Costa Rica - Day 3

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Our third day greeted us with bright sunshine, chirping birds, and the friendly cook/housekeeper. She was a bit disappointed to find out I was vegetarian (since she brought ham and chicken) but quickly whipped up a delicious breakfast of omelettes, toast, juice, fresh sliced fruit, and a pot of Costa Rican coffee.

For Bri and I, the first order of business was to find a bank and get some colones (CR currency). Oh, and some Gatorade (what can I say?). She gave us directions to the bank in town, where her daughter works. We headed on over, planning to ask for the daughter once we got there.

An armed police officer on the inside of the bank unlocked the entrance with a key, let us in, and immediately relocked the door. The queue was made up of chairs, which was kind of nice (no standing in line) and kind of awkward (everytime someone got helped, we all scooted over one chair.)

As it turns out, there was no reason to specifically ask for the daughter - there was only one teller station, and she was it. I forked over two twenties and asked for a variety of bills, not realizing that this would cause issues later on. She cheerfully complied, and for the first time in my life, I held a 10,000 note in my hand. (Along with a 5,000 and a 2,000 and a 1,000 etc)

Next, we went to the SuperCompro and bought some sports drinks, some insect repellant, and some milk boxes. Let me tell you a bit about milk boxes. They are *awesome*. If you are familiar with juice boxes, you have the basic concept. Now imagine them filled with flavored milk instead - ranging from vanilla to strawberry to chocolate to caramel. They are made by a local company called Dos Pinos and they taste like milkshakes. I am so totally addicted to caramel milk boxes now, that I have no idea how I will survive without them once I get back to the states.

We returned to the villa, and headed over to the barn. The caretaker was going to take us to Rio Frio and give us a tour of the macadamia farm. On horses.

You may recall that I haven't been on a horse since I was ten when I went to my mom's friends' house in central Indiana. And I'm not even sure if that counts, since the horse I was "riding" was actually being led in a circle by my mom's friend. Brian had a similar, single, solitary, childhood horse experience, so I wasn't sure which one of us was going to make the biggest mistakes.

You're right, I should have guessed. Bri managed to mount Bonita with a minimum of incident, and I got astride Casper with the aid of a step stool. I could have probably done without the stool (and have since dismounted easily without it) but at the time, I had my three pound video camera looped around my neck, which wasn't the best for balance.

No sooner had our guide mounted Brownie, when Brian's horse took off at a run, turning around backwards and dashing up a mound of grass. Hilarious. The rest of the trip was speckled with similar misadventures of Bri and Bonita, typically with her running off with him at top speed wherever she chose.

My horse, on the other hand, was a sweetie and very intuitive, although he tended to bounce when he galloped and managed to completely bruise my rear end.

The macadamia farm was vast and very pretty. There were a few workers about, but not many. Although it's summer for us, it's winter here now, which apparently makes it off-season. We found out later that the shells of the macadamia nuts (and believe me, there are *tons*) are sometimes used to fill the potholes in the roads. I found this to be a particularly inspired idea.

We saw lots of hawks in the sky and butterflies nearer the ground. I took a lot of video footage with the camera, but who knows how it will turn out, horseback being somewhat unlike a tripod, and all.

We came back to the Villa two very contented people, having had such a fun filled day, and happy to relax and watch the sun set across the lake and its backdrops of mountains and volcano.

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