I was eager to try out one of the horses at Hacienda San Jose (or "the finca" as we now call it). We walked down the path to the stables and saw several horses tied. I commented that I loved the Paso Fino that I had ridden in Cartagena and our host immediately assigned their one Paso Fino to me. Their other horses were criollos. Zorro, my horse, was an older horse, probably not a show horse like Marinara, but nevertheless I found him to be extremely smooth--I was now even more determined to buy one upon my return home!
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| Hmm, which one is mine? |
What a sweetie!
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| Zorro and me |
As you can see, our host personally inspected the rigging and adjusted my stirrups.
We had a delightful ride, going through pineapple fields, orange groves, and a bamboo forest. The mountains in the distance provided a great setting. And what lush grass--these horses have it made.
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| Lush grass for the horses |
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| Bamboo forest |
Their bamboo trees are quite a bit larger than ours here. Notice the fence post of bamboo. They also use it a lot for building. Wish I had bamboo fencing!
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| Mango trees |
These trees provided our fresh mangoes. Delicious!
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| Pineapple fields |
These pineapples were personal size--small - and very sweet!
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| Oranges ready for shipment |
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| Another view of mountains |
By this time it was late afternoon and the men decided that they wanted to ride to a sugar mill and watch the sunset. I felt uneasy about being out on horseback after dark, so my daughter-in-law and I elected to ride back to the finca (by ourselves). Of course we didn't know the way back, but our host assured us that the horses knew the way. He guided us to a road and said to just follow it and the horses would turn off on the path to the finca. To this day I can't believe I was brave enough to ride off through the countryside of Colombia! Obviously I have a very plucky daughter-in-law. Well, as we rode along, my daughter-in-law's horse shied (just a little) at the first couple of cars that we met on the dirt road. So I waved the others to slow down and said thank you in Spanish. The people were very nice about it. I'm sure they wondered what on earth we were doing there. Just as we began to feel a little nervous about getting back, the horses turned off on a small path. As the sun slipped behind the trees, we saw the lights of the finca welcoming us . A welcome relief! We thankfully sank down in the sofa cushions and had appetizers and drinks while waiting for the men to return. What a great day and what a great ride! I love Colombia!!!
Stay tuned for our next adventure - a different kind of ride -a jeep ride up the side of the mountain!
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