Neighbors Across the Road: Foals, Cattle, and... a Water Buffalo?

I much prefer to "live like a local" when traveling, as much as is possible while remaining a transient field biologist! A lot of researchers stay at research stations or in communal housing, but for a longer-term project it can be much cheaper to rent a local house-- luckily this is just such an arrangement. The house is a 5-minute drive from a small town and a 15-minute drive from a large town, and with all the tourists seeming to remain exclusively in the handful of ecolodges nearby, I am getting a sample of the real Pura Vida. Our bumpy dirt road is frequented by cars, buses, enormous trucks, tour buses to be parked at the drivers' houses for the night, dirtbikes, people on horseback, wheelbarrows, and bicyclists and pedestrians. Just on the other side of that road:

Yes, that's a water buffalo. From behind it looks not at all dissimilar from a rhino in size and color. No, I have no idea why there's a water buffalo.