Sat Aug 12

I woke up at 5:20 and actually was out the door by 5:40, determined that today I would finally do some morning yoga on the beach. First I biked to Sunset Point which is a nearby overlook. I laid out my mat here as the ground is flat and the view is nice.

I quickly realized that I missed the salty spray of the ocean and squishy sand under my feet so I biked down to Playa Blanca. As I entered the beach I passed by a local Tico who was holding an impressive, large red snapper. The early Tico gets the pargo! Other than that one fisherman, there was no one at the beach. I laid out my mat pretty close to the water and started to do some yoga. But honestly I got distracted watching the hermit crabs scurry and scuttle by, inspecting potential shells for new homes.

Around 7 I decided to head back. When I got back I ran into the wife of our Airbnb host and her little beagle. We talked for a bit before turning in for breakfast. Today’s daily fruit was cantaloupe.

Around noon we headed to Playa Negra, this time sans bikes, on foot. We decided against biking because we were planning to take a taxi home after going out to dinner in Los Pargos. Along our walk we saw some bright green Jesus Christ lizards! They get their nickname from their ability to run on water.

Once we got to the beach I bought a pipa fria (cold coconut). James took a nap under the shade of a tree while I decided to finally- for real this time!- do some beach yoga.

At Playa Negra the sand is black, glittery, soft and fine. At low tide, the beach is packed down and firm, flat and even, making it the perfect floor for yoga. After an excellent yoga session, I went for a swim to wash off all the sand.

Now, Playa Blanca is my favorite beach because it offers great snorkeling. In comparison, Playa Negra is lacking in the plant and fish life department as there are far less reefs and rocky outcrops. The water level here stays pretty constant, waves break onto tables of water. Not to say there isn’t any wildlife! I found a cool sea snail (an Olivella Biplicata or purple olive shell) and let him crawl over my leg for a few seconds. 

Originally we had planned on smoothies at Mike’s (Jalapeño Cafe) before heading to our horseback riding excursion but it took longer than expected to change out of our beach attire and we were running behind schedule. Hah, “schedule” is a word that shouldn’t exist here on the Pacific coast! We grabbed our smoothies and hightailed it to Avellanes, to Guti Tours, where we had a 3:30 reservation.

On our way a car slowed down next to us and a Tica rolled down her window asking if were were going to the horses. I suppose our long pants gave it away. We told her yes and that we had miscalculated the time to get there on foot. She said no worries, she would call her husband to come pick us up in his grey pickup truck. So she drove off and we continued walking. Eventually a grey pickup came and we got in. I sat in the front with Andrey and James climbed in the back. It would have been a very long walk so I’m grateful he picked us up.

We got there, signed waivers, went over riding instructions, and hopped on our horses. We were with another family: a man, woman and their 7-year-old daughter. The dad was nervous. “We’re just going to walk right?” to which Andrey replied,

“We can walk, we can trot, if you want you can gallop, do whatever you like!”

The dad nervously announced, “We’re just going to walk!” 

I talked to his wife a bit, she told me that they only had ridden horses once before in Hawaii and it was basically just sitting on the horse while it slowly walked around. I would agree that this was also my experience with scenic horse rides. I’m happy with any sort of horse excursion and simply being on the beach was my only requirement. Having done a handful of vacation horse rides before, I was expecting to simply walk along the beach, calmly enjoying the views. I had accepted that unless I took proper lessons, I would never gallop or go any considerable speed.

We started off, towards the beach. The horses knew to follow each other but the riders were definitely in command. My horse, Ceniza, was a beautiful ashy grey dappled color. James had Principe, a larger white horse with specks of grey. The horses did not ride with bits in their mouths, but rather soft roped reins, following direction when the reins touched the sides of their necks. 

After a quick wade through a flooded road, we stepped onto the beach and walked a bit before picking up the pace. Our two guides, Andrey and his dad Jesús, encouraged us to go around the slower horses, “Vamos Ceniza, a la izquierda!”

So we did! Eyes wide open, I held on tight as she ran free, gliding over the beach in smooth, long strides. It was such a freeing and invigorating feeling! I felt deeply humbled and grateful to be on this majestic animal as she galloped with power and grace.

The guides quickly decided to break up our group. Jesús would go with me and James because we weren’t afraid to go fast. The family would trail behind with Andrey.

So off we went! It was a gorgeous ride, the horses walked slowly and cautiously over the black volcanic rock outcroppings, then on our cue they broke into trots and full gallops over the sandy stretches of beach. We flew over the sand! Not going to lie, I was a little scared at first, but that fear soon melted away as I concentrated on moving with my horse.

It was a thrilling and exhilarating ride! I had really only barely trotted before. Now I was flying full speed across the sand!

At one point we went up a very steep path, leaving the beach and going up a trail on the hilltops, high above the beach. We had beautiful views overlooking the ocean. We stopped briefly to take some pictures before continuing on and eventually making our way back down to the beaches via a steep, narrow rocky path. I was a little nervous here too, but all I could do was trust my horse and also make sure she knew that I trusted and believed in her.

