On Saturday, we woke up early because we wanted to try to go horseback riding in a town north of Cuidad Quesada, called Muelle and then go to a soccer game in a town east of here called Pital. Busses for Muelle only left every hour, so we decided to take a taxi from the bus station. I can't remember how much it costs, but it wasn't very expensive. Anyways, in Muelle, we went to a working cattle and stud farm and wildlife preserve called La Reserva Biológica La Garza. To enter the reserve we had to cross a swinging bridge over a river. The reserve has a restaurant, bar and a pool that day use guests are free to use.
We had a short 20-25 minute wait while our horses were being tacked up, then we were ready to go. I haven't ridden that much, but I felt pretty relaxed as my horse was very layed back and he had very smooth gait being a Paso Fino. We rode on dirt and gravel roads through the farm that cultivates sugar cane as far as the eye can see. Riding on the roads was fun and there was a lot of good scenery, but our guide also took us through forest trails which at first didn't even seem to be trails. Even on the more established trails, he had a machete out and he was chopping off branches and vines. We had to cross through several mud pits and at one point Steph and her horse sunk so far down that her jeans got dirty half way up her lower leg. What's really cool is that we even got to see monkeys that were trying to hide far up in the trees. After riding we returned to Cuidad Quesada so I could shower and change clothes before the soccer game. I felt like I was pushing my luck since my allergies weren't acting up at all.
We caught a bus from the Cuidad Quesada bus terminal at 2 PM for a game that started at 3 PM in a town called Pital (probably only a 40 Km drive). The bus was not only really old and in bad condition, but we stopped probably 30 times between here and there. Since this was the case we ended up getting to the game at 3:30. Don Manuel somehow is an important figure in the local professional soccer world and he had given us his soccer ID badge to get us in for free. He told me to cover up the picture and not to say anything. I didn't want to get his badge taken away, so we paid for the tickets which were probably around $8-$10. After paying we went through a small chain link fence. Inside the fence everybody stands around another chain link fence that is close to the field. The only seating inside this soccer field was a very small grandstand, probably slightly bigger than half the size of ours at Longwood University. Also, I couldn't see any scoreboard or clock anywhere, so we had no idea how much time had passed and what the score was. Another interesting thing was that Steph had to pay 100 Colones to use the bathroom.
At half time, as Paul had instructed us, everybody scrambles to get stamped and leave the stadium to get a drink. There is a bar right outside of the entrance to the stadium because it's illegal to drink inside a stadium in Costa Rica. Paul was actually one of the first people I saw run out. He got my attention because of his British sounding Spanish accent. I couldn't believe the number of people piled around the bar to buy a drink. It seemed impossible, but after a while I managed to buy one each. By this time we had to drink it fast and race back inside for the start of the second half.
The second half was uneventful, but the atmosphere was very good for such a small venue. There was a lot of yelling and cursing at mistakes by the home team and wrong doings by the other team. Before the second half wound down we made sure to purchase our grilled steaks before concessions packed up for the day. Of course they ran out of tortillas, so we just stood by the fence eating a huge hunk of beef with our hands. We then got to take the long bus ride back to Cuidad Quesada which was made even longer by the awesome driving in Costa Rica. The police here don't care much about minor traffic infractions, which is nice, but at the same time it can be more dangerous. After being stopped dead for about a half an hour we passed two tractor trailers that had collided head on. They were directly in the middle of the lane, so obviously one passed when he shouldn't have.
No comments:
Post a Comment