Colonia Blanca Cabalgata - Year 2

Wow! It just seems like yesterday that I participated in the 2012 Colonia Blanca Cabalgata along with my neighbor Hubert and his sun Claudio.  Riding back through the jungle in black dark on slippery,  muddy trails is not something you soon forget!  Well, on Sunday it was a year later and time for another Colonia Blanca Cabalgata!  This time I was going prepared - complete with headlamp, full rain gear, extra Johnny Walker Scotch for the trip home.  This year, Donna and I were Invitados, meaning we were two of the many people from the surrounding area to receive special invitations. Also, this year we were going as a bigger group with Hubert, the original Jungle Jim, leading the way.  We would be trailing 6 horses including our gelding Prieto.  Donna and Rafael our farm worker would take the Land Cruiser and meet us in Colonia Blanca.  So off we went with horses about 9:30 AM for the 16 kilometer ride to Colonia Blanca.  Riding through the jungle up from our home is beautiful in the AM except this time of year the hard packed lava soil is as slippery as a skating rink and heading up steep hills on horses does cause a bit of panic :-)  But our trusty Costa Rican ponies handled the challenge with no falls or incidents.  Thank Goodness! We completed the ride in 1 1/2 hours as Hubert pushed the horses and they had no problems.  Chalana, our tireless mare, loves a challenge when there are other horses around and loves to be in front which made the ride easier for me.  Registration of the cabalgata started at 12:00 PM and we arrived with lots of time to spare.  Over 120 riders and horses registered for the event with  9 of us from the San Jorge area.  Prior to starting the ride, there is a lot of visiting and a few cerveza consumed along with some great Costa Rican food dishes including my favorite - chicharones!  The actual ride started at 2:30 PM and the afternoon rains held off to give us a great ride through the back country with some great mountain views and some tricky sections.  Of course along the way we were given a few drinks of the locally famous moonshine for this area - Los Torres had Baileys Tico and Colonia Blanca has Cherriche which was a pleasant cherry tasting but powerful local brew! Here are a few photos of the event and ride. Note the local police force providing original Costa Rican music a the starting area prior to the start of the race - I guess it is all part of police service in the back country! The ride back home after the cabalgata was interesting in the dark but this year I brought my headlamp to ward off the beasts of the jungle!  Luckily no rain and no slips on the slippery terrain :-)

Claudio and Hubert trailing horses

Registration 

Costa Rican Sound System

Dancing to the music!

Local police providing live music!

They start them young here in Costa Rica!

Claudio - Hubert's son

Riding through pastures

Single track through the forest

River Crossing - that's Donna
at the back of this group

Half way point refreshment break

Rafael

Hubert's daughter Genesis

Passion Fruit

Maracuya in Spanish or Passion Fruit in English is a wonderful plant that grows well here at the mountains. There are two versions  of passion fruit down here - the mountain version or the Americana version shown here.  The American version grows fruit about the size of a soft ball.  The mountain version is much smaller but just as tasty!   Here is a picture of a Passion Fruit flower growing on the fence at our farm here in Costa Rica.  This fruit makes one of the best fresh fruit drinks around.  The last time we bought some passion fruit I took the seeds and planted them in some small containers.  I then transplanted them along our fence line. The seedlings that survived the transplant are growing rapidly and fixing themselves along the fence.  Soon it will be time for ice cold Maracuya fresco natural.   The natural fruits and vegetables of Costa Rica are incredible and coupled with our fresh tilapia, free range eggs and fresh milk, beef, chicken and pork with no artificial ingredients from our Tico neighbors - the opportunities to eat healthy are limitless! Pura Vida!

Maracuya or Passion Fruit ! 

Paradisius Papagayo Bay Resort & Luxury Villas - under construction in Playa Hermosa

Paradisius Resorts have started their new resort in Playa Hermosa. Click here to see the video of what the finished hotel will look like - Paradisius Papagayo Bay Resort & Luxury Villas .  When finished this will an incredible new hotel and spa complete with a rail system for moving people from their view rooms to the beach.  This project will have an incredible effect on Playa Hermosa - all the more reason to buy a property now before all these new people visit Playa Hermosa, stay at the Paradisius and fall in love with the area.   Now is the time to buy for investment, vacation or retirement. Pura Vida!  We have front row seats to the construction as our home in Playa Hermosa looks directly across building location.  Right now they are busy with the ground preparation work.  This will take till November when the actual building construction will start if not before.

Have you been to Buenos Aires?

Buenos Aires - Costa Rica that is :-)  Today June 13, 2013 we had to meet a client in the beautiful Rio Celeste area of Rincon de La Vieja.  The drive from Liberia is about 1.5 hours through Dos Rios and over to  the Blue River Resort area via the highways.  For us, since we were at our mountain cabina, the best and most fun way would be to take the back roads with our Suzuki Quad :-)  Much more fun and exciting than the conventional route! The drive would take about 1.5 hours one way and, yes, the road went through Buenos Aires!  A nice quaint little pueblo located behind Volcan Rincon de  La Vieja.  Rain was threatening so we packed our yellow rain suits and off we went.   We drove through the most beautiful jungle trails, crossing at least 15 rivers and creeks with beautiful lush vegetation all along the way.  One part of the trail I named Heliconia Way as there were a huge amount of these beautiful flowers along the way.    We crossed the incredible Rio Celeste and met our client near Blue River Resort a short while later.  She toured us around her beautiful properties Bonanza and De La Paz - great properties for those looking to get away from it all and enjoy nature.   We live in these mountains and love everything about life in the back country - truly  beautiful places but not for everyone.  The weather is cooler, wetter and sometimes windy, but on good days there is no place more beautiful in the world!  

