A new home and new experiences

Today's highlights include horseback riding and cattle herding. Controlling a horse is skill, and like any skill, riders can hone it with practice. Two facts which laymen may not realize is that horseback riding requires a healthy sense of balance and that routinely riding a horse tones the legs in a manner similar to how ballroom dancing tones the arms. Newcomers found a seat on more docile horses while the equestrian veterans received rowdier ones. Fortunately, despite mild hills and occasional falloffs the activity passed without significant injury. In between the two sessions of riding, there was a short lesson in throwing a lasso and spraying insecticide on cattle. To the surprise of some, efficient  lassoing takes a far larger looper than the picturesque lassos of westerns. The vigorous enthusiasm of one lassoers inspired the reminder that "[he] [was] cleaning the cow not exorcising it."

During the second horse ride, we rode through the tranquility of rolling pastures. The riders and horses worked well with each other despite some incidents where people lost control and fell off. Don't worry, everyone is ok! Although those events arose we still were able to see beautiful waterfalls in the rainforest. That was the end of the ranch part of the day.

In the evening, after we left the ranch, we travelled to our new housing, Mapache Lodge. Once we were settled in we had dinner and socialized. Then we took a night hike on which we saw a plethora of wildlife ranging from the famous red-eyed tree frog to the enormous bullet ant, whose bite has been known to make grown men cry (check it out on the web...glad we avoided the sting!).

Overall, a fantastic day.

- Arjun Bose, Keegan Fry

-Pura Vida!