Thurs 17 Dec

This morning I had a change in plans. I had to start at the horse stable to get a horse. The horse I got was the biggest one in EARTH. She was huge, and I was a bit intimidated by her. She back was as tall as my forehead so that meant she was way taller than all of the other workers because they only come up to my chest. After saddling up, I got on her and started to get a feel on how she road. Next I traveled to the Lecheria to meet up with Toto. When I got there, we left to go to one pasture far away to retrieve cattle. When we got to the field, we had to go all the way to the back of the heard of cattle and start yelling and bumping our horses into the cattle to get them to move. Once we got it started it became easier. Next we had to keep them on the right track and keep them in line to get them to the Lecheria. We traveled down the main roads and cars would just stop and let the cattle go by them because there was nothing else they could do. Toto and the other cow boys showed me how to herd the cattle and explained that everyone needed to be in the back in a triangle. One man would be stationed in the way back of the herd, then the other two on both sides. Then if a turn comes, the person on one of the sides will run ahead and direct the cattle to turn. After, herding the cattle, Oskar, another cowboy and I went to search for missing cattle. One interesting thing I learned was that if you do a certain call to the cows, they will respond and that will help you find them. After an hour of searching through heavy jungle and different fields, we didn’t find the missing cattle. Our last task was to get the last set of cattle back to the Lecheria. This time I was more prepared on what I had to do. After getting that taken care of, I road back to the horse stable and then got ready to go. Today was the day I was going to leave for Jaco to visit Malia´s family. It was around 1230pm when I left and I had to make the bus by 2pm. On my list of what I had to get done, it didn’t seem possible. I had to sell my Bike and then pick up another. After I had to pack my bag and then make it out to the main road. I rushed and made it to the main road to catch the bus just in time. After the Bus trip to San José, Malia, Drew, and I took another bus to Jaco. When we got there, Alex, Malia’s dad picked us up and brought us to a house party where we picked up the rest of the family. After we went to there house, got settled in, then went to bed.