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Published: December 11th 2006
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¡Hola! My computer doesnt have an apostrophe key that works, so forgive the sloppy email...I just wanted to write and say hello and update yall on my weekend! Hopefully everyone is well and I will see most of you in 5 days or so! ¡Que divertido!
Saturday morning Cheryl (roommate) and I met up with two other students, Dan & Scott, at 6 in the morning. We enjoyed some coffee together while waiting for the bus to Rio Pacuare, which is where we would be white water rafting that day. The bus picked us up and we were on our way. We drove to the Caribbean side of the country, which was cool because I didnt think Id get the chance to see it. Braulio Carrillo National Park on the way to the river was amazing! It had leaves the size of cars on some of the trees - I dont remember the official name, but the locals call them "poor man umbrellas." I have never seen leaves so big! When we got to the river we had a really good breakfast, and were ready for the day. There were probably 40 other people there to raft, so we filled up about 8-10 rafts. My group was put into the smallest raft though, which proved later to be a bad mistake. We had a brief discussion about safety and commands, and a few pointers about rescue should we fall out of the raft, and we were off. The river started off nice and fun. The rapids in the beginning were rated Class II (the rapids are rated Class I - Class VI), so those were fun. Nothing I hadnt seen before. The canyon we were rafting through was stunning! We saw a lot of waterfalls and birds and Tarzan-looking vines. So the river continued, and the rapids were getting bigger. The mid-section was made up of Class III rapids, which shouldnt have been a big deal, but apparently our guide was having a bad day. The first Class III we hit completely flipped our raft! Everyone got dumped out, including the guide. I realized I was under the raft, and was able to get out, but when I came up to the surface I couldnt breathe in or out, so I was choking. I somehow managed to grab the rope someone threw to me, and they pulled me in, but it took me awhile to cough up the water. I was scared to death, and I mean that in all seriousness. Once everyone from my boat had been rescued, we all found our way back to the original raft and took a few minutes to get our composure. There was one other guy in a different boat that fell out, and he ended up dislocating his arm and had to be taken away to a hospital. So this was how our trip began...we continued down the river and made it through another Class III rapid, but the first Class IV rapid of the day proved stronger than us. Our guide took us right into a hole, which is basically a whirlpool on the down side of a huge wave. Again, our boat completely flipped over, and I was under it. I got to the surface quicker than the first time, but by now I was completely out of my mind. I got pulled to shore, and I sat there with my friend Scott, who was spitting up water. Dan and Cheryl made it to a different boat, and when we finally met up with them Cheryl had been hit in the back of the head by a kayak and was kind of loopy. Thank God we were all wearing helmets or who knows what couldve happened. At this point, I refused to get back into the raft, and to make it worse, my machismo "#$hole guide told me to stop crying. I shared some kind words with him, and put myself into a different raft for the day. The new guide and new raft mates made all the difference. We plowed through about 6 more Class IV rapids without incident, and it was even fun! Rafting is great when youre not choking to death. When the trip was over, which lasted about 3 1/2 hours, I was never so happy to see solid ground. We dried off, ate lunch, bought pictures of our grand adventure, and headed back home. If anyone wasnt religious before that trip, they definitely are now.
Sunday morning Cheryl and I had another tour planned, so we were up nice and early again. I woke up feeling like someone had beat me with a paddle, and I have some gnarly bruises on my feet and legs to prove it. Today (Monday) I feel even worse - my vino tinto should come in handy tonight!
Anyway, Sunday we were going on a 5 in 1 day tour, which was supposed to include a trip to Volcan Poas, La Paz Waterfall, Braulio Carillo National Park, a butterfly and wild frog farm, and a boat ride on the Rio Sarapiqui. Well it turns out two bridges had fallen on Friday due to crappy engineering and several tremors, so we only had a 3 in 1. We got to hike to the crater at Volcan Poas, and although it was really foggy we could see the laguna for a few minutes, and that was pretty cool. Then we went hiking at La Paz Waterfall, which was sooooo pretty! There were about 7 waterfalls throughout the park, all of different heights and widths. I hope my pictures from that come out well. We also had a view of one of the collapsed bridges, which we would have been on had we done all 5 activities!!! I dont think Costa Rica likes me anymore. Thankfully we missed the river - I can do without watersports for awhile.
So thats my weekend in a nutshell. Cheesy as it sounds, I am very thankful to be sitting here typing this email. This upcoming, final week includes some mellow activities, including another trip to Teatro Nacional to see Ballet Trockadero (Dad, is that the funny one?).
Five more days and back to Los Estados! Feel free to write if you like, I love you all!!!
¡Pura vida!
Nikki
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