River Rafting!

Again my apologies for not blogging for awhile and being tardy.  March has been incredibly busy, with all my travels and classes finishing up.  Anyways, finals are basically over with and I still want to blog about my life for the past few weeks.

Pacuare River

Two weekends ago I went on a river rafting day trip with my program. We traveled to the Pacuare River, about 2.5 hours away from San José.  The river has been named as one of the top 10 rivers by National Geographic, and was incredibly beautiful.  We didn't see any wildlife besides birds, but the surrounding forest is supposed to have jaguars and monkeys, along with other wild animals.  Basically the only civilization we saw would be a few bungalow/cabin type housing, scattered along the river.  Overall the scenery was so tranquil and beautiful--I definitely felt like I was in Costa Rica, because somewhere so full of ecology and natural beauty isn't found in many other places. 

So after eating a hearty breakfast, of eggs, gallo pinto, fruit, coffee and toast we headed off to the river to set of down the river.  We broke into groups, with each raft having 5 students and one guide.  Our guide Diego, told us the rules, gave us our equipment and got us started down the river.  At first I was so nervous!  I feel like I always get that way before doing something new or something a bit out of my box.  I was so excited but the feeling of my stomach tossing still was there. Quickly the feeling went away, and I only focused on the surrounding beauty and the rapids ahead.

Our first stop in the raft was a group of rocks about a minute away from the start of the river.  Everyone had to get out of the raft, climb up the rocks, jump into the water and then swim back to the boat.  Not exactly sure why that was all necessary, but I grudgingly did it.  I'm not really the type to want to just jump of rocks.

After that, we took off for 2.5 hours of rafting.  We probably went through at least 15-20 rapids during those two hours, they all ranged from a 2-4 on a scale of difficulty--5 is the highest rating.  The river didn't have any of those.  My group got through many with ease and others not so gracefully.  One rapid in particular we got stuck on a group of rocks--and we were stuck good, like it took both of the guys in the boat to push with their feet against the raft and us girls to jump in the boat to shake it loose.

Imagine that one of those people is me.

A few times during the trip our guide let us jump out of the boat and swim around where the water was calm and not near a rapid.  It was so relaxing, just floating along the river with the current, and taking in all the beauty.

After 2.5 hours of rafting, we stopped for a wonderful burrito and fruit lunch, prepared by the guides.  It was so tasty, especially because I had been wanting a burrito or some type of mexican food for awhile now.

We continued on down the river to battle larger rapids, a lot of 3-4s.  It's amazing what the guide does throughout the whole trip.  He has to tell us which way to row and if he see's danger ahead he makes sure we are in the right position going down the river. Also, he kept it fun on the raft--cracking jokes and leading in paddle high-5's after each rapid.  One rapid, Diego said, "ok, guys this is called the 'Dancing Rapid', want to know why? 'Cause you all have to get up and dance." So we all stood up and attempted at dancing while going over a rapid. We all made it through the rapid in the boat.

Paddle High-5's

At the end of the 4.5 hour river trip, I was ready to finish--I was a bit tired.  Looking back at all of my other trips and activities I've done in Costa Rica so fa, the river rafting is definitely one of my favorites.  It was so much fun, and something I probably would have never done if it wasn't for me being in Costa Rica. 


¡Pura Vida!