Horse riding in Monteverde

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I had a little time before the next planned activity - a sunset horse trek - so I picked up some lunch at the pastry shop near the hotel and went to check out an art gallery/shop that Stu had highly recommended. What a treasure trove of arts and crafts lovelies, from paintings to painted boxes and plaques, to textiles, jewellery and musical instruments. I bought a couple of presents for my girls and a pretty ceramic vase for myself. The lady serving me wrapped up everything so carefully, bubble wrap, newspaper, packing tape - hopefully my pot would survive the journey home in my hand luggage.

Half my group had chosen to do the horse riding and we set off on yet another bumpy ride deep into the Monteverde countryside. We were beginning to think we'd been abducted for coffee bean picking servitude but eventually drew up outside the horse riding farm. A motley collection of animals met us; mine was an elderly lady called Tinto. I got to know her name really well as our guides, Catalina and Rueben, kept having to give her a bit of extra encouragement.

The landscape was stunning. The higher we got the more spectacular the views got. We could see right out across the mountains and hills to the sea, the sun starting to go down giving a beautiful colour to the sky. We stopped at a summit with 360° views all around. It was really windy, but the scenery was absolutely stunning. After the horses had rested, and we'd taken loads of photos, we headed back to the farm with a few faster sections this time. I was trying desperately to remember how to rise and fall in the saddle whilst hanging on!

We had a bit of time before our minibus arrived to take us back to our hotel so Catalina and Reuben took us to their sugar cane press and we had a go at squeezing juice from the cane using a mangle like contraption. We also got to sample some of their gut busting moonshine liquor! A stunning sun set completed another perfect day in Costa Rica.

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