Today was an incredible day... exactly what I was picturing when I first envisioned my trip to Costa Rica. My new-found Swiss friend Oliver and I hooked up with a tour group that does horseback riding trips into the mountains near here and then includes a hike to a waterfall!! I am pretty sore from not having ridden a horse in oh.... 6 years, but I am definitely not complaining.

We left the hostel, (which we have nicknamed "Bates Motel" for the eerie eccentricity of the owner. He is a very quiet and small man, who catches you off guard with unexpected jokes... unexpected, because one would expect him to have stuffed his mother and kept her in a hammock under a palm tree in the backyard... not to be cracking random jokes. At first, it was rather awkward, but I think we've grown on him and I dish out a few of my own jokes, which he seems to appreciate) around 8 and had some breakfast before leaving. I then very ungracefully clambered up my horse (who it turns out had a bad wheezing problem and sounded like he was going to keel over any second... not to mention the fact that he totally bullied me and I had no choice but let it graze by the side of the road until our guide came and reminded him we had somewhere to be...). We rode on the beach, which was truly amazing and beautiful and then continued on the main dirt road until we slipped into some more overgrown stretches, where our horses had to trudge through some pretty deep mud and I found myself sending it positive vibes and praying that I wouldn't be ejected from its back. Our guide hacked away at shrubbery and vines with his machete (pretty hot, I must say)and mostly cleared the path, though I had to duck more than a few branches... which may just have been my horse's passive aggressive way of letting me know it would have preferred to stay at home grazing peacefully.

After about 1 1/2 hours, we reached a house where we left the horses and continued our journey by foot. From that point on, I don't think I was dry the rest of the time. I trekked closely behind our guide, who continued to wack at any obstruction in the path. After a few close whacks of the machete, that sent thick branches falling to our feet, I decided to follow the guide a little less closely. I feared that a miscalculated blow would send an errant finger of mine flying into the green lushness of the jungle, never to be found again. Things like that happen, right? While walking, we saw several poisonous frogs and leaf-cutter ants. The path was extremely muddy and slippery the whole way, because it rained so much yesterday.

Finally, after about 45 minutes, we reached the waterfall. I was hot and there was not a dry spot on my shirt. I immediately peeled off my layers and went for a swim. It was marvelous! So refreshing and beautiful. This is my ideal.. I was in heaven.

After lunch, we started on the hike back to the horses. We took a different path that seemed much more slippery. I'll admit that I fell more than my fair share of times and became completely caked with mud. On the trip back, we saw a dead armadillo. When our guide pointed it out to us, it looked like a leaf with some gooey light pink stuff spread all across it. I wasn't sure what he was trying to tell me that it was. It wasn't until he covered his mouth and nose, took a stick,and flipped it over, revealing its distinctive rough exterior, that I realized what it was. It was crawling with ants and soon after recognizing what it was, I quickly moved on. On a particularly muddy and steep downhill part, I went down toboggan style (as did the guide (not on purpose)). When I landed at the bottom, he signaled for me to look under a branch. There was a small brown snake, with some kind of darker pattern on its back slithering away... poisonous.

We made it back to the horses and the ride back was actually rather long. Now I'm walking like a cowboy. I'm exhausted and so satisfied from today. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to go snorkeling. I'm going to stay just for half the day tomorrow and then head to Puerto Viejo for more beach action.