Is this horse young? - Saturday 5/19/2012

This morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel at 8:00am. We had pancakes, pineapple, orange juice, and a banana. At 8:30, Kaydee, David and I went horseback riding to La Fortuna waterfall. The rest of the group rode the bus there. A guide from the horseback riding company picked us up at the hotel then drove us to the stable. There were people in our group also from North Carolina and California, so there were about 12 of us in our group.

We got assigned horses, and mine was named Leas. She was pretty small with blond-ish hair and was really pretty! I didn't realize it was hard to get on a horse!! There were 2 guides, Rudy and Joelle. They gave us instructions on how to handle the horses, and where we were going to go. We rode 1 hour to the waterfall, was at the waterfall for 1 hour, then 1 hour back on horses. We started to ride, and I just knew that my horse was young. When I told her to slow down, she'd speed up. When I told her to go left to avoid the trees, she'd go into the trees. So I asked the guide, and he said she was only 6 years old. It was just my luck to get the pony.. :) Leas had a friend, too. Every time Leas would get away from this one horse in the group, she would either speed up to catch up to her, or move to be next to her.

The path to the waterfall was sort-of through the forest and next to Arenal volcano. There were a ton of hills and a few creeks to cross. The hills by the creeks were made of big rocks, so I was afraid that my horse was going to slip and fall because she was clumsy to begin with! Some of the time, Leas would start trotting up or down the hill, so I was holding on for my life. At one point, she actually started full-out running. Not trotting, but running. It took me a bit to get her to slow down. I think she just slowed down because she got tired, not because I told her to. We reached the waterfall and put the horses in the shade near the trees. Then, the group and I went down to the waterfall. 458 steps to the bottom, on a path through the rainforest, very steep. The waterfall was so beautiful. It's probably the prettiest thing I've ever seen. There were rocks everywhere, so it was dangerous for your feet and ankles because they could slip and get caught between the rocks. Thankfully, that didn't happen to me. The water was FREEZING. It felt good after riding horses, but it was so cold. I only stayed in there for a little bit.

Then, we had to climb back up the path. 458 stairs up a steep mountain path. Worst thing EVER. But, now I can say I've climbed a mountain. We rode the horses back to the stable, then went back to the hotel. We had a quick lunch, then got on a bus to go to Monteverde, the rainforest. The bus ride was about 20 minutes, then we had to go on a boat/ferry on the water to get to the mountains where the forest is. The ferry ride was about 1 hour. It was a beautiful ride. We were in the middle of the body of water surrounded by mountains and the volcano.

When we reached land, we took another bus for about 2 hours to get to our hotel by Monteverde. The bus ride was so scary. We had to drive through the actual mountains, which are extremely steep and made of loose gravel. To make it worse, we were about 1 foot away from the edge of the cliff, with nothing stopping us if we fell. Just an open cliff. That lasted for about 2 hours. My heart was beating so fast the entire time! To make it worse, he would swerve to avoid potholes, then get even closer to the edge.

Finally, we made it to the hotel alive. We ate at a restaurant/bar down the mountain (yes, we had to climb down and up the mountain to get there) then went back to the hotel and slept. My legs are so sore!!!

La Fortuna waterfall from the top of the path.

On the ferry to Monteverde.