Roaming Renshaw's

After scuba diving on Monday, the next big thing that most of our group wanted to do was horseback riding (specifically riding on the beach)! We looked into a couple of places and Monkey Farm had the best reviews within the closest proximity to where we were staying. Directions said that we were only about 15 minutes away but we left early for our drive there since we didn’t know road conditions. Overall they weren’t bad but as we got closer to Ocotal Beach and the turn off for the Monkey Farm there were some pretty narrow and steep sections to navigate. After arriving we signed the necessary waivers and listened to a brief background on their facilities. It is truly a heart warming story explaining how the day to day maintenance and tour guides are completely run by volunteers and former addicts/homeless. Our tour guide had been living on the streets in San Jose the year prior, but now he was thriving in this new environment and was so appreciative of the opportunities he was getting every day. The tour started with us getting assigned to various horses based on size/fit and then riding around trails in the forest for the first half hour. The walk was interesting with some minor stream crossings and the guides stopping occasionally to provide voice over on local fauna and history. The second half of the tour we walked down to the beach and were able to walk in the edge of the water. Kristen would have loved to ride in the ocean more, but after the accident earlier this year I was just thankful that she could ride on the beach at all. Unfortunately, as we were heading back along the beach, Kristen’s horse decided to lay down in the sand. She has a ton of experience riding but there was nothing or no one that was going to stop that horse from going down. Luckily she was able to get away from the horse before getting rolled on…unluckily Autumn was worried about mommy and looking at her so she didn’t see the branch coming up and ended up with a pretty bad scratch across her neck.

Once we got back to the Monkey Farm we decided to checkout a local restaurant for lunch. Father Rooster was amazing and ended up being one of the highlights of the trip for the kids. As common in most places, it was mostly outdoor seating but it was directly on the beach. The atmosphere was ideal, the food was amazing, the kids loved being able to play on the beach while waiting for food, and the drinks were delicious. The kids also ran into a stray dog on the beach that we aptly named “Buffet”. He hung out around our table while we were eating and loved getting attention from the kids. They started trying to think of ways we could take him home but luckily we put an end to that (plus Buffet has a pretty great life right now living on a beach!!!).

While we were off horseback riding and having an amazing lunch, the grandparents had decided to book a catamaran/snorkeling trip for the following night. I’ve been increasingly more interested in sailing so cruising around on a catamaran sounded too good to pass up. Some of our group was going ziplining but I thought the catamaran with dinner and full open bar was a more relaxing fit 😊! The boat was amazing and the people we got to meet were equally great. My favorite part was the netting on the front of the boat (trampolines), I really cannot think of a better place to lay and watch the ocean float by underneath of you. It also didn’t hurt that the food was amazing, the drinks were amazing, the company was amazing…you get the picture. After a decent cruise north towards Nicaragua we pulled into a protected harbor for snorkeling, the highlight for me was seeing a few bat rays on my swim back to the boat and exploring the under water wall that was teaming with marine life.

For a recap of our final adventure in Costa Rica, check out our post on Instagram for La Leona Waterfall!