While on the way Daniel our car guide talks to us about what we need to do while in the raft. There will be a guide with us and he will let us know when to paddle, stop paddling, reverse paddle, etc. He explains what to do in case somebody falls out and then he starts to tell us about the crocodile in the river. I immediately get this horrible look on my face and am considering going back. He then begins to describe what to do when a crocodile starts to come towards you and its all over for me... I have now made up my mind to DEFINITELY go back. I ask him if this is real and he kind of hesitates and we all realize he is kidding... haha.... what a relief. I was about to be a little sissy and not get in the water.
We get to the river and start to pick out our life jackets, helmets, and paddles while putting on lots of sunscreen. We then load up into our rafts and our river guide - Kenneth shows us exactly how to paddle and tries to get us to practice paddling. I have no arm strength so paddling is a little difficult, especially because Geoff made me and him the captains. ha! We practice a bit and get a little better at it and then sit there for like 20 minutes just cooking in the heat. FINALLY we get to start moving down the river and it gets a little easier to paddle.
The easier rapids are the ones we start with and paddling is not difficult at all... I can just already tell that I will probably have a pink nose and cheeks by the end of this and I am going to have some blisters on my right paddle hand. While we are floating/paddling down the river we all try and look around us and are just amazed. (a little too amazed because we don't hear him say paddle or stop a couple of times) It seriously looks like we are in Jurassic Park. There are cliffs on both sides of us that are just GREEN. I mean its just lush forest covering the cliffs. There are also random little waterfalls scattered throughout the green. I half expected a pterodactyl to fly over us like in Jurassic Park 3. I seriously was in awe of the scenery around us. It just made me think of how much I love Costa Rica and what it has to offer.
As we rode down the river, Kenneth would warn us when a number 4 rapid was coming up and those were definitely the best. On most of them we got down and just rode with the current. It was soooo fun!! One time he even let us all crowd into the back of the raft and we went faster down the rapid. Kenneth was just all around amazing. I was seriously dumbfounded at how well he knew the rapids. I know that this was his job, but still. He knew exactly when to let us get out and swim or pile into the back of the raft and he also knew when to tell us to get back into position. I mean it was amazing. His timing was on point. It made the trip altogether more fun and exciting!
Around 12 we all started to ask about lunch. We were all pretty hungry and tired from paddling for about an hour and half through hard-core rapids. Well were we in for at treat. We pull over off of the river and climb a little cliff up to a pavilion, there were probably about 10 rafts that all pulled over. The guides started lugging these huge blue bins up the cliff and they set them near the table under the pavilion. All of a sudden pounds and pounds of food started to appear on the table. Bread, lettuce, tomatoes, tortillas, salsa, tortilla chips, beans, onions, jalapenos, pineapples, watermelon, lunch meat... I mean it was a lot. Just as soon as the food appeared out of these bins, the guides started chopping up the vegetables and fruits like they were sous chefs. I mean just going at it. If I had not already thought our guide was pretty attractive... seeing him there chopping up tomatoes and onions was a definite turn on. It was just ridiculous. I could not stop looking at them with a flabbergasted look. No more than 20 minutes later we were eating lunch. It was delicious... we made our own burritos or sandwiches and then had cut up pineapple or watermelon for dessert. They even had a type of peach tea for us to drink. It was pretty close to what I imagine heaven being like.
About 30-40 minutes later we were back in our rafts paddling the last half of the river. This was definitely my most favorite day of the entire trip. Beautiful scenery, scrumptious food, friendly people, and even a workout.
We got off of our raft and were about to put up our jackets and helmets when we saw a sloth! No sooner had we seen the sloth when we realized it had a baby on its stomach!! It was adorable and such a shocking experience to see one so close. A great end to the river excursion.
We headed back to Hotel Don Carlos to get ready for our night out.
After we were all ready we had no idea where we were eating but Patricia had this great place picked out. We get there and the place is breath-taking. Not only does the restaurant look like this expensive 5-star place, but the view is of the entire city of San Jose. We all tried to get a picture of the scene but no camera could capture it. I had chill bumps from how alarmingly stunning the view was. We were on the side of the mountain staring at a city of lights. Magnificent.
Unfortunately Katy was not feeling well and some of the girls were really tired so Jimmy, our bus driver, took them home and the rest of us went to Jazz Cafe Ezcazu. It was not as fun as the night before but it was still fun. I got pretty drunk and tried to dance with Geoff.... it didn't quite work haha. We left after about an hour and then we all shared a bottle of wine Quint had given to Spencer and Aurora. By far the greatest day of the trip.
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