Tupiza is called the wild west of South America due to its uncanny likeness with the wild west in the states! It is also said that the famous American out laws Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid met their demise here at the hands of the Bolivian army, ending their string of bank robberies! Pretty cool eh?!
Our stay in Tupiza would be short. Tupiza is a starting point from where you can do the Bolivian salt flat tour so the plan was to book a trip the day we got there to leave the following day.
We arrived in Tupiza at stupid O Clock (4am), we had no hostel booked but luckily reps from different hostels were at the station to meet the bus and catch the gringos. So we found one easy enough and fell into bed.
It was an early-ish rise today to head off and look for a company to head on the tour with. There were four of us in the group, Todd, Simon, Rich and myself. We went to a number of different companies until we found one which we were happy with. Its so important when booking tours like this that you get a good company and ask the right questions; Is water included in the price, do we get sleeping bags? Is there a cook? Can the guide speak English? Are soft drinks included? Where will we be staying? etc etc It really is worth taking the little bit of extra time so you get it right! So we were all happy and booked to leave the following morning.
With that done we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Unfortunately it was Sunday.... South America is old school when it comes to Sunday's and EVERYTHING is closed. I went for a little walk around but there wasn't really much to see or do. I decided that Id head back to the company we booked the tour with and see if the could sort me out with a bit of horse riding ... after all we were in the wild west... it would be rude not too!!!
I haven't been on a horse in about 15 years so I was a little apprehensive but excited!!
Ah it was great!!! We went out on the horses for 3 hours, on a tour of a canyon just outside Tupiza. The scenery was spectacular, red earth and cacti everywhere!
I thought that the trip would be at a nice slow pace but jesus can them horses run! ha They just take off and gallop at certain points on the trail. It was an experience and needless to say I had a very sore bum by the end of it ha :)
When we got back to Tupiza we headed for a little walk to watch the sunset from a viewpoint over the town. Dinner that night was pizza and then there was a quick shop for supplies for our trip..... toilet roll, smokes and rum.
The shop of champions!
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