We got up early and had breakfast at "the corner" one last time. We were then picked up and taken to a trail to horseback ride, again, near the base of the volcano. My horse's name was Nano.
We trotted for about 45 minutes, corraled our horses, walked down 600 steps, crossed a suspension bridge, waded through a basin and climbed some slippery boulders to get to La Fortuna, the MOST BEAUTIFUL WATERFALL I've ever seen. It was massive! There was this immense, neverending rush of water plunging down the rocks which created an incredibly forceful splash pool at the bottom.
When you were standing out of the water, looking on, you could feel a light mist from the fall. The mist splashing my face no matter where I stood was something I've never experienced at any other waterfall. Cooling off in the water was lovely! I even climbed up some rocks along the peripheral of the fall because there was a smaller, moss covered wall of cascading water that was absolutely picturesque.
Before long it was time to climb back over the slippery boulders, wade through the basin, cross the suspension bridge and walk UP 600 steps. Woof. At the top they had fresh delicious pineapple for us.
We hopped on our horses and headed to a maleku village so we could see what the indigenous people of Costa Rica (malekus) lived like long ago. They built very, very high roofed houses because they kept fire burning in their homes at all times to keep the bugs away. We were given an incredibly sour traditional drink which we sipped on while they spoke about the different personality types of the maleku people and the masks they create to represent each one.
After, we rode our horses back to the main camp. While riding, I made a few observations/came to some conclusions.
1. Helmets are reduced to merely a poor fashion statement (at best!) when they are not fitted properly and are sliding backwards while bouncing against your head in time with your horse's hooves.
2. Rocky, uneven terrain that is not wide enough for six horses to trot on side by side, when all they want to do is trot side by side, is not ideal. It leads to survival of the fittest, squeeze 'em out edition.
3. Horses that have beef with one another should not be excursioning with one another. Horses that choose to settle their beef with one another while riders are on their backs should not be excursioning at all.
4. Horses that cannot decide whether it is appropriate to walk, trot, canter or gallop, and instead just continuously and abruptly change from one form of movement to the next should be allowed to follow the beat of their own drum in a pasture, sans a rider on their back.
5. Joshua gave a great tour, but my bruising in all the wrong places confirms I won't be heading back to this trail anytime soon.
After finishing our excursion, we headed into town to have some lunch. I had a "Typical Costa Rican Dish" as it was called on the menu. It was very delicious. I also drank a passion fruit smoothie that was incredibly fresh!
After lunch we got ready for our 5 hour drive to Manuel Antonio. La Fortuna, you've been fun, but hasta la vista baby!
Five hours later, against all odds, we have somehow made it to Manuel Antonio, a coastal town on the western side of Costa Rica. Our driver, Alex, was CRAZY. I truly believe that his real life job is acting as a stuntman in movies and that this whole driving thing is just a little side job. He was literally beckoning death the entire five hours. It started innocently enough- reading texts, sending texts, scrolling through facebook, scrolling through instagram, scrolling through cat videos, scrolling just to scroll. Seriously though, looking at the road every few minutes wouldn't hurt you, buddy. Then it evolved into scrolling and swerving because he was sleepy, so we rememedied that with a stop for a Red Bull. Atta boy! Now he was scrolling but alert, which I didn't think could be worse than scrolling while swerving but let me tell you, it was! Scrolling, while racing another car, while cutting off a semi, on the side of a mountain, was just one of many daring decisions he made. We stopped at a rest stop to use the toilets and when I came out I saw him sitting at the counter with a meal. Surely he must've ordered the chicken. It has to be his favorite, because the number of times he played that game with a head on driver on the swervy roads was numerous. After dinner, he disappeared for awhile, then came back out to the van REVVED up. His eyes were wide and he kept rubbing his nose while sniffling. That chicken he ate had either been extra spicy or my friend had just gotten a little 'bump' from something other than his Red Bull. Woof. If we had to die, at least the views were pretty, right?!
By the grace of god, we arrived no worse for the wear at Hotel Villa Prats around 8pm. The owner welcomed us and recommended a spot for dinner. We all needed a beer, or two, or three, after that ride.
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