I have begun counting down the days until I return home. They now number 12. Every time I walk down the street to the wall(where you can sit and watch the waves come in), I find myself trying to burn the images into my head.

In many ways I am looking forward to my return, but I would think that is it mostly due to the familiarity and infra-structure. Not that you need one down here, but the thought of a long, hot, shower, music playing, and come out to lay on a good couch…oh, and a good steak at Hys Steak Loft. The beef down here sucks. I mean, it is terrible, tough as nails, fit only for stew or crock-pot, and best avoided until you are tired of chicken. Albertans are spoiled, on a global scale, when it comes to the beef we have.

Yesterday, I went back to El Valle to go horse riding up into the mountains with Phil, and two new Swedish girls that showed up a few days ago. B) Moa and Jana have sent four others from their home country this way as they met people in their travels. $5/hr on a rather scrawny looking beast….but a wiry little bugger, and fast. I am quite sure I was given the best of the bunch as I was constantly having to rein her in.

We took a trail up into the mountains that only a horse could take. You couldn’t get there on a dirt-bike, quad, or anything other than a horse. Oh, you could have walked it, but the trail was brutal, steep, strewn with ankle-breakers, and the only people who would walk it would be those that fell off their horse.

On the way back, once we returned to the roads, the girls wanted to let their horses go, so they did. Not a good idea at the best of times, but there was no holding mine back without fear of getting bucked off. The girls were already way ahead when I finally let her go, and this one caught up in to time. I just held on and prayed she didn’t loose her footing on the gravel road. That would have hurt.

I made it out alive, and now I really want to go back to Santa Fe to ride up to the waterfalls there. I guess I will made a day trip out of it before I go.

Everyone is up early today to see what the waves are like. The skid marks on my belly are just about healed now, so I will go again today whenever there is the chance.

I’m going to go down to the wall and see what I can see.