Cabalgata San Jorge Style!

A great part of any fiesta in Costa Rica are the cabalgatas! As I mentioned horses are big part of the life down here and any fiesta is a good reason to have a cabalgata!  This past Sunday was no exception as the San Jorge cabalgata took place.  Riders from far and wide came to enjoy good friends, good horses and great Costa Rican tradition.  Old and young participate with kids as young as 6 riding their ponies and older folks into their 70s.  Basically the cabalgata is a trail ride through the beautiful Costa Rican country side for about 2 hours.  Of course there are always a few cerveza at the start, midway and finish plus a few treats like fresh chicharrones!  This ride was perfect with lots of single track trails, some good up hill and downhills and few creeks to cross.  Donna rode our faithful and very trustworthy mare, Chalana, and I rode my gentle little gelding, Prieto.  Lots of fun with our Costa Rican friends and neighbors.  Pura Vida!

Registering for the Cabalgata!

Horses patiently waiting the start

Midway point - chicharrones & cervezas!

San Jorge Gran Turno!

Let the fiesta begin!  This past weekend was the San Jorge Gran Turno (small fiesta) in our little pueblo tucked in the shadow of beautiful Rincon de La Vieja.  Lots of fun with dancing, horse games, soccer, great Costa Rican traditional food cooked over smokey wood fires giving great taste to tamales, picadillo, arroz con pollo, and my favorite chicharrones!  For a town of only 100 people or less, we had a great turnout with the locals helping make the fiesta a great success. Costa Ricans love their parties and friends and relatives came from all the local towns to enjoy the party - some from as far as San Jose.  The lady behind the fiesta, Leila Campos and her husband Manuel, did a great job putting the fiesta together.  Money made from the fiesta will be used to improve this neat little area - improvements to the community center, school, church and local roads.   Another great day in the mountains of Costa Rica as the weather was perfect with temperatures in the 28 C or 82 F range and the gentle breezes acting like a/c when the sun was hot.  Oh, did I forget to mention lots of ice cold Imperial to keep things cool as well:-)   Pura Vida!

Cotton Candy and Sombreros!

The Tamale Assembly Line

Tons of Tamales

Grinding Papaya for Picodillo

The San Jorge Gran Turno Queen!

Horse Games in San Jorge!

Flecha (arrow)

Horses are a Costa Rica passion.  Costa Ricans love horses and most  can ride like the wind.  I know our neighbor's son Claudio has been riding since he was 3 and sits a horse like he was born there! This weekend we had our San Jorge Gran Turno (small fiesta)  here in a our little pueblo (village) of San Jorge (population 100 or so).  Saturday was the Carreras de Cintas a Caballo - in English a form of horse gymkhana.  My intentions were to watch but soon talked myself into participating.  The object of the event is to spear a specially made instrument (flecha) that you hold in your hand through a ring (anillo) that is hanging by a clothespin from a line.  And you do this while riding at full gallop on your horse!   For some reason the event arranger decided to use rings the size of a dime (see photo).   Normally they are about one inch in diameter these were about half an inch! 

Anillo (ring)

Now let me tell you that speeding toward the ring suspended in the air, trying to control the horse, making sure you are aligned properly and then trying to clip the 1/2 inch ring off the line is not an easy task.  We each had 10 trys to accomplish the goal.  There were about 40 horses and riders participating in the event.  The eventual winner managed to cleanly take the ring off the line about 6 times! His horse was well trained and smooth as silk as they worked together at full speed.  It was a pleasure to watch.  I was unsuccessful at getting the ring,  but Rafael (our worker) managed to clip one off while riding our mare Chalana.  Click here to see a short video of the event Carreras de Cintas A Caballo

Freshwater Shrimpin' in Costa Rica!

