About That ATV Accident

Now that I’m finally back to work and a regular schedule (not drinking mojitos every day) and my wounds have healed (mostly) I think I’m ready to talk about the ATV accident, in more detail. You might think rolling an ATV and ending up in a Costa Rican hospital would ruin a vacation, you would be wrong.

On our third day in Guanacaste we booked an ATV trip at Hacienda El Cenizaro a beautiful ranch about 45 minutes away from our hotel. As I mentioned in a previous post we didn’t stay on the ATVs for as long as the tour intended. After we flipped we headed back to get cleaned up, luckily the owner’s wife is a nurse so she helped fix us (James) up, but we decided to head to the local clinic in La Cruz just to be sure. Unfortunately the nurses at the clinic thought that James should get himself an x-ray, in case anything was broken.

We spent the remainder of the day travelling to and from Liberia for x-rays, which is about as fun as it sounds. Things that went through my head during this time ranged from, “I need a beer. Stat. Ha! Stat, that’s a medical word.” To “I really hope nothing is broken. It would suck to go back home already. I don’t even have a good tan yet!” When we got the all-clear, our new friends from the ranch took us back to the hotel, I finally got my beer and we ordered A LOT of room service before passing out. Here’s a tip, if you have road rash don’t wear a shirt because you’ll have to peel that shirt off your skin in the morning and it will not be fun.

Thanks to the kindness of the owners and our lovely guide Stephanny we got to go back to the ranch on our last day for a trail ride up the mountains that surround the ranch. You can’t flip a horse, so I had a little more faith that James could do this without injuring us both.

The ride was stunning. As we rode across the property we passed dancing baby goats, that’s not hyperbole I dare you to describe a baby goat in any other way. We rode across the fields, up hills, and across tiny streams that flow throughout the property all while the howler monkeys watched us from the trees. At one point we saw a family of spider monkeys swinging through the canopy above us, complete with a baby monkey clinging to the back of its mother – what a way to travel.

Half-way through the ride we stopped for a snack and to give the horses a rest while we took in the view; at the top of the property there is a clear view of the Pacific coast from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, it’s breathtaking.

I’m already planning my next trip to Guanacaste but if you get there before I do make sure you go to Hacienda El Cenizaro, and tell Stephanny and the guys that I send my love.