Accompanied by Valo, an authentic cowboy of the region and local resident of Salitrales, you will have opportunity to disconnect from the non-stop hustle and bustle of your daily life, and savor the unique lifestyle that Costa Rican farmers have enjoyed for hundreds of years. We invite visitors to witness a traditional Costa Rican landscape - journey through mountain, jungle, and beach, and step into a panorama of forgotten customs and places.

Valo, short for Eduardo, owner of HoofPrint Trails, and your infallible guide. Sandí is the token he inherited from his grandfather, along with a long lineage of trapiche sugar refiners and farmers. Valo speaks fondly of his late grandfather, José, and from the stories of José Sandí's days you could tell that he inherited much more than a name. It's a hard worker's spirit, a restless heart that is always seeking adventure beyond the horizon, a love for nature and for sharing. It's natural tendencies like those combined with a life time's experience on the field and a intuitive knowledge of the terrain, that makes these tours possible. Costa Rica's HoofPrint experiences reflect not only the stories of José Sandí as an early century peasant in the Costa Rican valley, but also Valo's own life and aspirations.

So from the people to the food, from the vistas to the trails that Valo clears for our horses using a machete, we hope to bring you inspiration and fun by sharing a little bit of the traditions and beauty of the Costa Rica outback.

My goals for my Costa Rica vacation were simple: enjoy the heat and the ocean, completely remove myself from any connection to my job, experience a totally different environment (I've never been to Central America), and stretch my horse-riding skills. I accomplished all of those things. But as so often happens during travel, it's the unanticipated things that grab you and somehow change you.

The week with Elena, Eduardo, Andrea and Paul fulfilled me in ways I wasn't expecting. Eduardo's open-ness, sense of humour, and absolute joy for being outside with his horses spoke to me regardless of my lack of Spanish. Elena's translation skills are superb, and her unbridled enthusiasm was infectious. We truly experienced Costa Rica off the tourist path. This is a ride of native hospitality, mountainous and wildlife beauty, rugged terrain, and rustic accommodations. We slept with bats above us, we ate fabulous dinners by candlelight, we cantered in a riverbottom with macaws screeching overhead, we gathered lemons to make home-made lemonade, we learned about trapiches and the taste of raw sugar made from sugarcane. I grew to enormously admire and respect the horse I rode named Canelo, whose street smarts were learned from his younger years as a work horse. I thanked Canelo every day for carrying me. The list of my happy memories is a very long one.

This trip is not for everyone, though. It's hot, and the horses work very hard (this trip put me on the steepest horse climbs I have ever done). If you are attached to electricity and mattresses and hot showers, this may not be for you. But if you are looking for a completely unique experience, I can't say enough good things about the trip I had. When we reached the Pacific and had to say goodbye to our two guides and our horses, there was not a dry-eye to be found in the group.