May 3, 2008: Feeling adventurous in Costa Rica
0515 wake up for another overcast sunrise over Puntarenas. I cannot believe I am already in Costa Rica, the last port of this voyage. Where have the last 4 months gone?
At 0945 I met with Andres, Kristen, Ashley, Brent, Kerry, Christine, Dave Wodka, and a bunch of other people to go white water rafting. A van was waiting for us outside the ship to take us to Naranjo River for our ½ day, class IV, white water rafting adventure. Class IV is the highest class you can go on without being certified and is described as an adrenaline rush activity. Most of the people I was going with had been white water rafting before, but not me. Why not try Class IV for my first time? Quepos (where Naranjo River is) was about 2 hours from the ship, so we had a long van ride…we stopped along the way to pick up some local Costa Rican beer, Imperial! We got to the office of H2O adventures, signed our life away, picked up our rafts, and got back in the van to take us to Naranjo River. The past 2 hours was filled with nothing but sunshine. As soon as we got to our designated spot to white water raft, it started POURING! Most activities would normally be cancelled in the event of rain, not the case for white water rafting. In fact, the rain makes the rapids bigger and the ride that much more thrilling and adventurous. As if class IV wasn’t adventurous enough?!
So here we are, in the middle of a rain forest in the pouring rain. I grab my life vest, strap on my helmet and listen to our instructors talk about how to paddle, and what to do if you fall out. By the time we got into our rafts we were all soaked (it looked like we all already fell into the river). I shared my raft with Kristen, Ashley, Kerry, and Brent, and our guide, whose name was Minor. The description was definitely right…adrenaline rush! The rapids were crazy! There were about 6 rafts of all SAS kids going down the river at the same time. It was fun watching people in other rafts fall out or get stuck on rocks. Luckily I didn’t fall out of the raft, but Kristen, Kerry, and our guide did! I would say that it was pretty funny watching everyone fall out of the rafts, but it was not so funny watching our GUIDE fall out of the raft!!! It took us a while to pull him back into the raft and we knew that if our guide fell out, that couldn’t be a good sign. Kristen also managed to hit herself in her eye with her paddle, giving her a bit of a black eye. About half way through white water rafting we stopped on the side of the river to have some snacks (fresh pineapple, cookies, and juice)…It was still pouring. After snack time, we got back into our rafts and continued down the river. What an adventure! My first time white water rafting was a class IV and I managed to stay in the raft…impressive. I was definitely more scared white water rafting that I was when I went skydiving.
We all got out of our rafts, and back into our vans to take us to Jaco for the night. One problem…one of the vans got stuck in the muddy rain and couldn’t get out. So, we all piled into 2 vans and were on our way. In front of us was basically a river of mud…not a puddle, a river. It had rained so hard and so much in the last few hours that all the water accumulated, basically forming a river. We had no other way out, so we had to speed through it. Van 1 made it across, but my van did not…we got stuck as well! We all had to get out of the van and walk through the muddy river water to the other side. The problem: I wore flip flops to go white water rafting (go figure), and there was no way that I could make it through the “river” without them falling off; and it was too rocky to go barefoot. The solution: One of our guides gave me a little piggyback ride across the river. We were so wet and filthy by the end of this! We walked to a little place in the rainforest to get some local food that the rafting people recommended. They served pork, yuka?, and beer. Not my favorite food, but everyone else seemed to love it. By about 1800 we got back in the vans and made our way to Jaco to meet up with our friends for the night.
At about 1930 our bus pulled up to Bahia Azul, where a bunch of us rented villas for the night. I was staying with Kristen, Kerry, Ash, Meredith, Kailey, Jenny, Rob, Kristin, Chris, Bill, 2 of Rob’s friends from home that are studying abroad here (Travis and Kyle), Jason, Max, Ben, and Andrew. Hilton and the other Texas boys, along with a bunch of other SAS kids rented villas in the same complex. We all just rented villas and decided we would crash wherever there was room. I took a quick shower, got ready, made a run to the liquor store with Kristen and Jason, and then headed back to the villa to pre-game. Some of the guys on the ship rented a HUGE house in Jaco and were throwing a party for the night. We pre-gamed pretty hard, and then made our way to the guys’ house (which was in walking distance). There must have been a few hundred kids there from SAS…I feel bad for whoever rented that house out to these boys! It was nice to all be able to hang out, drink, and party in the same vicinity outside the ship. We hung out and drank there for a little while and then walked into town to go to some local bars and get some late night food. Most of the bars either had covers, or just weren’t that much fun, so we picked up some hamburguesas and continued to party back at the villa. A bunch of SAS kids + vodka + Costa Rican liquor + imperial beer = a GOOD time!!!
March 4, 2008: Swinging from tree to tree
I woke up around 0630, only 2 hours after I went to bed…like I’ve said before, I can sleep when I die. For some reason, I just couldn’t sleep. While everyone else was still passed out, I laid outside on the balcony just enjoying the beautiful scenery of the beach and just thinking about how amazing this trip has been. At 0930 I went with Meredith and Kailey to do the Vista Los Suenos Canopy Tour. We got harnessed up and took a tractor up to the top of a mountain. The only way down was the zip lines. The zip lines included 15 platforms, 14 cables with a total distance in cables of 3.5 kilometers, including the longest cable in this area, 2400 feet!!!
The canopy tour was so much fun. Zipping from tree to tree was awesome! I was zip lining down from the top of the mountain, so the view was magnificent. Many times I didn’t make it to the platform, and would get stuck towards the end of the zip line. 2 times the guy had to come out and get me and bring me back to the platform; quite embarrassing! The first time I got stuck was on the second cable…the guy had to come out and bring me back to the platform. It took longer than usual I guess because about 2 seconds after he unhooked me on the platform, Meredith came flying into the platform. Had I not moved, we both would have been seriously injured! The other 3 times I got stuck, I had to pull myself to the platform! My arms were so soar by the end of the tour. I also got to zip across 3 cables upside down…a little scary but really cool!
After our canopy tour, the three of us went out to lunch at a place called Taco Bar. I got 1 beef taco and 1 chicken taco…delicious. I cannot wait for real food when I get back to the States…they don’t serve us real meat on this ship (we get pork and fish EVERY day!!!) Taco Bar was in walking distance from our villa, so we walked back to meet up with everyone after lunch. On our walk back we stopped at some stores/vendors to do some Costa Rican shopping. Back at the villa, everyone was lying around the pool, sipping some mixed drinks, just having a good time.
At 1600 we took a van back to Puntarenas. We dropped our bags off on the ship, shopped around some more at some local street vendors, and went out for our last meal together in port! We found a restaurant that was close to the ship and that was fairly inexpensive. Luckily for me they had a kids menu with chicken nuggets and French fries... how exciting! They were soo yummy! We had a bit of liquor left over from our stay in Jaco, so Kristen and I decided to man up and finish it before getting back on the ship…we didn’t want to waste money!
It was a short stay in Costa Rica. I had such a fun time, but I wish we could have stayed here longer. There seems like there is so much to do here, 2 days is not nearly enough. I really enjoyed Costa Rica and would love to come back here someday.
Onto the Panama Canal…
