While deciding what to do with our day, we sat around on the sandy beach, listening to the waves
of the lake crashing onto shore. We made up our minds to go horseback riding, so we took the short walk from Buena Vista to Finca Santo Domingo, where we waited for our guide to showup. First we were told to be there by 8:30, then it turned to 9:00, and still nobody from the hotel had any idea what was going on. Finally, after an hour and a half of waiting (yes we are patient individuals, but only to a point), we got up to leave, seemingly ready to give up on the plan, when we saw a group returning from their trip. Things would have been less stressful if they just told us that we had to wait for others to return, but that was not the case. Soon after, we met 
Hector, who was the caretaker of the farm as well as our guide, and he distributed horses based on our level of experience. Luckily I ended up getting one of the slower horses (after my incident in San Juan del Sur), while Josh and Marisa got much faster ones. This meant that throughout most of the trip, they were far out in front, which Hector and I were bringing up the rear.
We started with a quick trek through the village, which lasted less than 5 minutes given its total size of maybe 10 buildings, then we headed towards the beach all the way until the end, a
good 2 or 3 km away. Here we had to switch back to the road, then followed it to the right, towards Finca El Porvenir, which I visited back in February for the first time. The last kilometer of the treck was on a rocky path which the horses seemed to negociate without a problem, since they follow that route all the time. Once we got to the farm we ´parked´our horses and took a walk through the beautiful gardens, taking lots of pictures along the way. We also stopped at the mirador to admire the view with Volcan Conception in the background and the rest of the island stretching out beneath us. As I was telling Josh and Marisa the story of how we encountered 
a tarantula the previous time I was there, we heard some ear-pearcing screams which we realized were coming from a pig about to be slaughtered. We saw the farm owners carrying it to the designated ´sacrifice´area, with even a film crew in tow, why we could not figure it out.
Once the screams subsided, we knew the deed was done, and we started heading out of Finca El Porvenir, though not before seeing some of the workers washing the blood of their hands. On our way out, we stopped to admire some of the petroglyphs, sculptures in stone thousands of years old, belonging to the pre-columbian era.
There were a number of them on the farm, so we walked along for a bit, stopping at each and everyone of them. Once we were done, we returned to the horses and proceeded to make our way back to Santo Domingo, along the way, since Josh and Marisa were so far out in front, I had a chance to have a chat with Hector, learning a bit about his lifestyle and daily routine (apparently, there are no days off for good behaviour, as he worked 7 days a week). We returned the horses to the stable, and before saying goodbye to Hector we invited him to join us for a bit once he finished work later on that afternoon. For lunch we went to Hospedaje 
Gloriana, right next door from our hostel, and then relaxed on the beach, and went swimming every now and then.
We met up with Martin, who was just returning from the Ojo de Agua, who had another piece of bad news - the tarzan swing by the natural pool was gone, another by-product of Tropical Storm Alma; nonetheless we were still determined to make our way there the following day. Even later on in the afternoon, a group of guys who went to climb Volcan Maderas returned, as muddy and tired as I was when I completed that challenge, which I said I would not repeat. I told Josh and Marisa that if they wanted to try their hand at it, I would be more than happy to sit and relax by the beach for the day, but they were much more in the mood for relaxation and no extreme physical challenges. After dinner that evening, when we returned to Buena Vista, the patio was buzzing with people of all nationalities sitting around and chatting; we joined in on the conversation as well, though soon after the power went out and we switched to candlelight, providing a much more intimate atmosphere, though shortening our time together, as one by one, people started heading to their rooms to sleep.
of the lake crashing onto shore. We made up our minds to go horseback riding, so we took the short walk from Buena Vista to Finca Santo Domingo, where we waited for our guide to showup. First we were told to be there by 8:30, then it turned to 9:00, and still nobody from the hotel had any idea what was going on. Finally, after an hour and a half of waiting (yes we are patient individuals, but only to a point), we got up to leave, seemingly ready to give up on the plan, when we saw a group returning from their trip. Things would have been less stressful if they just told us that we had to wait for others to return, but that was not the case. Soon after, we met 
Hector, who was the caretaker of the farm as well as our guide, and he distributed horses based on our level of experience. Luckily I ended up getting one of the slower horses (after my incident in San Juan del Sur), while Josh and Marisa got much faster ones. This meant that throughout most of the trip, they were far out in front, which Hector and I were bringing up the rear.We started with a quick trek through the village, which lasted less than 5 minutes given its total size of maybe 10 buildings, then we headed towards the beach all the way until the end, a
good 2 or 3 km away. Here we had to switch back to the road, then followed it to the right, towards Finca El Porvenir, which I visited back in February for the first time. The last kilometer of the treck was on a rocky path which the horses seemed to negociate without a problem, since they follow that route all the time. Once we got to the farm we ´parked´our horses and took a walk through the beautiful gardens, taking lots of pictures along the way. We also stopped at the mirador to admire the view with Volcan Conception in the background and the rest of the island stretching out beneath us. As I was telling Josh and Marisa the story of how we encountered 
a tarantula the previous time I was there, we heard some ear-pearcing screams which we realized were coming from a pig about to be slaughtered. We saw the farm owners carrying it to the designated ´sacrifice´area, with even a film crew in tow, why we could not figure it out.Once the screams subsided, we knew the deed was done, and we started heading out of Finca El Porvenir, though not before seeing some of the workers washing the blood of their hands. On our way out, we stopped to admire some of the petroglyphs, sculptures in stone thousands of years old, belonging to the pre-columbian era.
There were a number of them on the farm, so we walked along for a bit, stopping at each and everyone of them. Once we were done, we returned to the horses and proceeded to make our way back to Santo Domingo, along the way, since Josh and Marisa were so far out in front, I had a chance to have a chat with Hector, learning a bit about his lifestyle and daily routine (apparently, there are no days off for good behaviour, as he worked 7 days a week). We returned the horses to the stable, and before saying goodbye to Hector we invited him to join us for a bit once he finished work later on that afternoon. For lunch we went to Hospedaje 
Gloriana, right next door from our hostel, and then relaxed on the beach, and went swimming every now and then.We met up with Martin, who was just returning from the Ojo de Agua, who had another piece of bad news - the tarzan swing by the natural pool was gone, another by-product of Tropical Storm Alma; nonetheless we were still determined to make our way there the following day. Even later on in the afternoon, a group of guys who went to climb Volcan Maderas returned, as muddy and tired as I was when I completed that challenge, which I said I would not repeat. I told Josh and Marisa that if they wanted to try their hand at it, I would be more than happy to sit and relax by the beach for the day, but they were much more in the mood for relaxation and no extreme physical challenges. After dinner that evening, when we returned to Buena Vista, the patio was buzzing with people of all nationalities sitting around and chatting; we joined in on the conversation as well, though soon after the power went out and we switched to candlelight, providing a much more intimate atmosphere, though shortening our time together, as one by one, people started heading to their rooms to sleep.
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