Water activities

Our 7:50am pickup came very early on New Year’s Day, but at least we knew we had a free day on the morrow to sleep in. 

We packed our bags before breakfast with ponchos and carefully protected cameras, because by now we had learned that in Costa Rica, despite it being supposedly the dry season, you will get wet.

In fact we decided the national motto, instead of Pura Vida, should be Costa Rica: Everything Is a Water Activity.

Today’s undoubtedly wet activity was a guided horseback ride with views of Arenal Volcano.

It was socked in again, as we had come to expect.

Although it started out gently enough, this was no meandering Hilton Head horse ride.

The trail was steep and muddy with loose rocks.

But we did have a beautiful view of the valley.

And then the guide urged the horses into a fast, jolting trot.

The horses had no sense of personal space; unlike the horses in Hilton Head which are kept a strict six feet apart single file on the trail, these horses bunched up in a herd and didn’t care one bit that you have a leg on either side of them that you’d like not to be crushed against another horse—or a post or tree or barbed wire fence.

Also Jason’s horse (on the left) had trouble getting along well with others.

At the top, once our insides were all turned to jumbled-up jelly, we shakily dismounted and let the horses rest while we looked at the viewpoint we had come for: a spectacular vista of Arenal Volcano. 

It was lost to clouds.

There was a pretty lake at the foot of the volcano, though.

We managed to get back to the stable without anyone falling off, which was an accomplishment considering some of the questionable choices certain horses made when choosing their path. Loose rocks along the edge of the steepest gully? That’s where I’m going.

Lizzy’s camera: A-maz-ing. This bird was impossibly far away.

We found several birds to photograph on our way back to the shuttle stop to take us home—ask Lizzy for all their names.

also a weird iguana god statue

We took our sore, muddy selves to the hotel restaurant for lunch. It was open-air, but we were dry, despite the dumping rain that started back up.

These beautiful birds are like the common pigeons of the tropics

We were all glad to take the downtime while it poured all afternoon. It rained a total of 3.8 inches in the week we were there.

After that rest, we gathered our collective courage and decided to go into the village for dinner. 

We were so glad we did. We ended up at a restaurant within easy walking distance (the rain had subsided to a sprinkle) and ate much better food than the hotel had, and the kids got the smoothies Raphael had told us about.

We vowed never to eat lunch or dinner at the hotel again.

Thursday was our free day, with no excursions planned. We decided to eat our continental breakfast as late as they would let us, make it a lazy morning, and go visit La Fortuna, the nearest real town, in the afternoon.

Here, I sit in light rain at the pool, gazing at the spectacular view of Arenal Volcano.

Incessant rain made lounging at the pool a bit of a bust, but around midday we got a taxi ride into the town.

First up, lunch.

Jason’s rice was on theme: volcano-shaped. Note the pouring rain outside our open-air restaurant.

After lunch, they humored me by visiting a coffee shop. Jed and Ada got swirly milkshaky-type drinks and Caleb got chocolate cake.

After that we visited the town park which was all decorated for Christmas.

Then we ducked in and out of various souvenir shops, dodging the rain, before finally calling a cab to take us home.

With the late start and late lunch and stress of figuring out how foreign taxis work, we took another bit of down time before walking the half-block to a pizza place oddly named Vagabondo after the Charlie Chaplin movie.

Salud!

They had great pizza though, and delicious sangria.