Andes Horse Ride

With the Andes on my door step it seems foolish not to get into the great out doors after a week being bound to the office. I found a website with the promise of a days riding in the mountains, so Saturday at 8am found me looking for the metro to take me to the stables.

Santiago’s metro is a modern affair, clean and safe. The trains run on rubber tires like the Paris metro, all very efficient, and ticket cost 50p to anywhere you want to go. I had one change then I took line four (4) to the penultimate stop. It took an hour and was all very pleasant and at 50p excellent value. The next part of my journey was to catch a “collectable” hand over the written address of the stable and pay another £2.

A collectable, is a taxi which the passengers share, along a predetermined route. You just request the driver to stop and out you jump. If there are more passengers along the route he will stop and let them on board. Many interesting people can be met during this form of transport.

40 minuets later I was deposited out side the stable, not bad for a couple of quid ready to meet my mount.




The horse was a rodeo trained horse which at the slightest touch short of in one direction or another. It took a couple of minuets to get used to, much the amusement of the stable staff and guide.

Off we went up the mountain, to some of the most beautiful views of the Andes. These horses walked along paths I wouldn’t have dreamed of walking on foot. We went along a ledge not a foot wide with a near vertical drop of in excess of 100ft. Not for the faint hearted.

We carried on through gorges and up mountains for a couple of hours only once meeting another guide and riders. We stopped for lunch by a small beck, watered the horses and my guide even produced a can of beer. Idyllic.

Well, yes the scenery definitely. But I had come to ride horses not walk them through though leafy glen and up dale. As we returned to the stable after a four hour walk I was bored. It reminded me of taking my girls pony trekking in Wales four (4) years ago. Charlie was just learning to ride, while George looked very good on a horse. But after three days of walking horses around the Gower every body was bored. Just goes to show it doesn’t matter what the view is without the excitement of a gallop it is just another walk with a horse!