We must be getting used to the hard beds here, Hubby and I both got a pretty good night’s sleep, got mostly packed before our 7:00 breakfast (it’s impossible to sleep late here, no one believes in room darkening drapes so the sun is beaming in the window very early!). In the van by just after 8:00, heading out for a twisty, windy ride around the north, then west side of Lake Arenal. The road took us further west once we got over the continental divide. It’s amazing how it goes from green and verdant to brown and arid just by crossing that imaginary (or rather, not so imaginary) line! We stopped at a very touristy place for a cup of coffee and a bio-break (not to mention, time to get my stomach grounded again!) before heading further west. We stopped again at a grocery store so Hubby could get some brandy (this had become a running gag, always looking for brandy!), and also at a pharmacy for some medicine for my lip (alas, I had a reoccurence of a cold sore, worst I’ve ever had!! My lip looks like I have leprosy or something. Ugh!). Finally, after several miles of gravel road, we arrived at La Ensanada. “Lodge” isn’t exactly the right description, it’s more of a half-circle of cabins facing the Gulf of Nicoya. There was a nice breeze coming in, which was essential, as there was no air conditioning in any of the cabins, just a paddle fan and lots of louvre windows that we quickly opened. Lunch was served shortly, where a group of Dutch tourists settled in at the table next to us. After lunch, we had time to settle in a bit more until our first ride, which was at 3:00. A short siesta later, we were at the barn meeting our new partners. Hubby’s horse was a big gray or blue roan kind of mare (an extremely popular color here) named Falcon (en espanol, of course), mine was a bay gelding named Lucero, and Bill’s was another bay, a mare named Viagra (I’m not making this up!) We headed out along the farm roads, and soon we came upon a tree filled with howler monkeys, which is a sight apparently all the tourists want to see, so we spent a few minutes with them before moving on to a spectacular view of the Gulf of Nicoya from a ridge high above the beach. We continued on, and then the skies started to darken about the time we reached a beautiful salt marsh (salinas) where there were hundreds of bird. Though this is the dry season, they do still have some rain here occasionally, and it wasn’t too long before we were getting wet, which, frankly, none of us minded, as the heat at that time of day was quite oppressive. We trotted most of the way, a few times as the perfect sitting trot I’ve been searching for in a Criollo, but a lot of the time it was quite rough again. The great thing, however, was that the horses were very responsive, very quick to do what they were asked, and that made for a very enjoyable ride. Soon, we came to the “introductory” part of the ride, which was, I guess, to see what we were made of. The wrangler took off across a field first cantering, then galloping, and the rest of us fell in behind, running like the wind! All of the horses seemed quite happy about running, no reluctance at all, yet quite willing to slow down once we got to the other side of the field. It was wonderful! I don’t think Hubby had ever gone so fast on a horse, and certainly not for that extended a period. But that was just the beginning. Field after field, we cantered and galloped across, mostly the latter. We slowed down once more to a short time, then we ended up on the road back to La Ensenada, and started galloping on the gravel road all the way back to the barn, at least a quarter mile, maybe more. Stones were flying, and frankly, it was a miracle no one got hurt when the horses started bunching up a bit, but it was spectacular! Can’t wait to go again tomorrow! We were out only a bit more than an hour, but I got the feeling they cut it a little short because of the rain, which had slackened off a bit after it’s initial downpour, and was almost over by the time we got to the barn. We had a cocktail on the porch (Hubby’s brandy, of course!) before heading over to the dining room (which is really just an open air pavilion), where we had another drink (my first, since I was busy doing laundry during cocktails on the porch. Not long out of bed afterwards, and since the beds here are the most comfortable we’ve had since San Jose, we were both out like a light! (pix to follow)
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