All that and a bunch of rocks! Tupiza, Bolivia

Hostal Tupiza Florida and Pedro Arraya, 25 Bolivianos x person

After the bus ride from hell, we fought all urges to flop in our beds like a bag of rocks and sleep the day away. We made the usual rounds: main plaza, market, internet and mirador. Beautiful, as always. (In California we always said "Another beautiful beach." In Germany I imagine my parents said "Another beautiful castle." We have our South American version :) We also organized our (upon Lori´s request) horseback riding tour for the next day.

Horseback riding? Lori? You´re confused. So was I.

One "must see" in our guide book is the rock formations around Tupiza, which you can visit hiking, biking, jeeping or horseback riding. Lori surprised the pants off me by suggesting we check out horseback riding prices. We decided that the next day, we´d take a 3 hour tour (possibly 5 hours, depending on the pain in our butts.)

Bright and early, we met with Milton, our 19 year old, conversational, friendly, "Have you ever had a boyfriend for 3 hours (or 5, depending on our tour choice)?" tour guide. Although every chance he got, he tried to convince us to do a 3 day tour, he was a great, harmless guide.

We saw amazing, mysterious, dark red colored, clay, rock formations, in literally all sorts of shapes and sizes. We visited visited La Puerta del Diablo (The Devil´s Door), El Valle de los Machos (The valley of rocks shaped as male reproductive organs), El Cañon del Inca (The Inca Canon) and finally, El Cañon del Duende (The Elf Canon.) It was amazing that this little hole-in-the-wall town housed such natural wonders. It was a chill, rocky day.

Through all the rock sightseeing, we did pick up the pace and nervously gallop a bit, pretending we were in a western movie with John Wayne. Little did we know, Tupiza was nothing compared to the tumbleweeds and wild wild west we were about to see in our next stop.