading to Tupizá we wholeheartedly recommend the Hotel Torre for it´s decent rooms, great breakfasts and extremely helpful and warm hearted staff, just ask the local urchins for directions (watch out for the kid with the gun).