Costa Rica Day 5: Horseback Ride

We woke up early to head out for the first of our planned trips, a horseback ride through the rain forest. We were able to get some coffee and breakfast before leaving at 7:15. We began by making our way to Puerto Jimenez, and from there took a tractor to the site where the ride began- It was a pretty brutal trip- about 1.5 hours in a bumpy seat hitched on to the tractor in the blazing sun through dirt roads and riverbeds.

The horse ride itself was beautiful and we saw quite a bit of plant life, if not many animals. The horses kind of had a mind of their own as well. They would kind of stop here or there to eat stuff, or check other stuff out. I say they had a mind of their own. . . this was also probably in large part due to my hesitation to use a switch our guide had fashioned for me at the beginning of the trip. I'm kind of a soft touch when it comes to animals. The horse probably intuited this.

About halfway through the ride we stopped at the lodge for lunch with a suspension bridge high up over a creek. The food was great, a unique combination of manicotti, eggs, beef, and tomato sauce along with a local squash and cabbage slaw. They also provided pineapple juice (which had been freshly created) and was remarkably tasty. After lunch everyone (guide included) took a nap in a set of hammocks overlooking the forest.

From there we took the tractor back to Puerto Jimenez and a cab back to the Iguana Lodge. The heat was pretty unrelenting for the duration of the trip, so even though we arrived home by about 4:00, we were pretty exhausted. Upon our return, we jumped in the ocean to cool off and then got some dinner at the Pearl. After a couple of hands of Rummy 500, we called it a night.