Hola,

Recently, Cara and I spent two days in Butch Cassidy and Sundance
Kid country, on horseback. Never having ridden a horse (other
than pony rides) before, it was somewhat of an experience.

Horses are big and they run fast. They also have minds of their
own, and so when they get going, really, your wishes are of no
particular consequence.

One last thing -- the ride is bouncy as hell.

So anyhow, we set off with saddlebags packed and our 14 year old
guide, and thus began two straight days of bouncing on my poor
ass.

The scenery was grand, and very reminiscent of the western United
States. Lots of wide open spaces, rocks colored deep hues of
reds, browns, and whites, and us, bouncing along on big fast
stubborn horses.

Twice, we saw flocks of emerald green wild parrots.

Nothing else exciting really happened, except for the time that I
was trying to dismount and my foot got stuck in the stirrup,
which spooked the hell out of the horse and almost got me
dragged. Luckily, the saddle was a complete piece of crap, and
the stirrup just broke off, so I didn't have to get dragged
through dirt and horse shit.

Also, there was the other time that I thought I could just jump
onto the horse from above and take off. Actually, that was a
successful endeavour as I did jump on the horse, and it did start
taking off at very high speeds. However, as neither of my feet
were in the stirrups, I decided to jump back off under my own
recognizance rather than getting bounced off. Twenty minutes
later, our FOURTEEN year old guide caught my horse and calmed it
down sufficiently so that I could mount it in the proper fashion.

At the end of two days, with chafed legs and intimately
acquainted with the term "saddle sore", I was glad to be back in
town (Tupiza, Bolivia), and relaxing by taking a freezing cold
shower at our disgustingly dirty hostel.

/Alex