I am still a little sick, but I got up in time to go to the
gym today and then decided not to. I am going horseback riding today and then
on a boat to see crocodiles. I’m going alone today again and Mike and Sue are
going on the boat ride only and Mom, Betsy, and David are going on a train ride
and then down the river. That one starts at 8am and I go at 9:20am then Sue and
Mike go at 12:30. My excursion was:
Relax on a leisurely drive through
the port town of Caldera and up into the surrounding hills. You will pass
through small farming communities growing mangoes and sugar cane on your way to
Hacienda Nosavar. Here, you will listen to a safety briefing before you
climb onto a horse for a ride through tropical forest and
pasturelands. Spend about 45 minutes communing with nature in this secluded
paradise; then, it’s back onto your trusty steed and a ride back to the
hacienda. Now, get ready for the second half of your exciting day—a boat
ride on the Tarcoles River located at the edge of Carara National
Park. The river is famous for the enormous American crocodiles that live in
its ecosystem. There are plenty of great
opportunities for spotting birds and taking lots of photos of this
unforgettable adventure. A tasty lunch awaits you back at the farm—a
hearty meal of meat or chicken, rice, beans, sweet plantain, a salad and a
natural beverage. Before heading back to your ship, browse in the hacienda’s
gift shop.
10 of us got on a small bus and the tour guide was Carla. The
drive was about 20 minutes and we passed many houses and small towns. I enjoyed
seeing all the billboards and what they were advertising. We got to this
outdoor café place with a stable next to it. We needed to wait for about 5
minutes and as we were waiting Carla called me over to show me something on the
floor. This small frog was about the size of a fingernail. It was blue with
light blue lines down its back. Everyone else then came over and the poor frog
got chased around the floor and people were trying to get pictures of it so
they wanted to get their camera phones as close to it as they could and were
down on their knees scaring the frog even more. The frog finally got off the
floor and hopped onto the dirt of the flowerbed. One lady didn’t want that so
she scared it back on the tiled floor. I had my long range lens on my camera so
I was a little annoyed with the people crawling around on their knees scaring
the tiny little frog. The horses were finally ready and we were called to come
get onto the horses. They were matching the horses up by size with the people
except one lady demanded to get an “advanced” horse and they finally gave her a
horse. She asked them 5 or 6 times if it was an advanced horse and they got
really annoyed with her. I just wanted a taller horse and they gave me one. We
all got saddled up and headed out. We went through the first gate and the “advanced
lady” was laughing about how her horse demanded to be first, it more seemed
like if she was an advanced rider she would take charge of her horse. Oh well,
I liked being second J.
We rode through some beautiful country. We passed a couple of trees with
platforms in them and it looked to be set up for zip lining. I don’t understand
what the big push is about zip lining lately. I have done it twice on this
cruise and it isn’t something I would be “dying” to do again. We went through a
few more gates and as we waited for one, we heard some noises above us. We
looked up and saw a white faced monkey in the trees. As we kept looking we saw
a few more and eventually realized there were 5 monkeys in the trees above us.
We rode for 45 minutes and then got off the horses and walked to some stairs and
went down to a boat. We got on the boat
and they made sure we had equal numbers of people on each side of the boat and
went down the river. I noticed there were life preservers overhead, but there
was no mention of them. After about 2 minutes down the river we saw a crocodile
on the bank of the river. Our driver went by the crocodile then came back so
each side could see the animal. The driver then got out of the boat and moved
around the crocodile and it slid into the water. The driver had some meat in his hand and
started feeding the crocodile. He would get the crocodile close then tease it
with food and throw the food in the air and the crocodile would catch it as it
came down. It was strange that he was teasing it this way. After a while he got
into the boat and we went down the river looking for some more fun. We then saw
the biggest crocodile in the area and he got out again. This time he went up to
the nose and stuck his fingers in its nostrils. WHAT!! The crocodile got
annoyed and swam away. We went past 3 or 4 more crocodiles and saw many different
kinds of birds and some banana trees and some other wildlife. After about 40
minutes we got out of the boat in the same place we got on. The horses were
gone and there was a tractor there with a small wagon behind it for us. We were
behind that tractor for about 10 minutes and passed the horses we were on in
the pasture. That was nice to know they had some time off after carrying us
earlier in the morning. The horses were great. They were well behaved and very
well trained. When the reins were moved even a little the horses were eager to
respond. We got back to the open café area and had a great lunch with pulled
pork, rice, beans, and salad. Carla then took us to a place to get souvenirs
and we headed back to the ship. The ship was docked in a commercial port again
so there was nothing to do near the ship so I went on and back to my room. I
slept for about half an hour and then took a shower and got ready to eat with
the family. Tonight we ate at an expensive place and everyone dressed nicely. I
wore my favorite shirt Lindsey got for me that is a light blue which brings out
the color of my eyes and white pants. We had a wonderful dinner and it took
about two and a half hours. The ship had a problem with a lifeboat winch and
couldn’t leave port. They eventually had to leave port since a container ship
needed the space. Our ship was supposed to leave port at 6, but we had to go
out a little and put out the anchor to fix the problem with the lifeboat. That
was finally finished at 10:15pm and we were on our way to the Panama Canal. I
went to sleep so I could go running in the morning and because I am very bored
on board and can’t wait till the next excursion.
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