Treating ourselves to a hotel in the wild west

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After 2 months of sharing noisy dorm rooms, having cold showers and being constantly busy we decided we needed to have a rest and a bit of a treat. So in Turpiza we booked into a hotel with a swimming pool and a private spacious 4 bedroom. It was even better by being only £5 each a night (which is £5 less than most hostels we've been in before - think I'm going to like Bolivia pricing!)

Due to the pool we spent a few days relaxing by the edge with our books and enjoying the sunshine. We made the most of being able to afford to dine out and visited different local markets.

Typically we couldn't rest for too long and booked ourselves onto a triathlon day tour. This is where we spent the day seeing the surroundings by hiking/jeep, horse riding then bike ride. Turpiza area is dusty canyons, cactus and desert formations so was brilliant to see.

The horse riding was fun, my horse was particularly feisty and on a few occasions decided to bolt off at full speed as I gripped onto the saddle to not fall off. Strangely I wasn't scared and enjoyed the change of pace & felt like I was truly riding the horse; particularly as I got to copy the movies of pulling back the reins and saying 'Whaooo' to get it to stop. I realised I have may been in more danger then I realised when the guide promptly swapped horses in the break but ignorance is bliss.

The bike ride was equally questionable in safety. Firstly the jeep drive to the starting point was up a dirt road with a sheer drop on one side. Our driver tried to over take another van despite the road being one lane thick. We were dropped off at the top of the hill (apparently over 3500m high) with our bikes and helmets and sent back down  to the town. It was great fun and the views were incredible! The very uneven gravel parts caused your arms to actually hurt to try hold on and I had a few accidental skids on the rubble. Lucille made it down to the bottom third, I got lost in the town and poor Jane gave up and hitched a ride with Amanda following behind. A Dutch girl said she thought it was longer than death road so Lu & I feel we've made an impressive achievement to conquer it.

From Turpiza we're parting ways for a week, Lucille is heading to Sucre for Spanish school while Jane, Amanda and I are heading to the amazon jungle.


Sent from my iPod

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