December 1, 2005 Marvin the Caballero

Horseback riding this morning was DIVINE. We were a little worried at first because it was a little drizzly for about five minutes, but it cleared up quickly. We were in a group of about five other riders plus our leader, Marvin. Marvin was a swell old cowboy who said "muy bien" a lot. We rode all over the damn place, like through the primary rainforest, which was awesome to behold, even though we've seen some pretty bitchin' rainforests already on this trip. Somehow the Costa Rican rainforest never gets old. Imagine that. We rode through water and fields and forests, and it was so fun. Every bone and muscle in my body was in severe pain for much of the ride, but it didn't matter. My brown horse, Doll, was lovely and never did me wrong. We stopped to let the horses rest and took in an amazing view of the volcano. The clouds have never cleared from the top since we got here, but it still is just something else. Humbling to be certain. There were these little windows in the stone hut where we took our rest that made perfect frames for photos of the view. Along our ride, Marvin awesomely pointed out several yellow and black toucans, a couple of howler monkeys, and a sloth. I knew the horseback ride would be fun, but I never anticipated that the views would be so great or that I'd feel so much affection for my horse or feel so amazed and thankful to be able to relax and think, hello, self. You are riding on the back of a beautiful big brown horse with your boyfriend right behind you on a big beautiful white horse through the rainforest and with a guide who laughed from deep in his belly and repeated it at the top of his lungs when he held open a gate for you and your horse and you said, "Pura vida!" It was just a beautiful damn experience. At a couple of points, we fully galloped through some fields for a few moments and I prayed à la Ramona Quimby in the taxi cab, I WILL not throw up on this horse, I WILL not throw up this horse. We said goodbye to our horses and limped back to our ant-filled cabin and headed directly to the hot spring pools. Oh, joy, heaven, and rapture. We started in the hottest pool again and made our way through the pools that got slightly less hot as they went, and holy shit! Some that we skipped yesterday because they were occupied had these waterfalls that we sat underneath for these insane hot hydraulic massages on our aching backs and necks and shoulders, so battered from the horseback riding and the days of crashing into road craters in the poor long-suffering Ignis. I seriously went to another place while sitting beneath those hot waterfalls. It made every less than great thing about Arenal Paraíso, like the unhelpful staff, the ubiquitous ants, and the dude chopping wood with a machete practically on our front porch at six in the morning, totally worth it. Now we're hanging out in another La Fortuna place called Café Rainforest writing in our journals. He's having a cappuccino, and I'm shockingly having a chocolate milkshake. ::: About this time in ... 2003 12/1: My mother had to change my great-aunt's diaper twice, and my cousin told us filthy jokes, and I just kept eating and eating and eating and eating, and my sister was sobbing by the end of the night, and my dad had to read something called "the true meaning of the cornucopia" and got through all of the vegetables before bursting out laughing on the plum -- "because life is just PLUM wonderful!" get notified. journal archives © Copyright 2005 elb

Transcribed from paper journal.