Part 3 of 3

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Alright, so I'm not really sure where to begin, the last 3 days have honestly been some of the best of my life. From San Jose, we drove a few hours over to the town of Turrialba, got some groceries, then headed up to our amazing accomodations at the Pochotel, a mountaintop villa with views like I have never seen before! High atop a mountain overlooking several volcanos, this tiny place was just what we were looking for. The restaurant has glass walls with panoramic views of the sorrounding river valleys. We all hung out in a treehouse above the restaurant, hanging out with 55 year old locals that were more than happy to pass us a bottle of Guaro and a spliff in exchange for some english lessons. Let me reiterate once again how overwhelmingly nice and accomodating these people are here. The next day, we took a 45 minute bus ride to the Rio Pacuare, where we met our guides and got our gear ready for the two day river trip that was ahead of us. We put in around noon, and descended upon the lush jungle that sorrounds the river for the next 48 hours. I rafted for the first hour, then switched out with dad and kayaked the last four miles through pristine class 3+ whitewater until I got to camp. At this point, it had been raining for almost 24 hours, and the river began to swell. I made a few mistakes, and ended up swimming twice, but recovered unscathed. We arrived at our camp around five, the most incredible place I have ever seen on any river. We were in the middle of nowhere, dense tropical rainforest with no life for miles and miles. We stayed in bamboo huts overlooking the river, sipping cold beer and telling stories until we went to sleep(quite early, I might add). We woke up to the 48th our of rain, with the river completely swollen and borderline unrunable. Dad, who is an expert kayaker, would not even paddle it. We barely made the cut off for high water by a meager five inches. In one night, the river had risen at least 3 feet(huge, by whitewater standards). Me and the five other brave (or stupid) souls, who dared to ride with the crazy guide, Roy, got in the raft and made our descent through 12 more miles of whitewater, flipping the raft somewhere in between 15 and 20 times. I have been on a lot of rivers in a lot of places, but this was by far the best experience I have ever had. I hung out with the guides afterwards, who promised to help me out with a job on the river in a few weeks. If all goes to plan, I will be back in less than a month to start working. So now, I am back in San Jose-it is the last night for the class, and tomorrow, I start an adventure of my own. It is on to the carribean coast, where I will meet up with 2 girls I met earlier this week, and I will be there for a week before heading to the exotic islands of Bocas del Toro, Panama...

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Photos

HOLD ON!
Guide on the raft, guests in the water...