BOTTOM LINE:
Horse back riding in am
Kayaking in pm
BACK STORY:
This morning we met Jose out at a corral to be fit with our horses for a ride along the river. Jose has grand dreams of having a "glamping" tourist business on his families property down river. After graduating from the University he traveled, lived and worked in England to learn the English language. He knew that if he wanted to succeed in attracting foreign eco-tourists, he would need to know English.
While in England, he worked with horses and played polo...both which he is accomplished in and loves. He was quick in getting us ready and seeing what needed to be adjusted.
Bruce and I had recalled the last horseback riding experience being in Costa Rica near a volcano with our daughter Kimberly and our niece Jenine. It gave us little confidence knowing that it had been 14 years ago!
My horse looked like the largest one and I questioned that because I was the smallest rider. They had specially selected my horse because it was "tranquil for the Senora!"
Tranquil was an understatement...getting the horse to move was my first challenge. The next was keeping the horse on the trail, following the other horses. Mine was happy to slowly walk on the soft grassy edge of the path trying to grab a bite of tree leaves without being caught! Unfortunately his path put the rider (me) at jeopardy of getting scratched by bushes and trees. Getting a little firm did the trick of proving who was boss.
The saddles that we had did not have a horn to hold onto and felt a little loose. My reign was a flat, crude piece of hard, thin hide that resembled our dog Maizy's raw hide chewy! A little "self talk" calmed my nerves as I got into the cadence of the horses stride and directed our path...that was until Jose and I spotted a snake slither into the bush at the same time. I calmly asked him if it was poisonous and he answered, "very!" Great, now I was watching both tree limbs and the ground a little closer.
The ride was about four hours. On the way back Jose asked if maybe we would like to go out again in the afternoon and he would teach us how to play polo. Although the gesture was very kind...there was no way that our hind ends could take another ride! We politely declined and dismounted as quickly as our aching bodies allowed.
Because there were no other guests at the estancia, Jose was hired to solely entertain us and take us on excursion of our liking. He was so passionate about helping us experience whatever we wanted that we felt obliged to do any and everything. We set up a kayak trip for the afternoon.
The kayaks were waiting for us at the river's edge at 4pm. It was an overcast afternoon which would help protect us from the sun rays and heat. Bruce and I had a sit-on-top tandem kayak. Because of our experience in Bariloche with the very unstable kayak we had, we were very curious about this kayak. Given the knowledge that parana fish and caimans were in the river, we didn't want to take any chances of sitting in a kayak that might easily flip! Thankfully the kayaks felt good as we paddled away from shore!
Our paddle was about 3 hours and was up river from the ranch...the opposite direction from the boat ride the evening before. Unfortunately there were no padded seats over the hard plastic molded seat impressions. I brought a folded towel that helped until it compacted from river water.
We endured and had a nice paddle up into another inlet where there were downed trees and green plants floating on the water. Birds and butterflies flitted around giving the feeling of a healthy environment.
As we headed back I looked at the shoreline, loving every moment...being thankful for the enjoyment of the awesome area.
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