Horses, horses and more horses in Puerto Rico

We arrived home yesterday to a balmy 42* and windy conditions. The pilot of the plane did a wonderful job bringing us in safely with not much bouncing around. We did sway in the wind a bit but that doesn't both me, I just know I am almost home and it makes it worth it. There is just something about coming home even though we had a fabulous time in Puerto Rico.

It is a beautiful country with blue, blue ocean water, palm trees and lush foliage. It is also a country with much poverty as we witnessed while coming in on the hour long ride from the airport to the resort. Everyone has bars on their windows, that would be a good business to be in there. The small houses that we saw on this route were very modest at best withminimal unkempt yards. I'm sure there are nicer areas but this is the way we came in so this is what we saw in contrast to the beautiful resort where we stayed.

The resort was a whole different world. It sat 300 feet above the ocean and was lovely. Our room was on the third floor which was still two floors below the lobby as we were right in the side of the landscape. This is looking down from our balcony.

The first night we had a buffet with lots of local dishes to chose from. Different kinds of fish, meats, cheeses, fruits, salads etc. Of course I left my camera in the room (DUH!) and missed out on taking pictures of the dancers in their strange but colorful costumes and men on TALL stilts walking around entertaining everyone.

The next day after Hubby got out of classes at noon we had lunch and then headed off to go horseback riding in the rainforest. I was really excited about this excursion and was not one bit disappointed! Hubby had a nice little gelding that was more interested in walking then cantering but had nice smooth gaits.

They put me on a rather nondescript mare named Bebe that I argued was too small for a BMW-----Big Maine Woman but they assured me she was fine. She was a good girl and did have some nice get up and go which we put to use several times on the ride. Usually on this type of group trail ride they just walk but our guide was fun and when we told him we'd like to step it up a bit he was more then willing.

There was a lot of overgrowth as we headed into the rainforest. It covered everything in it's path even some heavy equipment.

We ran into some of the wildlife there on the island which we found very interesting as Son used to have iguanas when he was in high school here at home. This one would have considered ours a snack as he was so much bigger then anything we had ever seen!!!! The young man that was helping our guide actually caught this thing with his bare hands so that we could get some pictures!!

After our ride the horses were all taken for a good hose down. This wasn't your little garden hose, it was more like a fire truck hose and the horses seemed to really like it. I'm sure it felt good after the long ride. We did stop half way so that the horses could rest and they sent someone on a 4-wheeler with cold drinks for us. I was very pleased at how well the horses all looked. Didn't see any sores, or signs of maltreatment which pleased me to no end. All the horses were good weight, fit and had good attitudes. We've gone on these rides in other places where the horses just were so downtrodden in spirit and would just walk nose to tail the whole ride.


My next post will continue with all the fun we had and some more beautiful photos of the area plus one of Hubby with a gorgeous mermaid!!!!!!