Costa Rica- Day One

We’re riding throughout Costa Rica with Centaura, a horseback riding adventure travel company run by Monica and Esteban, a Costa Rican husband and wife team. Centaura’s horses are very nice. They are well trained, responsive and riders can have their pick based on what they want to experience on their adventures. Centaura specializes in custom riding vacations and offers other adventure activities as well. This means, I’ll not only be riding at the base of Arenal volcano, through rainforests, rivers and farmland and in the countryside of San Carlos, but I’ll also be climbing a twelve story tree, going hot air ballooning and visiting a frog farm and seeing abundant wildlife.

Today, we arrived in San Jose, after flying through San Salvador on Taca Airlines. Though the lines at the airport were long, the flight itself was not bad. Tucker and Reuban from picked us up at the airport in their Land Cruiser and we were off, headed Northwest to San Carlos to the farm. San Carlos is an area of Costa Rica with rainforest, farmland and not a lot of tourists, meaning that I would be riding and hanging out with the locals.

We stopped for lunch along the winding and somewhat scary road from San Jose to San Carlos. I tried the traditional chicken and rice, and was introduced to the great fruit that they have in Costa Rica. Pineapples are grown in abundance here, as is sugarcane. Mangoes, watermelon, blackberries, etc. are all very good and fresh here. Smoothies, or what I would call a smoothie are offered at lots of the local restaurants. Costa Ricans order fruit blended with water or milk, which is great.

We arrived to the stables in the early afternoon, which are clean with a nearby pool. After a long commute to get to Costa Rica, I was ready to sleep and ride the next morning.

Learn more about equestrian vacations in Costa Rica.

Darley Newman is an equestrian travel expert and the host of the Public Television series Equitrekking®, which takes viewers on horseback riding vacations around the world. Visit equitrekking.com and purchase Equitrekking DVDs, the Equitrekking Travel Adventures on Horseback book and more at ShopDarley.com