So the reason the hostel was so booked up might have something to do with the Dakar rally coming through town. All morning the helicopters flew over and the motorbikes, quad bikes and vehicles and trucks zoomed past. The start of the special was at Uspallata.

In the afternoon I rented a horse again and we went up to some old copper mines above the valley. The horses worked hard climbing the hills. I wanted to get off and walk up alongside mine but the guide would have none of it laughing at me!

There was a small entrance into the old mines and we just kept on walking back through a low tunnel you could see where they had dug out the seam of copper.

The horses waiting for us at the copper mines mine was the older and more relaxed horse the guides was young and a little skittish!

The erosion of the rocks is amazing it shows all the types that I learnt about at university.