White Water Rafting!

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Saturday 28th Jan - San Jose to Turrialba

After a fantastic 2 hour bus ride twisting through the surrounding countryside and mountains, we were in Turrialba, a haven for white water enthusiasts but otherwise a fairly nondescript town. 10 minutes after arriving at our hostel, the InterAmericano, and we were signed up for a day trip tomorrow with Tico tours to the Pacuare River, rather tentatively and anxiously in Stacie's case! A slight change of tact today and we opted for the very lovely and traditional Casada food of Anna's around the corner from our hostel.

Sunday 29th Jan - Turrialba

An early wake up call at 7am and we're off to boat it down the nearby River Pacuare, one of the top 10 rivers in the world as voted by National Geographic magazine, with everyones favourite tour company, "Tico Tours". But alas! We thought we were being steered by the veteran of 20 years of the river, Roberto, who had sold us hook line and sinker the night before but instead he'd put us in the hands of his young padowan, "Fabio", a 23 year old Ronaldo wanabee. His best line of the day being, "I'm just like a toucan, I'll only ever have one love, my mother". This all did Stacie little good in calming her nerves as we prepared to tumble down the raging torrent of class 4 rapids with a testosterone fuelled, Ayrton Senna of the river hopeful. As it turned out, it wasn't as scary as you might of imagined and looking back it's amazing what tricks your mind can play on you. Fabio, although a self styled Jason Donavon heart throb, turned out to be a really good Capitan and really good fun too as we made it down in one piece in what he described as "The Partyboat", raising paddles like centurions after each successful completion of a rapid and shouting "pura vida" at the tops of our voices. Our dinghy contained two americans and a swiss/german, who all turned out to be a good laugh. However, I couldn't help but saddistically chuckle to myself when one of the Americans (Roger - but pronounced rogeeeeer like Federer) at the front of the boat, fell out over one rapid, his friend catching him by the life jacketas he fell, his face stricken with fear as if a big croc had hold of his legs, before being pulled back in the boat. I guess it's one of thise things that's not very nice if it happens to you but kind of funny if you're an innocent bystander watching it unfold, particularly when it's an american who generally has a big smile on his face with his chest pumped out when on dry land. Anyway , we continued on down the rapid river, taking in the spectacular views, spotting rare birds that Fabio could liken himself to, jumping in the river for a quick swim between canyons when the opportunity arose and stopping for a great picnic half way down to build our own burritos and enjoy some fine avocado. Rafting was no way near as dangerous as I had imagined, although obviously the unexpected can always happen with nature and it was even more fun than I had hoped for in a similar way to how skiing was for me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind being thrown around a little and Tico Tours is a great place to start.

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Photos

River Pacuare - Costa Rica
Rafting