Day 3: Horses & Bikes

Today was the day of rides — horseback riding and bike riding. But first, breakfast! We had our usual Explora breakfast of omelettes and cappuccinos to fuel up for the day.

Traditional Jo & Cappuccino picture

Our morning exploration was horseback riding. We met Carlos and walked over to the stables just outside the front door. After getting geared up and on our horses, we rode towards the salt mountain range. Our horses, Viola and Ooh La La were very gentle and well trained.

Giddyup up up up

Jo in her happy place

When we arrived at las Dunas de la Chula, at the base of the salt mountains, we stopped for some water and photo opportunities. We then continued up and down a ridge as we rode back toward San Pedro.

Everybody say “carrot”

Angel’s Landing – horseback style

Back at our room, we were surprised to learn that our backyard is also where the horses graze. This also explains our confusion yesterday when we found no stairs to the back yard.

Do you have horses in your backyard?

We had some time before our afternoon exploration, so we walked the 10 minutes into town. There is one main street with souvenir shops, restaurants, artist’s shops, and plenty of tour companies. We also found the church in the town center with its triangles on the walls to keep the spirits in.

Walking to town

Looks exactly like the magnet we bought.

After lunch, we met Nico to continue our day of riding things — this time mountain bikes. Leaving Explora, we rode north along the San Pedro River toward Catarpe. The first half was on gravel roads, then we reached the Devil’s Throat canyon, another part of the Salt Mountain Range (it’s pretty big). We rode a very fun route along the floor of the canyon to a lookout point, then took the same route back to Explora. This area had more gypsum than salt, which we could see in veins on the walls of the canyon.

You ready for this?

Watch out for boulders in canyon

Admiring the gypsum veins

Almost there!

We made it!

We made it back at sunset and confirmed our activities for tomorrow with Nico. We relaxed before dinner and went to sleep for our early start tomorrow.

The tables are the maps!!!