Yo Soy Vaquera

Saturday morning did not start off all that well.

My stomach didn't feel all that great and it was intermittently pouring rain. I had only bread and a banana for breakfast and hoped that it the jostling of the horseback riding wouldn't jostle it right out of me.

I still had not heard from the girls and checked back in with the school, who also hadn't heard from them.

The bus picked me up from the tour company and I met four people from Maryland. Two of whom, a couple, would be my companions for the horseback ride. The others were doing the canopy tours. I was a little relieved because the husband was a little nervous about the horseback riding. I was too. The last time I was on a horse, I was 14 or 15 and I was with my father. We had gone to this place in Norco where I was given an old half blind horse. At least, I think he was half blind because he stumbled over things. At one point when we were galloping (or cantering - whatever is the next step past trotting) the horse stumbled down on his knees. I hung on for dear life and it shook up both my dad and I. I wasn't keen on the idea of going headlong over the top of a horse.

We arrived at the place and were assigned to a young 21 year old man named Jonathan - a nice young Tico who was half Maleku native. He had been working with horses for 20 years - that was comforting. He introduced our horses to us as Terminator, Killer (mine), one other with a scary name I can't remember, and Angel (his). My horse was actually named Bronco, but I appreciated his sense of humor.

We started off and all three of us gringos were a little nervous. The trotting was tough. I now realize that I probably needed my stir ups a little higher so I had more space between the horse and I when I stood up. Oh well...just a little bruising on my backside. We all became comfortable with the horses after awhile and followed a rocky road up along side the jungle toward the fall. We stopped to see a toucan, but it was really too high up and the sun was too bright to really be able to see it.

It seemed much less than 45 minutes when we stopped the horses to walk to the fall. We climbed up to this platform where Jonathan informed us we could change into swimsuits if we wished to swim by the falls, and get some water. The platform looked over the jungle to the waterfall far in the distance. A few cables stretched above the canopy of the jungle. I could not believe how high and how long there were! There is NO WAY I wanted to do the zip line after seeing that. One of them was almost 1/2 mile and over 400 ft in the air. A short line not too far off the ground, I could probably do, but this was crazy! I'm sure it's very safe, but I think I would die of a heart attack - at least vomit while I was doing it.

We were informed that there were about 440 stairs to the bottom (meaning we had 440 to come back up). The walk down was really beautiful, but I was a little wary just because the tour guide from Friday had talked about how there are little eyelash vipers that sometime wrap around the handrails and our tour guide told us how he had seen a huge pit viper that one of the people had almost stepped on in his tour. Anyway, it was a pretty steep climb down. We arrived at the bottom and had a river to cross. I rolled my jeans up and opted to not change into the board shorts I had brought. That was a mistake - I took a few steps in and the water was definitely over my jeans. Oh well - already wet, nothing I could do at that point. I just hoped that it wouldn't be too uncomfortable riding the horse back.

We crossed and walked barefoot on the ground (I have tender feet so not my favorite) up to the viewing point of La Fortuna. It was certainly beautiful. Everything was so lush and green. We took some pictures and then walked back down to the river. Jonathan threw a stick into the water and all the fish came up to it - thinking it was food. The husband thought that was pretty cool, so he got into the water among them (after making sure they weren't piranhas) and tried the same so the fish would surround him and he could get a picture, but it didn't work. We had a good laugh at that - the fish thinking, "stupid tourist thinks he could fool us!".

We began the walk back up - which was pretty tough. I realized that two weeks I had been sick before Costa Rica and then the stomach issues and lack of good food the last two days had really made it that much harder! I was in the lead - which I was a little nervous about - I kept a close watch for any snakes. The couple followed me, and then our guide. There was a little group of wooden steps that I walked up, and when Jonathan was half way up he stopped. There was a tiny pit viper curled up taking a nap. I had walked directly over this little venomous creature, as had the two behind me. It had not moved, nor did we spot it. He blended in perfectly. Jonathan was good enough to take some pictures for us with our cameras of the deadly little creature and then grabbed a huge stick to move it off the pathway. At which point it jumped away. So scary! But it's good to know that it's true - snakes aren't out to get us - only when they get cornered will they bite. Guess this little guy figured as long as we kept moving, he'd continue to chill. I don't know that this snake would kill you all that quickly - I'm guessing it's kind of like a rattlesnake bite, but still that would have sucked to get bitten. Would have been just about ankle or calf level. I've had nightmares about this kind of thing.