Never a dull moment it seems in our life in Costa Rica.  Yesterday our neighbor dropped by and asked if I wanted to go shrimp hunting that night.  Well I am always up for an adventure and when Hubert is involved it is always an adventure.  This man is the modern day Jungle Jim.  Born and raised in the Guanacaste mountains near our home Hubert knows the wildlife and countryside like no one.  If I were to be stranded in the mountains anywhere it would be with this man.  Plus you throw in our friend and worker Rafael and you have pair of modern day "real men" as my daughter Jessica said after meeting Hubert:-)  So that evening just as darkness was falling we saddled up our two horses and rode off to meet Hubert at his home just a kilometer down the road from us.  We rode off in to the failing light on our trusty Costa Rican horses.  I will never know how these horses can navigate with zero light - amazes me everytime!  A beautfiul Costa Rica evening with a nice warm breeze and incredible stars overhead with little moon.  Spooky but beautiful. We rode for about an hour on roads I am familiar with but just before the town cemetary (I told you this was spooky) we turned off onto a side cattle trail.  Up and up we rode following this narrow path until finally we turned on our headlamps as the trail was getting very tricky.  Then down we went through brush as thick as can be.  Our horses never missing a step - thank goodness for headlamps- next time I am at Mountain Co-op I will buy an even more expensive headlamp! Hey do they make headlamps for horses?  Finally we are at  the creek.  Hubert and I dismount and Rafael takes the horses up ahead and we will walk the creek looking for the elusive freshwater shrimp.  Off we go slipping an sliding though the warm, clear  Costa Rica creek water.  The water is about mid way up our rubber boots and the walking is tricky but not too bad.  We walk along shinning our headlamps into the water - me with the modern LED headlamp Hubert with the 1950 version battery pack headlamp.  Guess whose worked better?  Of course the old one!  The LED shines nicely but does not penetrate the water.  The old light really shows the creek bottom.  We walked along for about an hour with no luck.  We met up with Rafael and the horses  and went back the way we came pushing bush with our trusty mounts.  Once back to the main road Hubert decided to try another creek so off we went into the inky black night.

In this next creek we were much more successful as Hubert speared several large and mid size shrimp.  Of course in this creek the water was much deeper in places and our rubber boots were soon filled to the top.  Squishy but it sure made me glad I did not wear by riding boots. Look for the ojos rojo (red eyes).  Below are photos of our evening catch.  Hubert speared the shrimp with a small trident affair he made with a broomhandle and some nails. Cheap and effective!

 Grandaddy on the left about 17 inches long - what a BBQ!

 This guy is a about the size of a small lobster! 

Rafael is a big guy and this shrimp is too!

Rafael and Hubert speared this big one just before we finished for the night.  I was waiting with the horses and wondering who makes all those sounds in the jungle when it is pitch black - some real some imagined.  And yes I did remember the feared Fer de Lance snake loves water:-)  Next time we blog about the BBQ! 

Fresh Tilapia - Sunday Dinner in Costa Rica

Wow - another great Sunday quad ride to Colonia Blanca and our favorite Tico Restaurant at Santa Maria Lodge.  Great ride through the junlge crossing about 9 rivers and creeks.  Cool water splashing us on this warm day in the mountains.  Our friends at the lodge have their own tilapia ponds and serve the freshest best tilapia around.  They grow these delicious water chicken in their own ponds as shown in the picture.  Note this not some gated up stale pond, this is a huge pond with lots of fresh water.  Tilapia will grow in just about any size of pond or depth of pond from 1 foot.  However the bigger the fresh water source the better they taste and these breaded tilapia filets were fantastic.  We look forward to many more trips to our secret little restaurant in the middle of the Guanacaste Mountains  - Pura Vida!

 Tilapia Pond with netting to keep the fish secure - lots of fresh water!

Sunday dinner - patacones (fried plantain) - breaded tilapia - rice and beans - fresh salad and picadillo! 

Finca Miramontes - A Costa Rican Get-A-Way!

Here is a great little farm near the boundary of Rincon de La Vieha National Park.  Perfect for those looking to live in the great outdoors and enjoy the countless adventures in the mountains of Guancaste.  Check out this video Finca Miramontes

National Bird of Costa Rica - The Rains are Coming!

Clay Colored Robin - National Bird of Costa Rica

In a country filled with beautiful colorful birds everyone must wonder why this plain colored bird could be the National Bird of Costa Rica.  With colorful toucans, mot mots, scarlet macaws - why would they chose this bird?  In 1977, the Costa Ricans chose the yiguirro as a national symbol (over many mcuh more coloroful birds that inhabit the country) due to its strong melodious song that always comes during the start of the rainy season. In addition, unlike many of the forest songsters of Costa Rica, the present bird has been familiar to the general population since the country's early history, thanks to the species tendency to live near houses and settlements. Agriculture is a major business in Costa Rica and the coming rainy season is very important to the success of the large number of people who rely on agriculture, so this now makes sense to us extanjeros.  On my early morning bike ride this morning I heard my first clay colored robin singing.  Very similar to our robins up north whose song signifies spring.  This beautiful song of a not so beautiful song bird is telling us the rains are not far off!  Pura Vida!