Costa Rica Hot Air Balloon Ride

Today, Esteban, who besides being a great rider and guide for his company Centaura, also is a balloon pilot, took us out for a hot air balloon ride. I have never been up in a hot air balloon and it was really cool.

I felt like we were floating as we rose up over the pineapple fields and lush green environment and headed for the rainforest. Though it is the dry season, to me everything is still really green here. You can get pretty close to the tree tops as you float over the rainforest. We did! It was early morning, so we heard the sounds of the rainforest waking up; monkeys and birds called out. We saw parrots and macaws flying below us and even a sloth.

As we rose higher, the cows in the distance looked so small. We went into a cloud, seeing the blue sky in the distance and a sheet of white everywhere else around us. It was so cool to see the land where we have been riding from above. Esteban asked us if we wanted to do a quick water landing. He sunk our balloon down and we literally touched the river, before rising back up.

The final landing wasn’t bad at all. Esteban picked a spot that had a road nearby and we had a soft landing in a field.

Darley Newman is the host of the Emmy Award-winning Public Television series Equitrekking®, which takes viewers on horseback riding vacations around the world. Equitrekking is broadcast on PBS stations and on international networks in over 30 countries.

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