Horse riding in Patagonia

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I'd also taken an afternoon trip horse riding through the steppes around El Calafate

I'd never expected just how barren and empty the region was to be. Argentina is a huge country but other than BA it's quite sparse as you can see on the photo, which is only a few miles from one of the tourist hubs of Patagonia

There was the guide, one other client, and myself. We'd gone out for about two hours, stopped for lunch along the Lago Argentino, and then it's back. The guide took his dogs, who had managed to catch and eat a rabbit along the way.

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My horse (at right above) was altogether lazy, as one might guess from the distance between myself and the other two. Maybe he learned from the guide, who disappeared for a half hour's nap after lunch along the lake ?

Nevertheless, this seems like an impossibly uncomfortable mode of transport. Being on one's own legs seems rather more dignified and not much slower. Particularly when the horse is galloping, one has to counteract the motion beneath with one's own legs - I felt like I was doing as much work as the horse in the end

So this adds to the camel, the poney, and the elephant that I'd ridden before...