Doherty Travels

My brother checks in on my blog from time to time, but doesn't maintain a blog of his own. That is a shame because he just had a wonderful 3 year anniversary celebration with his wife, Jill. He sent me a play-by-play of the trip as well as some pictures, so I figured that was his permission to post them! Enjoy!

From Ryan:

Our flight left Denver at midnight, direct to San Jose, Costa Rica. Five hour flight. We didn't rest well on the flight so our first day was spent sleeping. We did get up for lunch and dinner, which we got at the steak house next door to our hotel.

Day 2: Our guide, Paulo, picked us up and we drove to our new hotel, which is where we would be staying for the next five days. (pic attached) We went on a one hour horse ride, it was so the horse owner, Stanley, could see how well we rode and plan our future rides accordingly. Dinner and breakfast are provided at our hotel for our stay. Fresh fruits, coffee, pancakes, toast, fresh sea bass, fresh chicken. Our breakfast eggs were hatched by hens that the hotel kept in a coop on the property.

Day 3: A hike through a "National Forest nature walk" it was basically a gravel path laid through part of the jungle. We saw cool animals and bugs there. Then we took a longer horse ride. Our average ride time was 2.5 to 3 hours each day. Most of our rides involved a portion of through the jungle trails. Since we were there in the rainy season, the vegetation was growing so fast it overgrew the normal trails. Stanley was hacking away with his machete. On this particular ride, the preferred trail was too over grown to ride. So we went down a river bed that is normally so low it  barely gets the horses hooves wet, but this time it was full. I had to pull my legs up like a jockey to keep my feet out of the water. The horses were in past their bellies. Jillian was riding the Stanley's 5 year old stallion. I guess we are good enough riders that he offered us the opportunity to ride his stallion. Unfortunately, the stallion has not the same experience as the older horses the rest of us were on. We had to climb out of the river bed, up a muddy slope, into thick vegetation. Paulo's horse fell getting up the slope. We went riding down along a barbed fence, in between thick vegetation. It got so bad we had to turn back. Jillian's horse fell getting back down the slope and Jilllian jumped off the horse. She was fine, but she got soaked and had mud all over her. Her shoes never dried for the rest of the trip. Too much humidity near the ocean.

Day 4: We rode to the beach today. I was on the stallion for most of this ride. That horse has speed and always wants to go faster. But he was very well trained and easy to handle. We galloped on the beach, and stopped at a small local restaurant. This place was so out of the way that you would only know about it if someone told you about it. There are no signs for it or advertising. That was cool. The riding today was over 5 hours.

Day 5: Our guide, Paulo, and the horse owner, Stanley, are buddies and set up an extra day of riding that Jillian and I didn't know about. Our schedule said today was no riding, but we were to go snorkeling and kayaking. We did that early in the morning which was fun. After that we met up at Stanley's and rode to his favorite local bar. He has a couple tequilas, and was all about running the horses back home. He is normally shy, but tequila breaks his shell. Back at his house, his wife made us a sweet tortilla snack and some coffee. We sat on his porch and enjoyed our snack.

Day 6: Went on a boat on the river and saw crocodiles. The boat guide got out of the boat on the shore and hand fed chicken bits to the crocs! Crazy dude, but good photo ops. More horse riding after the boat.

Day 7: Took an arial tram up a small mountain, then zip lined back down along 10 different cables. That was fun. After that, more horses. Rode to a river where we had a picnic. Traditional lunch for ranchers on the road moving cattle or what have you. It was a burrito... go figure. Plus something that tasted a lot like brown sugar in water, but they claim it is some traditional drink. Paulo took us back to our first hotel, which is central in the country, in San Jose.

Day 8: We went on a tour group up an active volcano. Also toured a coffee plantation and walked through an animal rescue that displayed large cats, small cats, sloths, lots of birds, butterflies, and monkeys. The end of this tour took us on a hike to a water fall.

Day 9: Wake up at 330AM for our trip back to the airport to head back home.