Cuenca - Day 5

Thank goodness Windhorse Cafe was open this morning!  I've been wanting their fruit salad, yogurt, granola breakfast for 2 days.  It was good!  Today I'm going riding in the Andes Mountains with Sabastian at Centro Ecuestre Bellavista.  Sabastian picked Jeff and I up at 9:30AM in front of our hostal.  We squeezed in his little pickup truck and headed out of Cuenca.  His facility was only about 8K out of town so not very far.  Sabastian speaks excellent English so that's very helpful.  In the course of our conversation today I found out he has 41 horses and teaches about 40 young riders show jumping.  He also rides and hosts Endurance events.  Really great guy and a pleasure to ride with.  There were 2 other riders, Suzannah and Raphael from Guayaquil Ecuador.  Suzannah also spoke excellent English, so I enjoyed my typical ride - great horses, great conversation, and a great time!

 See girls, I DID wear my helmet!

 This is where Jeff hung out while I rode for 2 hours.

 Here's Sabastian!

This is my horse, Eclipse.  Notice the western saddle.  I was REALLY glad I wasn't riding English!

 Suzannah and Raphael.  She had a great laugh and he had a very good sense of humor!

Dang these long American legs!!!

 This was our view heading down the drive.

 Dairy cows!

 Up we go!

 We took a break for pics.

We rode the ridge of a mountain for quite a while.

 I tried to get a panoramic view so you can see how awesome this is.  This is the right side.

 Right middle.

 Left middle.

Left side.  Beautiful, isn't it.

 Pretty much straight down on both sides.

 The Three Caballeros!!!

 See that little church?  It's on top of the ridge. 

Now we're on our way down.

 Jeff and Raphael rode in the back of the truck back to Cuenca so the ladies could ride up front.  

Had a great time and would definitely do it again!  We were really hungry when we got back so we went to Windhorse Cafe again for good eats.

 Sub sandwich and fruit cup.

Sea Bass sandwich and cole slaw.

After lunch we took a nap in our room.  Then more walking and sightseeing.  We had a great time today at Centro Ecuestre Bellavista.  Jeff had a beautiful quiet place to read and I got to ride with great people!  Thanks again, Sabastian, for the wonderful time and thanks to Suzannah and Raphael for the great company!