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Various animal stories to tell this week. Last Sunday I went into La Fortuna, the nearest 'tourist'town to where I am staying. Hannah, a new volunteer from Sweden had suggested that we go on a horse riding trek near the volcano.Yep - I thought, I have been on a couple of nice scenic touristy plods on previous holidays, that would be great. We arrived at the stables and after signing a rather scarily (is that a word?) translated disclaimer which seemed to mention death, dying or serious injury rather too many times for my liking, we mounted our horses. Mine was called Linda which means pretty in Spanish, we had a pommel on the saddle (I think that's what you call it - it's a k*** on the front!)and we had to hold onto that with one hand and hold the reins in the other.
So, along with two american gents, off we went, a nice walk along a track, so far so good. But no, we appear to now be heading towards a very narrow steep track, and when I say track it looked more like a landslide along the side of a mountain in the middle of the jungle/forest. My horse Linda decided that having plodded along nicely for 10 minutes, she was bored and wanted to be at the front and so it would be a good time to go faster! This I might add was to be the pattern for the next 3 hours.
So with my horsemanship skills being probably in minus figures on a scale of 1 to 10, I spent my time holding onto the pommel for dear life and just trying to stay in the saddle, not easy when because of all the rain the paths were really boggy so the horse would decide to kind of leap or jump repeatedly to get itself up a hill. You will be pleased (or disappointed) to know that I managed to stay on the whole time, but had quite literally got bruised palms from holding the pommel so hard. We then spent a few hours at a swim up bar at the 'volcano'hot springs soaking our aching muscles, and drinking alcohol of course.
On Monday I started my second and final week of Spanish lessons, I am really enjoying them but the grammar is a bit of a nightmare. For example when learning 'Special Verbs' this is what Ana Lia my teacher wrote on the board "A + p.p. + p.auxiliar + verbo especial + sustantivo or verbo infinitiva". Yep - me neither!! I'm pretty sussed now on verbo being a verb, but the rest of it is like a special code that I would struggle to crack in english, let alone Spanish. Anyway, I am pleased to announce that this week I have read a spanish book. It was 50 pages long, and it was, I quote 'The easiest novel in the easiest series of novels that exist in spanish' if you weren't impressed before, then surely you must be now!!
Further animal escapades this week have included:
A face full of gecko - waking in the early hours of Tuesday to feel something running across my face. There are lots of baby (and bigger) geckos that run around the house, so I can only hope that this is what it was!
There's a rat my kitchen - yep Wednesday night brought screaming from the kitchen as Carmen, and her daughter Gendry, were preparing dinner - I wasn't exactly sure what was happening as I haven't learnt key rodent phrases in Spanish, but Alexis my house Dad, leapt up and slammed my door shut so I assumed some sort of animal was on the loose! It was indeed a large rat, and was swiftly ejected from the house.
Specs appeal - note to self : always keep an eye on a spider monkeys tail. Coco, the spider monkey decided that my glasses would make a lovely new toy, so whilst distracting me by being cute and holding out his hand, he whipped off my glasses with his tail. Cue bent frame and missing plastic rest bits (I asume he ate those). We had to fire the hose at him to get them back - visit to local optician next week, but luckily have a spare pair.
Hopefully there will be no more animal escapades of a dubious nature, although waking up to a cockerel at 4am every day is starting to grate just a little. This is usually followed by ´únidentified´ animals scurrying across the roof, then Alexis my Costa Rica Dad gets up at 5.30am and seems to have no concept of noise as he crashes and bangs around outside and shouts a lot to Jose his son. Jose has to go to school at 6.30am!! so mornings are a bit mad really. Very different to living alone.
At the opposite end of the scale, they are usually all in bed by 9, so a very differnet but lovely lifestyle.
- comments
Mandy G Never been on a horse in my life, although have always fancied giving it a go, not so sure now though! Your experience did make me smile this damp monday morning!
Sam C Advice for life seems to be "always hold onto your pommel". Seb wants a gecko for Christmas so if you see a nice one, I'll let you have the cost of postage when you get back!!
Wendy Junior Maybe you should have taken the protection out of the goalie pads instead of wipes!!! ha ha did laugh a lot tonight reading that :)
travelwright Ha yes my goalie shorts would have been perfect, and my helmet and my body armour ...... Sam I am sure that I already have baby geckos hidden in all my stuff so by the time I get back they should be a perfect size for Seb!
Wendy Senior Hope your thighs and behind have got back to normal - would imagine the scenery might have helped a bit with distracting you :)