It appears that the chill nature of Costa Rica has finally caught up with us my friends. We did not book up our day yesterday like we did in the past. With EJ feeling a little crispy and a beautiful backdrop of the Pacific Ocean by the resort pool, we decided to spend the morning resting, reading, and enjoying the atmosphere. No hiking or nature walking this morning, although we saw a few iguanas looking for a morning snack from a gullible tourist. The ocean iguanas look a lot different then the ones we saw in the forest. They don’t have the frills and a lot more streamlined and quicker on their feet. I almost finished my current book, while Elsa took a midmorning nap. Luckily, I have a kindle so I will not have to look for another book when I have completed this one.
After relaxing away the morning, we were picked up by an ‘Iguana tours’ guide for our horseback riding escapade. After a short van ride, we were taken to a small ranch on a private beach. We met a couple from Baltimore who were going to ride with us. They had been married for 51 years and it was the woman’s lifelong dream to ride a horse on the beach. Alas, neither of them had any real horse riding experience and with my limited ride time it meant that there would be little trotting and no galloping through the waves today. Elsa was given a spirited mare named Roner (runner J) and I was matched up with Pedra, my soul-mare. Pedra was a female horse version of me. She was big, sleepy and eternally relaxed. Pedra liked to walk at one pace, she did not like to trot or stop. She got into a groove and wanted to keep going. It didn’t matter how slow or fast the other horses were going or what I asked of her, she did her own thing. This is likely what you would experience when hiking or walking with me. I could only get her to trot for short periods and she wanted to walk in the water… but we soon came to an agreement. She would walk the way that she knew we had to go at her own pace, and I would sit back, take pictures and enjoy the ride. Elsa had her own experience. Her horse would trot but would not turn around (she simply refused to walk on ground that she had already walked on). So EJ would trot ahead then have to stop and wait. Our two lovebirds were too nervous to go at faster than a walk (so my horse hung with them) … so our trip was limited to that. 
At the start of the trip, our guide was thrown by his horse. His horse was a 2-year-old stallion that had apparently had enough work for one day. This really instilled us with confidence in his animal husbandry skills…. but c’est la vie right? So he had to walk the stallion behind us the whole time. Even lunging and slow, soft talking would not tame this fidgety beast. Of course, since our girls were used to following, rather than walking ahead of the leader who was walking next to his horse, this made them a little fidgety. My Pedra handled it well though and just kept plodding along. The beach walk at sunset was awe-inspiring and I hope our pics reflect that. After our ride and a homemade dinner, we headed back to the hotel.
Our amateur herpetologist finally caught a gecko through skill and guile. There was a brief moment of concern for our sticky footed friend when it jumped out of her hands and scooted under the door into our hotel room. The room was air-conditioned (too cold) and did not have any bugs (windows closed), so I feared for the little one’s safety. Luckily, we were able to herd it to our balcony safely. After this mini-adventure we decided to settle in for further relaxation.
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| Our newest catch! |
Tomorrow we get to boat with dolphins and snorkel!
Zach
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