Seis Amigos

A couple of posts back I mentioned a cafe going down the mountain with incredible views. As it happens, the van that picked us up to take us to our horses, stopped at this very cafe. The view was better this time and Luca got to see his cats which he was thrilled about 🙂 …

The trip to the horses was somewhat rigorous and required a bano stop 🙂

At last we got to them and mounted up…

then off we went…

It was a lovely ride, we walked, trotted and galloped, had lots of fun seeing a very very quiet part of Costa Rica filled with nature and serenity. Stopping for snack of pineapple on the way…

then off we went again to catch the boat…

As we neared the boat the horses sensed it, Luca’s horse in particular was very eager, and took off with a buck, galloping toward its destination. Luca unprepared, clung on yelling, and as he slide off, the horse came to a sudden halt. Needless to say Luca was shaken, but he got back on and they were friends again by the time they parted ways.

I am proud of him for getting back on, it was his first real scare and he handled it brilliantly 🙂

The boat was waiting for us, the boys made friends with the skippers son, and we made our way across..

We were met by another van and taken to La Fortuna center, where we met Rich, had lunch, and headed off to find our accommodation, the boys traveling in style…

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/28256140

Above is the listing and it is just as advertised. We were so happy there, Karla a wonderful host, highly recommend. The boys made themselves at home…

The momones were delicious!

It was then off to the hot springs ,(or in this case the hot river), to ease our aching horse riding muscles.

The view of the volcano from where we parked the car..

Yes that is smoke coming from the top! Lava only stopped flowing in 2010 🙂

Truly the hot river was incredible, we stayed until after dark. The wildlife noises around us echoed through the night, and we sat amazed that we were actually doing this, sitting in a river that was as hot as a bath, at the bottom of a volcano!

The kids of course explored every nook and cranny 🙂

The next morning we decided to hike to a waterfall we had heard of. None of us expected the beauty of what we found…

From a distance

to get there was quite the hike..

once there it only got better 🙂

We did some exploring around the area. Came upon some ferocious ants, their bite hurts like hell. Luca got the brunt of them, he moved fast after that, the trick with ants in the jungle is to not stop moving! 🙂

a peak of the volcano through the canopy…

After we climbed back out and had something to eat, it was off to the hot river again until dark. The kids slide through the tunnel there until they both wore through their pants 🙂

Everyone collapsed into bed that night prepared for another day of travel to the coast. However things did not quite go as planned….