Costa Rican Caballos

The highlight of my trip to Costa Rica was our horseback ride in Monteverde. I had only been in touch with El Sol via email, but our driver arrived at our hotel right on time. When we discovered our two guides only spoke Spanish, they were equally surprised to discover we only spoke English. I had to dig deep into my BYU Spanish 101 roots - it'd been several years. Unlike any horseback riding I have done in the USA, there was no helmets, no safety lessons, no liability waivers, no anything. We arrived, they helped us climb on, and we left.

The terrain through the Monteverde countryside was beautiful. Danny and Kaya had fun riding with me and Mindy. We went across hillside pastures and then down into the forested valleys. The trail was steep and difficult, but the views were beautiful. We galloped through trickling waterfalls and streams and trotted up steep muddy banks. I felt a little guilty since I'd set this up, and none of us were expecting such a challenging ride.
Mom Hong was a trooper, but I knew she was feeling particularly miserable when she said, "I hope there's a van at the end to take us back." Nope. We had to ride back. Sorry mom.
We all agreed it was worth the tiring two hour ride when we arrived at the secluded waterfall. It was breathtaking.



We changed into our swimsuits behind the horses and jumped right into the frigid water. Lance, Matt, and I even jumped off one of the cliffs into the pool at the bottom. Sadly, since I was jumping I didn't get any pictures of us jumping off. I'll have to steal some from Mindy.

The guides brought out the lunch they had prepared that morning - beans, rice, sweet lemon, and the most delicious pineapple ever. We all relaxed and enjoyed the scenery while the guides tried their hand at some fishing. Danny had some lessons in skipping rocks. So far he's got the pick up a rock, throw it in part down pretty good.























The whole experience relaxing at the waterfall with just us was wonderful - so peaceful and rejuvenating. The ride home was as fun for me as the ride down - even a little more fun because I knew how long it would take.










Danny was exhausted from the waterfall fun. The rhythm of the horse's walk lulled him right to sleep in my arms. The whole experience was AMAZING! I guess I'm more of a cowgirl than I thought. :)