Our son slept until almost 5:30 so we are slowly increasing his time. His behavior is directly tied to his sleep. He needs 12 hours a day. Not easy while in such a fun country.
The night before I had told the ladies cooking dinner that the kids would like to milk the cows in the morning. It involved some hand gestures and me making up some words but I thought she said Alejandro would be there for breakfast at 6 or 6:30 and she would tell him. We should be down at 7. I was completely confident in my translation of the conversation so Josh went down at 6:30 just to make sure. Yep.
At 7 we met our old friend Alejandro down by the kitchen. Josh had told him the kids wanted to ride horses that morning too. Complimentary of the lodge. The other couple staying that night joined along with us for the cows. When I came down I found the ladies were already spoiling the kids with "kiddie coffee" aka hot chocolate. They lived drinking out of their own mugs.
We followed Alejandro through a quick pasture and arrived at the cow barn. One cow was already eating and tied up, we saw calfs roaming around and one in particular was crying very loudly. Now that we were cow experts I guessed due was a couple days old. We found out eight. Everyone helped milk a few cows and waited while the babies were brought up to nurse from their moms. One calf who didn't have a mom (didn't get the story) was given her own bucket straight from another mom. It was pretty cool to see the inside workings of a dairy farm from that perspective. West have to find a dairy farm back home for the kids.
Breakfast was ready by the time we got back. Like dinner it was a typical meal. Fried plantains, bread, eggs, fresh cheese and mango juice.
After breakfast the horses were brought down for us. I remembered the ride and knew the kids couldn't do it on their own. There were some steep parts and you never knew if a horse would run. I was fine riding with a kid but Josh is barely comfortable riding alone. Alejandro seemed to understand what I was saying and said he would take our daughter.
Since we were riding Western we put pillows on the horses with the kids on top of them. I got my bigger son and Alejandro grabbed our daughter. I'm pretty sure she thought the entire ride was the coolest thing ever. She had a grin plastered on her face the entire time while she bobbed up and down and I didn't hear a peep out of her.
Have you ever seen two people riding on a horse together and wondered why it was always bareback? I will tell you why. Two people don't fit on a saddle. Or at least not me and my ginormous five year old. The whole second half of the tide he was saying "My penis! My penis! My penis!" or "Mommy stop the horse thsy thing (the horn) is up my butt." Thank goodness no one could hear or understand us. Every so often Alejandro would look at us, shake his head and motion us through getting him repositioned. Considering our horse liked to make his own path and trot at will, while my son had no concept of leaning backwards on forwards on steep hills, I was quite proud I kept everyone on the horse and with the others.
The ride was great. We didn't see any parrot babies like last time but we did see Blue Jean Frogs, Birds of Montezuma and Howler Monkeys. The most amusing part was probably when we got to the gate by the cow barn and all of sudden Alejandro tossed Rory to Josh, said "Just a minute. Cows in garden" and took off like someone out of a Wild West movie. My son was screaming "it's a real cowboy!" Soon the trip to the candy store was over for the cows and they were back I'm their pasture while we were on our way again.
The garden for the property is quite impressive and the word garden doesn't do it justice. It's a full farm. Every fruit and vegetable they grow and in large quantities. All their rice, beans, etc. I think the property is almost completely self sustaining with a few exceptions.
We finished our over an hour long rude that took us all over the 175 acre property and the kids were hooked on horseback riding. My son is determined to learn to ride by himself.
They were wiped out so we luckily got then both to take a nap before lunch. The first real naps we had gotten. I was worried we would miss lunch bit then I realized we were the only guests. Everyone woke up a little after noon and stumbled down to the main lodge still half asleep.
I got down slightly before the rest of the family and one of the ladies looked at me quickly, thought to herself and then said (in Spanish) "you speak a little Spanish, right?" Sure. Next thing I know she has picked up a phone, is telling someone there is a girl who can speak and hands me the phone. I spent the next ten minutes translating a conversation for a family back in the US trying to make a reservation for the next week. I answered all sorts of questions about which cabin they should get, why they really needed to change their car reservation to a 4x4 and most importantly why coming to La Carolina is worth the hassle. I then gave her the home number for the owners in Charleston. I think.
After lunch we loaded up the kids and headed down the road a km to another property the family owns with a lake. The directions took us through someone's yard and with a dog chasing us we arrived at a small lake with a covered wooden boat tied up. Despite now owning our kayak, boating is not our strong suit. We successfully got everyone in without any catastrophes. The sky was becoming dark so we limited our boat outing to less than half an hour. Paddling a wooden car takes a lot of work anyways. The kids insisted on paddling which again was a success since we didn't lose any paddles or teeth.
Before leaving we drove up the hill further to a lookout shelter and benches. There wasn't anything to do so I just snapped a pic and noticed it was about to pour.
On the way home Josh asked if I could go to the store for him and get a few beers and chips. He couldn't communicate with them. His description of Churillo didn't do it justice. All of things for sale were in one of three places 1. A garage I couldn't see 2. A cooler container they was so foggy I couldn't see in or 3. Behind a counter. I walked into this "store" and two men followed me. I told them I wanted 4 beers and then one literally jumped over the counter and returned with part of a six-pack ripped off still in the plastic wrapping. I don't have a clue how much anything was. They didn't even tell me. I just held out my colones. Of course it started monsooning during my 2 minute exchange and my lovely husband decide to take photos.
The kids were excited to take their afternoon dip in the "hot pool" whole it rained. I guess that was becoming their thing. We ended the afternoon with some games and full on tantrums before heading to dinner.
My dinnertime the kids had seen Alejandro around several times now. They called him A Lasagna (not being mean or funny) until they were able to ask him his name themselves. They never forgot, our son became obsessed with him and whenever he saw him was right there to tag along. Before dinner it was 20 questions and mommy was the translator, my daughter invited him to eat dinner with us and I'm pretty sure there worlds were made. My son exclaimed that he now wants to be a cowboy when he grows up. Which our daughter responded that she could be a cowgirl.
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