Sabado - Andar Caballos y Volcan!

Saturday we returned to La Fortuna to go one one of the best trail rides I've ever been on - certainly had the best horse component. We went with Don Tobias, which was through some hotel, but looked like it was the best option around. We would be riding for around 3 hours and would get to go as close to the lava flows as is allowed.

We booked it through Annie's Tours (I'd spoken to her on a bus stop over the week before) and she was really great. There were even handwritten signs in Hebrew saying how awesome she was (which J enjoyed). We hung out in La Fortuna for a few hours before our ride and had some Dos Pinos ice cream. Their slogan is .... siempre, algo mejor (....always, something better), and I can't really argue. Never been disappointed.

When we got to Don Tobias, things looked promising. There was an actual barn and all of the horses looked healthy. We got horses that were to our ability levels and rode on some of the hilliest terrain I've ever been on. We basically rode up the volcano to a lookout point where a pretty popular hotel used to be... until an eruption in 2000 killed some of the guests!

My horse, who apparently liked to gallop (the guide, Marvin kept wanting me to take off with him), was named Chingo.

It took me about two days to realize why the word was familiar.... Chingar means to f*ck. It also means to annoy, but either way, interesting.

On the ride, we saw sloths (two and three toed), howler and spider monkeys, parakeets, and parrots, rode through horse and cattle pastures, and got to wade into a lake to cool our horses down. Our group only had 5 people in it, but towards the top, we joined another that probably had about 12 and two dogs following along. It was kind of fun to be in such a big group.

Finally! Saw ALL of Arenal... It only took 5 visits to La Fortuna to get about a minute with no clouds... Now I just have to go back at night and see the lava :)