Horseback Riding through Aquiares Coffee Farm

When we made the decision to come to Costa Rica for Alex’s graduation trip, Alex specifically said he wanted to do stuff. Activities. Outdoors stuff. There are lots of outdoors things that we don’t usually do in Costa Rica because of the expense. So we decided early on that we would budget to do some of those things. The ziplining in Perez Zeledon was the first of these kind of things. There were two others, completing the trifecta. We were doing them today and tomorrow: Horseback riding through a coffee farm, and the next day whitewater rafting the Pacuare River.

These activities were pricey, but not out of the question. We had budgeted $75 a day for activities, and so far, we hadn’t used very much of this. In fact, our budget had a good-sized surplus, so splurged for the horseback riding and the rafting.

The Aquiares coffee farm offers 4-hour horseback riding tours for around 25,000 colones per person ($42). They didn't have enough horses for all 9 of us, so we broke it up into two shifts. My five went in the morning, and the other four went in the afternoon. For the second time all vacation, I had to set an alarm to wake up.

We got to Aquiares a bit early, around 8:30, and met our guide, Denice. A table was set up with coffee, juice, and fresh fruit. Quite the spread. Denice hadn't had breakfast yet, so she ate some bread with us while we drank coffee and ate fruit. Then it was time to meet our horses. Mine's name was Pinto, and as the heaviest in our party, I quietly apologized to him as I climbed on.

All the horses were very gentle, although we had two things that were noteworthy. First, Sofia's horse did not like horses getting close behind it. She kicked Bella's horse once, and she kicked Cristina's horse once. We all kept our distance after that. The other thing was that Alex's horse was pregnant, and he didn't realize that he was bumping her ribs with his ankles. So he was trying to get her to slow down or stop, but his ankles were telling her to speed up. As a result, she was often in the front of everyone, and he was trying to get her to stay back. Sometimes she would do a side-stepping, prancing kind of thing, like you see the fancy horses do. Once he figured out his ankles were giving her mixed signals, he kept his feet out and she was completely manageable.

The horses carried us through shady coffee plantations. Very relaxing and fun. Denice and a cowboy were also on horses, and then another cowboy rode a motorcycle. So we had three guides total, though only Denice spoke English.

We stopped midway at a waterfall and hung out there for a half hour or so.

Chatting with Denice

Back on the trail, we made our way to the coffee mill and, leaving our horses, donned hairnets and hardhats and got the full walk-thru of a coffee factory. I have a much better appreciation for how much work goes into processing coffee beans. It's complex! For example, there are three ways to process beans: fully washed, honey, and natural. The expense is greater for each method (fully washed being the least expensive, natural being the most expensive).

Lastly, we toured the little church in the village, which was built by early founders of the coffee plantation.

Back at the house, the other four were waiting. We joined them for their coffee spread, and then after the horses had enough of a rest and snack, they set off on their tour. We went to the giftshop. Bella got a t-shirt, I got some ground coffee (honey processed) and a cool chorreador made out of a coffee branch.

We had leftover chicken from the barbecue, so we made a a big dinner of leftovers, beets, salad, etc. We set the big  dining room table for the first time. By the time the others returned from their tour, dinner was ready.

The horseback riding was tiring, and we were all a little saddle-sore. Knowing that we had to get up early for whitewater rafting, we went to bed fairly early.