It was too great to occupy a double room all by myself once in a while, so I woke up rather late today. After a serious consideration, I decided to join the tour with La Torre Hotel, because I did not bring any sleeping bag and the rental price of their sleeping bag was the cheapest. However, extra service charged would be applied if paying by credit card. That's why I needed to get cash advance in the bank (No ATM in town!!!). After getting the money, I joined the horseback riding tour in this same hotel. Originally I chose the 2:30 p.m. time slot, but I would go by myself only. Then the owner asked if I would go together with a German at 3:30 p.m. instead, I nodded.
Before going horseback riding, I had lunch in this small town again. In spite of the low living standard in Bolivia, the lack of choices of the restaurant did give me some headache. I felt bored when they just served either pizza or spaghetti. Nonetheless, there's one interesting fact that both the restaurants and the travel agencies tended to stick as many tourist comments as possible on the walls, which were written or drawn by some travelers. Most of them said "they are the best", I really doubted their credibility.
Then I went to the internet place again, because I forgot to get a reference letter when I resigned. I couldn't believe I still needed to open a Word file and write formal letter in Bolivia, so as to send it to my manager for him to sign on his last day at this company. Afterwards, I returned to my beloved double room and watched another bad movie: Freaky Friday.
 |
| My hungry horse |
At 3:30 p.m. I saw the German guy waiting in the lobby, they were really punctual. And me......I arrived at 3:30 p.m. sharp!!! His name was Mario, who is a hiker and often go hiking during travel. On the way to the horse stable, I talked with him in German. God! It became difficult to speak in German while I put it down for a long while, and I guessed it was very difficult for him to understand me, too. I found he wasn't really a talkative person, it was quite hard to start a conversation with him at first. We also had a guide to go with us, who is a very young teenage boy, but very good at horseback riding.
 |
| Big brother and Mario |
Firstly, we chose our horse in the horse stable. I chose a brown horse, which was young at that moment. Then I awkwardly climbed on it with the help of the guide and the staff at the stable. I was not really scared until it started to move. Our guide did not teach us how to control the horses at all, neither make it stop nor change directions. But our horses worked every day, they simply recognized the way without opening their eyes. They would automatically take you while you were sitting on their back. However, my horse loved to eat, he always stopped by the side to eat grasses. For one time, it even ran on a little slope, my head got stuck in the tree branches, my face almost got scratched because of its constant hunger.
The horse which was ridden by Mario was the big brother, mine was the second bro and little bro was ridden by the guide. When mine walked a bit faster than the big bro, big bro would speed up to get its first place back; when little bro got ahead of mine, mine would accelerate speed at once. Before I noticed their relationship, I had been frightened by my horse for several times!
 |
| My horse got mad when little bro was ahead of it |
This 3-hour tour had a break in the mid way. Although we sat on the horseback, the bumpy road made our butts so sore. Originally I planned to stretch out a bit, but then Mario and the other 3 French people from another tour decided to climb on the rocks. I did not want to miss out, so I joined them too. I knew ascending was easier than descending with my clumsy body, in the end I almost fell down the hill before heading back. Afterwards, the horses took another 1.5 hours to walk back to the horse stable. I felt like I was just paying to make myself suffer!
 |
| A break for both humans and horses |
Back to my beloved double room before dinner time, I laid on my bed at once and watched another movie 'Goya's Ghost' by my goddess Natalie Portman!!! My attention was totally drawn by this movie, I did not even notice the sky was dark already.
However, I did not have the mood to cook for tonight, I could only go to the spaghetti place again. (sad)
 |
| Rock climbing |
When I got into the restaurant, I realized how small Tupiza really was, because I met Mario again. In order not to feel awkward, I took the seat of his table and had dinner with him. He told me he was also going to the salt flat tour tomorrow, and his tour mates were one British and two Australians. I was thinking, was that British actually me?
At night, I surfed on the internet one last time before being cut off from the cyber world. I would miss my beloved double room very much. 4 days 3 nights salt flats tour with no showers and internet and electricity, I AM COMING!!!
 |
| Landscape of erosion |
0 comments:
Post a Comment