Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - Last Ride in Costa Rica

Slept late this morning!! Didn’t wake up (other than for a few minutes each time the rooster crowed and the dogs barked and the monkeys howled) until 8:00! That’s the latest since we’ve been here, must be the lazy atmosphere of the Caribbean coast, feels just like one of the islands! Managed to get breakfast and still be ready to go riding by just after nine, with me back on Santana and Hubby on Alaska. Raul isn’t here today, he’s off to a school to learn English better, so we have Natasha, a Dutch émigré with a goth-like mane of black hair, very tall and thin with striking blue eyes. We mounted up and headed out, with her on an old stallion who was sluggish and apparently half-blind, so we didn’t get out to trot at all like we did with Raul. In fact, we didn’t trot at all on this trip, we just walked on the road and in the jungle, and cantered (and momentarily galloped) on the beach. I have to say I preferred Raul. I asked Natasha several times to stop so that I could take some pictures and she ignored me, leaving me with the choice of punishing my horse by making him stay while the lead horse moved on, or forgetting about my pix. Obviously, I let it go, but it was a disappointment, though the ride itself was just right. We were out just under three hours, and had a great time solidifying some of the things we’d learned over the last two weeks. Our own horses are going to be in for a surprise when we get back! Got back around noon, cooled down a bit, than rec’d a request from Brigitte that we clear out of our room asap so her maid can get in to do the cleaning before she left for the day, so we had to rush around, grab a shower, pack as best we could then move everything out on to the patio so that the girl could clean. Her cook had left us a couple of sandwiches for lunch which we scoffed down, then we finished packing and waited for the bus to pick us up. It arrived at 2:30, which was right on time according to our tour company, but then we ran into bad rain and fog on the mountain, plus the driver seemed unaware that we had a 6:00 connection with another bus to get back to our hotel, but when I told him he assured me after calling his office that a bus would be waiting (as best as I could understand, for he spoke little English, and I speak little Spanish), but when we arrived, we were surprised and delighted to discover our new friend Paulo was there to meet us!! How great it was to see him again! Apparently the Interbus service didn’t wait for us after all, so Paulo came out to rescue us when the Costa Rican Reps office learned of the confusion. After many hugs and thanks, Paulo dropped us off at the beautiful Bougainvillea Hotel again. We invited him to dine with us, but he had a pickup at the airport at about 5:00 in the morning, so he deferred. We’re hoping to see him again before we leave, but were very thrilled he was there to help us again. Ran up to our rooms, changed clothes, went straight to the bar for a drink, then had another FABULOUS dinner in the hotel restaurant. We’re starting to wind down now, and we are SO glad we have tomorrow to sleep all day if we want. Couldn’t imagine trying to fly back tomorrow!