The fun stuff

While in Costa Rica, I was lucky enough to have 2 full days of fun.

For my first, I went white water rafting. We spent about one hour and picked up people from all different hotels in the area. (One group was a bunch of girls that I met who were there on a yoga retreat high up in the hills away from San Jose, how cool is that??) It took about 2 hours just to get there.. over the river and through the woods (these woods were actually the rainforest) and there were a ton of trucks on the pathway, this was one of the routes used to transport the country's exports. Between the way there and the way back, I saw three huge overturned trucks along this route. Quite a sight - and no policemen/firetrucks anywhere to be seen to help out.

They served us breakfast when we got there and then we geared up to head out. It was a scary ride. There were 8 people to a raft and we needed to follow our guide's instructions at all times. During the first few rapids, I was very nervous. There wasn't much aside from my feet keeping me on the tube but we, as a team, were starting to get ahold of the routine and work together. Or so we thought. All of a sudden on one of the tough rapids, I don't know what happened, I just knew I was about to hit the water; I was knocked all the way over to the other side of the tube - and braced to go under. Once in the water, I realized how hard it was to try and swim. But, I wasn't even suppose to swim. I was suppose to wait to be rescued. I took in as much air as I could in between the waves and tried to keep my feet in front of me and above water and prayed that I wouldn't be going over any major rapids anytime soon. I was rescued quickly - all 7 of us including my guide were, but... we still had a long way to go once we got back in and situated. And even though I was scared, there was a poor girl in the raft that was much worse off than me. She whimpered without consciously realizing it every time before we went over a rapid. We did end up getting back with only one toss on record. My guide said that was one of the very few times he actually fell in himself. The whole ride was certainly was a rush, though; and it was beautiful - in the middle of the rainforest, with canopies and waterfalls everywhere. I saw a wild toucan and we also saw some of the indigenous indians who live in the rainforest - they were crossing over the river via a rope line and a bucket tied to trees between the river. My only complaint was that it was a bit cold, and rainy, but - I have some great pictures from this adventure, which I keep forgetting to post!

During my second trip, we went out to the island of Tortuga off the coast of Costa Rica - we took a long bus ride out to the coast, but at least we had a great guide - who took a liking to me. If I remember correctly, he actually grew up mostly in the US and partially in Costa Rica, and moved back to CR because he loved it so much. I met Ronnie on this particular adventure. A really nice guy who couldn't speak or understand much english, which was difficult for him because everyone else were english speakers, so he lost out on the translation most of the time. I was just about the only other person aside from our guide and driver who spoke spanish, go figure. So, we became friends. We took a very lovely yacht out to the island, and I had myself a couple of very yummy tropical cocktails. I got a picture or two with the captain, some beautiful pictures, and I even saw a whale and a school of dolphins (we tried chasing them both for a while). The island was absolutely beautiful. It was private and wildlife protected. We saw many different birds, including a pet parrot who had a free-range of the island, but he was perfectly happy in his little house getting a ton of attention. I saw deer as well. I went snorkeling and had many colorful fish following me around eating out of the palm of my hand. This, was truly paradise. We had a nice picnic and I took in some sun. The water was beautiful. Unfortunately, because of the time that it took to get there and get home, we only stayed on the island itself for 4.5 hours; it was over much too quickly.