We completed our tour of the properties, wished our client a safe trip home and off we went back down the jungle trail.    We stopped at our favorite restaurant in Colonia Blanca for a cold cerveza and the best breaded tilapia in Costa Rica!  After lunch, we continued on for the final 45 minute journey home and of course hit the afternoon rains.   We quickly stopped, put on our rain gear and chugged along through the pouring rain to our warm and dry cabina!  Just another adventure in paradise!

Heliconia Way! 

Lush quad trails right out of an ATV Magazine

Beautiful Rio Celeste

Bailey's Tico & Los Torres Cabalgata!

Last Sunday May 26 saw us head over to the small town of Los Torres for their annual Cabalgata.  Always a fun event as I have said before and for horse lovers, every Cabalgata is equal to Christmas morning:-)   Cabalgatas are a chance for horse lovers to get together, drink cerveza, visit with old friends and actually go for a beautiful horse ride.  The village of Los Torres sits at the base of  beautiful Volcan Miravalles.  At a higher elevation than Guayabo, one gets beautful views of the lush valleys and off in the distance Volcan Rincon de La Vieja.  Donna and I were invited by our Costa Rican friends and neighbors to accompany them for the day -  Hubert, Milady and their daughter Genesis, along with Manuel and Leyla.  A great bunch of fun people.  So now the problem is how do we get 6 horses from San Jorge to Los Torres about 25 miles by road.  No problem - Hubert and I would ride and trail four horses over to Pueblo Nuevo then meet Leyla's brother with his truck.  They would then truck the horses to Los Torres - always a Tico solution.  Hubert and I left about 9:30 AM and rode for about  1 1/2 hours, met the truck, loaded the horses and we all arrived in Los Torres at noon in plenty of time as the Cabalgata was scheduled to start at 2 PM which is usually 3 PM or later - Tico Time!  So for a few hours we had some great tico food, drank a few cerveza and watched some of the riders perform with their beautiful paseo horses - high stepping and actually keeping time to the music.  At about 3 PM, the ride started and off we went through this beautiful Costa Rican high country.  Cool fresh breezes with some heavy cloud cover but no rain. About 75 horses and riders - some having a little more cerveza than others and some having over indulged in Bailey's Tico.  Now here is a new drink to us.  Bailey's Tico is a local drink that tastes exactly like Bailey's liquor BUT wow is it potent.  It seems like this drink is very popular in Los Torres as there were gallon jugs of this stuff everywhere.  Donna and I tried some and it was very tasty - it is made with evaporated milk, condensed milk, coco syrup AND alcohol made from Coyol palm.  You cannot buy this stuff from any liquor outlet - this is a real home grown hooch!  A couple of drinks will knock you on your butt so if you ever get a chance to try some - drink it with caution.  Lots of fun for the rest of the day with our old Costa Rican friends and new friends we met that day.  The ride was beautiful single track through the lush country side for about 2 hours with a few tricky river crossings thrown in.  We made a huge loop and ended back at Los Torres for the draw prizes and dancing and more food.  Donna won a rope and saddle blanket and I won a rope and a great leather clad  bottle for Baileys' Tico I guess :-)  After the prizes were all handed out, we loaded up and made for San Jorge -  Hubert and I had to trail the horses back after the truck ride so it made for a long day as we arrived home about 10 PM.  Tired but looking forward to the next cabalagata!  Pura Vida! 

Unloading horses from the truck

Hubert saddling up Chirripa

               

Milady & Genesis

Riders on the trail

Donna on Chalana

Trail riders's heaven!

                            Leyla on Chirripa

We enjoyed beautiful views like this during the Cabalgata!

Herb with Prieto & Donna with Chalana

Sunday Trail Ride in Paradise

Another great Sunday in paradise as we saddled up our horses for a beautiful ride through the jungle.  Accompanied by our Costa Rican friends - Milady with her daughter Genesis and her son Claudio.   The morning started out cloudy and threatening rain but the skys cleared and it turned into a great day in paradise with a gentle breeze blowing keeping the air "fresco".  We rode down the mountains this time from our ASL of 680 meters to the lower area around 520 meters (thank you James Bond Casio watch:-) The birds were singing and the horses were full of energy.  We rode for about an hour then detoured into a beautiful creek side area where we had fresh mangos and melons topped off with Donnas cookies.  Off again for couple more hours of peaceful solitude.  What a great way to spend a Sunday morning.  The sounds of the jungle and the melodic clip clop of the horses hooves - Pura Vida!

Claudio, Genesis, Milada & Donna enjoying fresh mango and melons!

Chalana looking for a taste of mango! 

A "Horses Eye View" of the jungle trail:-) 

A beautiful tranquil spot along the creek - great for picnics! 

A shower of gold on this beautiful tropical tree! 

Tons of Tucans

We are seeing a lot of keel billed tucans these days at the mountains. Every morning when we go for a walk we are seeing large flocks of these beautiful birds.  Normally they are solitary or in pairs but this must be breeding season so we are seeing them in flocks of 15 to 20.  We are hearing them croaking all day long.  The first time we heard them we thought the sound was from frogs but we soon learned it was the tucans croaking away.  These are the Fruit Loop tucans and they are plentiful in Rincon de La Vieja especially in May and June.

This time of year is a bird lovers paradise as we are also seeing a lot of hummingbirds, montezuma oropendulas, numerous beautiful small song birds and of course the clay colored robins are singing in the mornings waiting for the rains to move in to our area.  Pura Vida!