Rawhide!

We began to notice a change in atmosphere as we headed south towards the Bolivian/Argentine border: horseback-riding cowboys, dusty roads and red cacti-covered hills - everything got a tad country and western, almost like a scene from a John Wayne movie. And what better incentive than that to get my cowgirl on, as they say: 'When in Rome...'.

Once we finally arrived in Tupiza after our bus ordeal, we booked a three hour horse ride around the outskirts for the following morning. Apparently Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid are buried somewhere in these parts - a little known country and western fact brought to you by moi. I took what I thought was the safe option and told the tourist office that I'd had no horse riding experience, believing that the limited skills I acquired on family holidays when I was young wouldn't suffice and thinking that, on hearing this, they'd give me the slow grandpa horse.

On a side note, here are some more facts on Bolivia. The topic? Safety standards. There are none! This seems to be the case in South America generally. After a few touch and go moments on the unfenced Inca Trail, the 'Death Road' experience was the ultimate confirmation. The result is that I now can't really be surprised when safety standards are lapse on adventurous occasions, so I wont say I was surprised when we got a guide who couldn't speak a word of English, were provided with no head protection and when I, the inexperienced one, was given a horse that I named 'Sparky' because he'd take it upon himself to bolt ahead at any moment, unprovoked. What's more, at the point of the ride where we were led off the trail to climb vertical points on the red hills, I just held my breath.

I have to hand it to Bolivia though as there's certainly no shortage of gimmicks for tourists to delight in. On the 'Death Road' bike tour we got a 'Going Down's Never Been Better' t-shirt (very classy), and a bandanna. On the horse ride we were equipped with chaps and cowboy hats for our camera clicking pleasure. Now that's something!

In saying all that, the horse riding was a lot of fun. The three of us set off on a gorgeous morning, the colours of the red hills and green cacti against the blue sky were stunning, and by the end I'd remembered how to stay on a horse while trotting (I didn't really have a choice in this, given Sparky's attitude). The only down side to it all was that I waddled around like I'd had an accident in my pants for the next three days. Apparently horse riding is rigorous on the thighs - who knew?!


Apart from the horse riding we mostly chilled out in Tupiza - a wander around the black markets, a couple of 'Who Eats Wins' sessions (black potatoes this time, as well as an unidentified meat and 'Mocochinchi', a dehydrated peach cider that looked like it contained a shriveled foetus at the bottom - sorry to be graphic). FYI, the tally so far sits at Claire: 6; Food poinsoning: 1. Game on.

We also watched 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' which wasn't the most uplifting film I've seen all year. I would however recommend 'Sunshine Cleaning' for something quirky.