Well, we kept moving up, up, up. I was getting pretty exhausted and was definitely sucking in the air. The couple was definitely in good shape ahead of me. We finally reached the top and I wondered how good I would be back on the horse. We rested a bit, I wiped off the sweat which was pouring off of me. It wasn't nearly as warm in Arenal as it had been in Tamarindo (thank God) but it was at least as humid.

Jonathan decided we were good enough riders to take the harder path back down. It really was not much of a path. We saddled back up and Bronco didn't seem all that ready to go. He wanted to keep eating. When it came time to turn off the road, Bronco just stood there. Jonathan had been up ahead with his machete out chopping down some of the jungle that had overgrown on our path. He came to help as his horse stumbled and nose-dived into the mud. The machete was swinging wildly in his hand as tried to keep his balance on the horse - I was so afraid I was going to see something really horrific here, but thank God they all regained their balance and the machete was re-sheathed. He helped lead Bronco onto our muddy, rocky path downhill.

I discovered that going downhill on a horse - and actually uphill - seemed quite easy. This was great! We were surrounded by lush jungle and then it would open up to a pasture with views of the mountains around us. So amazing. At one point we crossed a stream - I was really feeling like I was in the old western movies at this point! Then, we came up to some cattle. Jonathan decided when we were up ahead to let the cattle out. All we three see are cattle running straight for us. I said, "Is he trying to kill us?" The cattle steered away from us and the horses just stood there nonchalantly like this was normal. I have to say it was amazing. It was beautiful. I had the thrill that cowboys must get. The pasture we followed them through was gorgeous. The vistas were unbelievable. I was really glad Jonathan had enough confidence in us to go this route.

We stopped at the Maleku village. The Maleku are the only tribe left in the northwestern part of Costa Rica and there are only about 600 left. Because of the need to avoid inbreeding, the tribe will be extinct in about 70 years. They currently are an agricultural group but have this little cultural center for the tourists. There, they dress up in traditional attire and talk a little about the history and culture. Also for sale are the beautiful masks and rain sticks they make. I bought a pretty little stick with birds painted on it.

We got back on our horses, which was getting harder and harder to do. My ankle started to cramp up some, so I didn't feel very confident in trotting but luckily we were close to home. At the end of the ride, we quickly walked through a butterfly and poisonous frog garden. There really wasn't much to see, but I did enjoy the ducks that had puffs of feathers on the top of their heads looking like a toupee. The two frogs that they showed me were pretty incredible. The first frog was bright fluorescent green and black and the next one was red and black. They were tiny and beautiful.

We were rather late getting back to the hostel, but my hostel manager was so nice and let me keep my room until the shuttle came for me in an hour. I took a shower - because I knew I smelled like a horse and was muddy. Then I was starving, but I didn't have time to walk to get lunch. The manager was kind enough to get out some fruits for me. Still, the girls hadn't shown up, so I was definitely concerned. I called the school again and the director decided he probably should make a police report. I really hoped the girls were okay and just stuck somewhere - that nothing bad had actually happened.

The shuttle picked me up and it was a full van. I had a back seat, which I was a little concerned about since I can get a little car sick. There was a mother and daughter in the back row with me from Wisconsin that I talked to for awhile. Again, I was pretty sure that I might die in a car accident. The driver took the curvy roads so fast and the tires would screech. Then, he would suddenly slow way down because there was a portion of the road that had huge potholes or wasn't paved.

I arrived at the Ramada shortly after 5p. My room was so nice - a big soft bed with a great duvet cover. Warm water, a huge TV with English channels - room service that was cheaper than the restaurants. I laid in bed and just relaxed - watched two movies and ordered arroz con pollo (not nearly as good as the homemade stuff) and tres leches (not as good as Felix's either).

One more day and I would be home!