Horsing around
Today we went on a really cool adventure! We booked a horseback riding tour in Quepos.
Randall our tour guide came and picked us up in a Van, one other lady named Stephanie was on the tour with us. She was a Canadian Preschool teacher from Halifax, really nice, super enthusiastic about birds.
Randall’s grandfather originally purchased 100 hectares of land for farming which was split between his kids, who now all live in the town of approx 70 people. It’s a gorgeous spot in the middle of nowhere pretty much. Super peaceful, tight knit community of farmers and now a tourism sparked by Randall with the horseback tours.
You can tell how passionate and positive he is, he spoke so highly of Costa Rica and his community it almost made me tear up in the drive in. He told us all about the history of the American Fruit Company, and how it is now an active palm farm. He explained how the forest has really come back to the area and how in the past 6 years he has convinces his dad to stop the farming side and focus on bringing the forrest back. In just 6 years it has transformed completely and now fresh spring water runs through the property.
At the stable we were assigned horses, we learned that horses will adapt to the temperament of the rider. They were incredibly well trained horses, you really didn’t have to direct them much they knew the routine and would follow Randall and his father who joined us for the ride.
The property was beautiful. There were hills and creeks and really interesting trees full of biodiversity. 6% of the worlds biodiversity reside in Costa Rica which is proportionally huge for the size of the country. He knew so much about the wildlife including their English, Spanish and Scientific names, he called the new trees his babies because he is the one doing the hard work of bringing the forest back to its full state.
As we rode through the property we stopped at a potential Native Quepos burial site, he could identify it by the perfectly cut square rocks. It’s bad luck to disturb such sites so they leave it alone, additionally if there is a significant site the government will seize the land so clearly they do not want that to happen. Better not touch it.
We stopped and took a mini nature walk where we saw a poisonous tree frog. Randall seemed unfazed by the whole “poison” thing because he picked it up and flipped it over because when you do that they basically get paralyzed and just chill right out and sit there until you flip it back over, it was wild.
We also got to touch this giant tree that the native people regarded as the tree of life, if you can sense energies, you are supposed to be able to feel the energy from the tree. I don’t think I have that ability but I did feel small compared to the tree so that did make it seem pretty powerful… and old.
We learned about the palm plant you can eat in the forrest and the Corpse flower plant that is filled with water you can drink if you are stuck in the forest so I am feeling ready to survive! .. except for all the predators and poisonous animals and bugs.
Speaking of which Talia and Maddy help a centipede. FREAKY!
Back on the horses we rode to a waterfall on the property and took a swim/ cooled off. It was much needed though we were lucky that it was a more cloudy day and we didn’t get fried. God I can’t imagine growing up here, and just chilling in waterfalls regularly and being in a community where everyone knows each other.
Riding back to the stable we came across a new born calf and its mother. Apparently it was only a few hours old! So in true Guacho (cowboy) form his father led the cow back to the herd with its baby. We got to see baby’s first swim as it stumbled its way through a creek on it’s way back.
As part of the tour you get lunch included at a local restaurant, it was so good! We all picked the mahi mahi casando and got surprise strawberry drinks. Casado = typical dinner, usually rice, meat, beans, vegetables, plantains, salad, or some other sides. It’s really well rounded.
Overall an incredible tour!
After the tour we drive to Uvita, I slept in the car basically the whole way.
We walked to the beach, we met some little street dogs on the walk there that followed us to the beach. All the dogs are so friendly and seem well cared for, there was kibble with them and they all look healthy. They sort of seem like shared neighborhood dogs more than “strays”.
The beach in Uvita is CRAZY beautiful, and looked a lot like Tofino. We took a swim and did the stingray shuffle. May is when the Stingrays mate so its extra common to see them, Matt spotted on which spooked us so we were extra careful to shuffle our feet to avoid being stung, they only sting if they are stepped on.
We had dinner at the restaurant beside the hostel and decided today would be our party night. I say that loosely because this is a sleepy town and we also get tired at like 9 pm here.
We asked the server where people go and walked to the bar he recommended Coco Bongo. We were obviously there too early but it was fun to listen to the Spanish music and do some very cringey dancing. The locals can really move, I would love to learn one day but we did our white girl attempt at salsa with our little group of 6.
We chatted with some Costa Ricans and met Enrique and local who seems really well connected, he has a friend with a surf rental company so we will be doing that tomorrow.