Ceniza was very sensitive and perceptive. I could tell that when I got a little nervous she would match my energy. She was very cautious as she made her way over the volcanic rock outcroppings, stepping gingerly, making sure not to slip on the slick black rocks. As soon as I praised and encouraged her, “Tu puedes, tu puedes, eres muy bien,” she moved with more confidence. I talked to her a lot during the trip and I think this helped to build some sort of a connection. By the end of our ride she was acutely aware of and quickly reacted to my directions. I would like to think that I had somehow managed to establish a bond of trust and communication, but probably her obedience and attentiveness is more likely due to the excellent training. I never felt unsafe or out of control as Ceniza was very in tune to my body language and verbal commands.

James’ horse, Principe, had more attitude and would sometimes bump nose to butt and nip at other horses if allowed the chance. At one point he tried leaving the beach and James struggled a little to turn him back. 

While galloping, Jame’s hat flew off, my hat flew off and his sunglasses flew off! We didn’t expect to be going so fast so we hadn’t really secured everything well. When we had turned back to look for the sunglasses, Jesús went ahead of us, maybe thinking that the glasses had fallen off way back. We found the sunglasses pretty quickly and shouted to Jesús but he was too far away to hear us and rode off and out of sight. We stopped where we were and waited for Jesús. This was kind of weird to be left alone with the horses, but honestly it was great because we really got a chance to be independent with our horses and to better establish that we were the ones in charge. After about 7 minutes Jesús returned and we continued on with our ride.

Our ride took us all the way from Playa Avellanes back towards our Airbnb, to Playa Junquillall. We exited the beach there and walked up a dirt road. James and I were familiar with this road, it was the one we took on our first beach day! We rode the horses a minute down the road before pulling into a lot. We dismounted, secured our horse to a post, then followed our guide Jesús to a secluded upper level bar/restaurant that overlooked the jungle canopy and beach. While at this bar, we went up even higher to a smaller, private terrace for an even better view. We saw a large fat orange iguana sitting in a nearby tree. 

We enjoyed a few drinks in this gorgeous setting and got to know Jesús. He is Tico, born and raised. His family has been raising and training horses for over 100 years. We talked about Costa Rica in general and shared that we would try surfing. He told us that 50 years ago this area was full of big sharks. The sharks would “ride the waves”, their fins visible as they cut through the water.

Eventually Andrey and the family joined us. I hope they had a good time, but I suspect language was probably a little bit of a barrier and they weren’t expecting such a carefree, independent ride. Soon after arriving, they said their goodbyes. We talked to Andrey a bit and learned that it was his birthday! He also showed us a video compilation of his dad riding bulls when he was young. Apparently Jesús was a bit of a local legend in the bull riding circles! We also talked about how we had struggled finding somewhere to buy fish, so he gave us his fish guy’s number. It was the same guy who had stopped texting us the other day! Andrey laughed it off and said that he probably went swimming, Pura Vida. He also gave us the number of another fish guy and told us about boats near Playa Negra that bring in fresh fish around 5pm. 

The sun was starting to set so we got back up on our horses and rode back to Playa Negra as the extra horses from the family followed alongside. We rode fast,  past beachgoers who all looked envious of us up on our beautiful horses. Sometimes some dogs would bark and chase the horses for a little bit, but the horses were unfazed.

We galloped as the sun set, casting a warm orange glow over the sand, sky and ocean reflecting shades of pink, dark blue clouds scattered thinly across the sky… it was incredible. Every sunset is of course beautiful, but this sunset was the most impressive we’ve seen in Costa Rica thus far. And we were seeing it on horseback! I felt so happy and fulfilled and alive.

Finally we got back to Playa Negra and here we dismounted and said our goodbyes (and paid!) . We walked up the road trail and into the town of Los Pargos. And not a moment too soon! It started thundering and lightning as we walked, so we picked up the pace. We went into Restaurante La Vida Buena ( a recommendation from Andrey) and after we had sat for a bit it started pouring. When we walked in, there was only one other table with two people. But after we came in, it quickly filled up with people seeking shelter from the storm.

We ordered ceviche, a pizza to share (pineapple, chicken and jalapeño ) and a dorado diabola which was Mahi in a white wine, garlic sauce with some veggies and yuca. The ceviche was fresh and delicious and came with some crispy yuca sticks. The pizza was delicious too, the fresh pineapple really worked well with the spicy jalapeño and smoky chicken (sorry Italians!).

We had a little trouble finding a taxi back so our waiter drove us. We talked about Costa Rica. I asked him what he loved most about Costa Rica and what he didn’t like. He couldn’t pick one thing. He loves everything about Costa Rica- the food, community, nature, activities, lifestyle… He really struggled to say what he didn’t like but ended on the fact that it gets very empty in October and that the rain can be too much. After about 15 minutes, we arrived to our Airbnb. We ended up paying 10 mil colones (about $20) as we didn’t have change at the time, so I think he was very happy with that. Upon entering we remembered our leaky shower was fixed! Woohoo! No more constant rain sounds. We took showers and went to bed, exhausted but still on the horse high. What a day!