Montar a Caballo al Estilo Montaña

In Pisco Elqui we decided to spend the morning horse riding. Now Pisco Elqui is probably the nicest little village in the valley. It has a central plaza shaded by towering trees and where the wooden, white church sits. From here, little side streets run off where many cute little shops sell artisan clothing or jewellery. The lone policeman rides his jittery horse up and down the shady side of the street, chatting occasionally with the men sitting about. Pisco Elqui is also home to another pisco distillery, Pisco Mistral, but we never got around to checking that out.

Instead we ventured down a dirt lane to meet Ramon Luis, our guide for a 2 hour horse ride. He sported knee high shin guards, long protruding spurs, and a broad, flat, straw Chilean cowboy hat. Within the safety of the yard, he taught us to ride Chilean style. Unlike the Australian or English style of riding, to manoeuvre the horse to either the left or the right one has to also shift the entire weight of the body to that side and move the outer rein towards the direction desired, not the inner rein as I was well accustomed to. Chilean horses also apparently like a lot more kissing sounds to encourage them to further forward.

Once this was settled we trode through the village and started our ascent upon the somewhat giant, barrens hills. No room for vertigo or fear of heights. The paths were crazily narrow and practically hanging off the side of some pretty steep cliff-like ridges. A few very, prickly cactus or colourless, dry shrubs were our only neighbours. The oasis of green below us seemed so far away now.

We probably reached 20 metres up and the view was absolutely spectacular but the wind was an atrocity, our borrowed cowboy hats almost flying away if it weren't for the chord tied around our necks. The masses of hair flying in my face made it a little hard to see but once we made a sharp corner, clinging to our horses, the shear size of the hill (or mountain, whatever you want to call it) protected us.

We zigzagged our way up and down in single file, our horses somehow managing to stay balanced as the sand caved from under their feet - obviously not a place for humans to walk alone. The experience was unlike any horse ride I had ever been on. In just a couple of hours we learnt the complexity of the Elqui Valley terrain - perfectly picturesque in its unique way. The only problem I encountered - a few days later that is - was lice, seemingly from the hat I borrowed. Totally worth it though!

Returning to our B&B, we came across a feast and live, acoustic music for our host's birthday; a lovely way to spend our afternoon after using all those muscles we didn't even know we had from horse riding.