Friday, February 10, 2012

Tupiza ina pod. Horseback ridin in the 'wild west'

We ended up switching from a hostel outside of town to Hotel Mitru in the center. It's 50 Bolivianos (about $7) per person, we got a 3 person room to include Tim our traveling buddy who was meeting up with us. They have a tour company affiliated with them that we had heard was very reputable and the next day (after resting my very unhappy stomach) we booked our tour for the SouthWest cuircuit including the solar de Uyuni (salt flats). We also booked a horseback ride at the same time and got a bit of a discount! The tour was 1,200 ($174) Bolivianos for four days three nights everything included except price of national park enterance and bathroom fees and horsies were 150 ($22) Bolivianos for a five hour excusion.
Next day Nick and I got up and ready to ride. A representitive picked us up from the hotel and we walked 20 mins outside of the centro to where the horses were. I was assigned a horse named Tabacco who liked to be in the front and Nick's was named Pinta who liked to follow and her colt that tagged along named Pinto (all the other horses kept trying to bite him if he got in front of them, poor little guy!)
We headed out of town and rode through what was deffinatly the wild west with canyons and red rock formations. It was really pretty and the nice thing about horseback riding is you dont have to watch the ground all the time and can enjoy the view. Our tour guide was a teenage boy who didn't tell us anything about where we were and just kept making coyote noises and howling jingle bells. Thankfully we had teamed up with another group whose guide sometimes would say the names of where we were.
This area is also known for the final days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They were found hiding out near here and supposedly died or killed themselves in a shootout after they did their last bank robbery. Interesting to think about since the scene is so westerny. Was beautiful.
We rode off into the sunset and straight to the hotel pool...




out west




Lookin for the old saloon


The horses waiting around not even tied up


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