Tupiza, Bolivia

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Tupiza - the last town where Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid stayed under alias and planned to rob the local bank prior to their death in 1908. It is a quiet town with a western feel which surprisingly doesn´t seem to use this bit of history to its advantage. I expected ¨Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid¨ tours and posters strewn about, but there really was nothing. This may be due to the fact that they weren´t actually killed in Tupiza but approx. 100km away. Either way I still expected more acknowledgment or exploitation for touristic purposes.

We arrived in Tupiza on the 17th following a 12 hour bus ride from Potosi and checked into hostel ´Mitru´. It was a nice hostel, clean with private bathroom, TV and swimming pool. We only spent a quick 2 days in the town as we were right at the end of our Visas so we booked a ¨triathlon¨ tour for our second day then headed straight to the Argentinian border on the 19th.

The ¨triathlon¨ tour began at 9am and consisted of a jeep tour to different nature sites around the town, 3 hours of horseback riding and finally mountain biking from the top of a small mountain back to the tour company office. The jeep tour was nice as the areas surrounding Tupiza are beautiful. We were given quite a few opportunities to get out, take pictures and wander around. We also had a picnic lunch in a semi-sheltered park area which was nice with the exception of the garbage scattered about (just like everywhere else in Bolivia - no one uses garbage cans or cleans up after themselves. It´s very unfortunate).

Horseback riding was fun although a little nerve-racking for me as I had only been on a horse once in my life as a child and it was not a good experience. Braeden was very comfortable on his horse having had previous experience and actually helped move along some of the other horses like mine who kept wanting to stop and eat or move in its own direction. He did spook his horse once though when it started raining heavily and he pulled his plastic poncho out of his day pack. The horse freaked out and started to rear-up but the guide managed to calm it down as Braeden quickly tucked his poncho away. For the most part, the riding was good however I did not care much for the galloping as I felt like I had no control and it hurt my guts (and later my kidneys). Only one guy seemed to have major problems with his horse as it would take off whenever it wanted and got the other horses worked up (he claimed to have experience but clearly should not have been on that horse as he could not control it at all).

As for the mountain biking, I could have done without. No one out of our group of 7 had a good time - the bikes where complete garbage and untrustworthy making the ride painful and unenjoyable. The view from the top of the mountain was nice and we were able to get good pictures (however, most of them look like paintings or fake back-drops). One guy gave up on the ride about half way down because he wasn´t enjoying himself. I finally quit once I hit the bottom of the mountain where it was nothing but sand and gravel making it too much work than it was worth. Also, my hands were so sore from the hard handles as they didn´t provide gloves so I just gave up and got in the van. It´s too bad they don´t put more money into decent equipment as that ride could have been a lot of fun. Oh well, overall it was a good day.

As previously stated, we have made the decision to carry on to Argentina next. We have had to do quite a bit of rearranging of our trip due to expenses and other factors such as the ability to obtain travel Visas, etc. We have unfortunately had to cut out Brazil and the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) from our travel plans but believe we will still be able to see Uruguay, Paraguay, a little bit of Chile and a bit more of Argentina than originally allotted for (assuming the prices aren´t too bad). We will also be spending a week on the beach in Venezuela prior to our departure home. Sounds like a lot but time moves so fast - this continent is WAY too big to do in only 6 months!

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Comments

[Mom Terri]

hello
Nice to hear from you both --- hard to believe you're half way thru your 6 months already? You're right, time does pass very quickly! The pictures are amazing - so nice to see so many with one or both of you in it too...neither look like you're starving so that's a good thing. Appreciate the positive feedback about what you're seeing and experiencing - would like to read more of the good, less of the negative aspects though. Nothing new here to report - same old, same old for the most part...A lot of hoopla with Olympic torch coming through Calgary and Cochrane this past week --- didn't go see it though - Braeden, you might remember going to see the Olympic torch in 1988. Anyhow Chinook weather has passed and we are experiencing winter once again... Stay healthy, well and have fun! Love Mom