Turrialba

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Random observation:
(1) There are no addresses here. No house numbers, no street names/signs, nothing like that. All directions are give by landmarks and meters (one block equals 50 or 100 meters…depending). That also means that no one gets mail delivered, everyone picks it up at the post office.
(2) Fast food such as KFC cost more then a meal at a nice sit-down restaurant. Kind of crazy.

So yesterday I had an amazing time white water rafting…it was like nothing I had ever seen before in our area (New River). Jeff, correct me if I am wrong, but I think that Costa Rica is one of the top white water rafting areas in the world. Regardless, my trip yesterday was pretty intense. I met up with the group at about 7 in the morning (I had already been up for 2 hours). And I helped my new friend PJ put his raft together. Apparently he does a lot of work with steal so he INVENTED a ¨travel-raft¨. This think looked like a PIECE OF JUNK. It was basically a bunch of thin metal rods held together by tiny screws (that cut up your back), balanced on two big long inflatable tube things (and after we put it all together we had extra pieces…hmmm). But we put it together and headed to the river with 10 other kayakers.

The trip was about 6 or 7 hours and I think we covered 20 miles (I maybe a little off). But there was no paddling at all. Literally it was rapid after rapid after rapid. We must have ran at least 30 different rapids. And on top of that, the scenery was amazing; I had a hard time concentrating on the water because I was staring off into the jungle that surrounded us. So imagine…me, two tiny older women (one’s name was actually Mini) and some crazy old guy in this raft held together by tape…and then imagine us running down 30 class 4 rapids….oh yah, and some how I was the only one with out a helmet…damn I need to hurry up and get that travel insurance (don’t tell mom). And yes I did get toss overboard once =). But everything worked out great, I had a BLAST.

Jeff - ever heard of a ¨Shredder¨, look it up it is an inflatable raft that these pros from CO had…really sweet, they said it takes 9 months to get them. But that might be something fun for me to get, it is perfect for two people (jen we’re going to have to work on your fear of white water).

So for some strange reason, after ever rapid, I would try to imagine if I could have tubed over it…I mean lets be honest…Yuri, you and I have tubed some pretty intense rapids (Urban White water)

So that was my day rafting. Today I am going to hike to the Aquarius water falls, and then head over to a reptile farm (or something like that). I think I’m going to try to catch a bus to Puerto Viejo a noche..but will probably end up half way there at Limon. We’ll see.

I hope everyone is doing well. I will upload my rafting pics soon (I have some really good ones), also check out my previous post, I added two pics.

(ps. Don´t worry about my spelling…the key boards are all mixed up, there is no spell check, and I’m kind of lazy…not to mention a bad speller).

Adios Amigos,
Chris

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