Tupiza was a little break for us, to recover from our desert tour, and to take
a breath, literally. At around 3,000 meters Tupiza is the lowest we’d been in
10 days or so, and it was wonderful to be able to walk and talk again, or make
it up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath.
Tupiza is surrounded by some pretty amazing cliffs and canyons, and we visited
most of the usual tourist spots. The first day we took a 5-hour tour on
horseback (actual time in the saddle, probably a little over 3 hours). It’s the
first time I’d been in control of a horse myself, and it was a fun challenge.
I’m sure they didn’t put us on difficult to manage horses, but on occasion our
horses decided they both wanted to be first, and would start to take off on a
trot. The most exciting time was when my horse decided to pass Danielle’s horse
while we were navigating a pretty steep hill.
In any case, the scenery was great. Lots of neat formations and narrow canyons
made from conglomerate rock. Some were red, some were black. Layers were often
vertical. Geology. The next day we did another half day tour, this one by jeep,
to visit a few further away places. It was a little bit more of the same, but a
little bit different as well. Most memorable was the confluence of two rivers,
nearby a nice pinnacle.
We also went to a traveling circus. I don’t know how long it was in town for,
but we took advantage. The show did not include any animals, and was quite
good. It started with a pretty weak dance number, but everything after that was
entertaining, impressive, or both. My favorite bit was probably the act in the
picture above. The clowns also got me to laugh despite not being able to
understand most of what they said.
After our two days in Tupiza, we took a bus to Tarija, which was our proper
relaxing destination.
