The hotel offered quite the menu of complementary activities, and I think by the time we left, we had done them all. Horseback riding we did twice.
It was about an hour ride, and it was a treat to run into Howler and white-face capuchin monkeys early in our first run. The guide said seeing either was not uncommon (and Howlers, as we experienced, are really easy to find as you just have to listen for a while), but seeing them in the same trees is unusual.
We rode through a mango grove, skirted near the macaw reserve, saw cashew trees, and plodded past cattle. To saw it was scenic understates the experience, and to have the horse do the hiking for me did not go underappreciated.
Piper really enjoyed her first horse, Raphael. He was ass-stubborn and liked to go his own way. He was also a beauty, and not terribly dissimilar to Piper in any important way.
Eventually, we made our way down to the beach and laughed at how each horse approached or shied away from the water. The stable didn't really produce many swimmers!
When we went a second time, Wesley and Kyla elected to stay behind. There was no way Piper was going to miss another chance at riding. But even that glow was quickly replaced when we got back to the barn and she met the stable dog. They quickly fell in love with each other, and a picture in my heart--if not on the camera--is the two chasing each other through the tall grass outside the barn, both with dopey (and adorable) grins on their face.
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