Rafting the Rio Gerviche

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The rafting company picked us up at 8am to head out and white-water raft down the Gerviche river. There were two rafts, and one of the guides spoke some english. The river was great fun - mostly class 2 and 3 rapids. I fell out into the river 4 times, only one of which was intentional.

After rafting we got dropped off on the Carrera Interamericana (the main highway through central america) and we caught a bus to Paso Canoas on the Costa Rican border. Once we got there, there was a 15 year old who decided to guide us through the process and chat up Trish at the same time. There obviously aren't many NZers coming through the border crossing, as they had to ask around whether or not I was allowed in...

From there we caught a bus for the 5 hour trip to San Isidro - not somewhere that we really wanted to go, but just a stepping stone to Manuel Anntonio. After riding the great highways of Panama, it was a change to get back on the crappy roads of Costa Rica, where the vehicles are constantly swerving to avoid the huge pot-holes.

One of the highlights was at one stop, the bus was surrounded by people on either side selling mamones (fuzzy red lychees, also known as rambutans). Of course we had to get a big bag - their constant chanting of "mamones mamones mamones mamones..." was too convincing.

We found and checked into Hotel de Valle, which, at $14 a night, was one of the cheapest (and crummiest) places we have stayed. They didn't even need to take our names, and with the nasty-looking hookers out front, indicated the classiness of the place...

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