What a day! We were up at 7:30 for breakfast at our hotel. Charlie, the owner, had a typico breakfast ready for us to eat family style. We had a few minutes to apply our sunscreen and bug spray and to check to make sure we had everything packed. Then we headed out to the bus for a 45 minute bus ride to our starting point on the river.
On the way out of Turrialba, we passed several points of interest. First, just outside of town there is a large Firestone factory. This plant employs many people living in Turrialba. The parking lot was full of motorbikes from the workers, otherwise many of them take the bus from town. We also passed CATIE just down the road. CATIE is an organization founded in the 1940s for agricultural research. They do a lot for conservation as well, but their farms/plantations employ the locals while researching sustainable practices and educating students. It's a very large facility. We also passed a lot of coffee plantations and pineapple plantations. The coffee plantations were interesting because they planted large trees in between the rows of coffee bushes. Eva said that this serves two purposes: 1) as a wind/rain block to keep the flowers on the plants (if they fall off, no coffee beans) and 2) a different plant in the soil provides/uses different nutrients, which makes it easier to plant coffee for years to come. Eva also shared some interesting information on the pineapples. Pineapples are terrestrial bromeliads. This genus is typically associated with epiphytes, or air plants, which grow in the trees. However pineapple plants grow on the ground. It takes one year for a pineapple plant to produce fruit, which is incredible considering how easy they are to purchase (side note: the pineapple here tastes COMPLETELY different from back home- so much more flavor!)
We made it to a spot that looked like a public bus stop and had a dirt road right next to it. This is where we met one of our river guides, David. After a final application of sunscreen and bug spray, we said goodbye to our bus driver Marco with just our sunscreen and water bottles in hand. A large tractor attached to a trailer with benches and a roof picked us up. This would be our transportation for the steep, narrow 30 minute ride down to the river. Everyone thought their bench was going to break, but it was set up with what felt like shocks because every time we hit a bump, the seat bounced back. No lower back problems today!
After what felt like a roller coaster ride, we made it to the river. David gave us our safety talk after we were outfitted with a helmet, life vest, and paddle. There are so many instructions and rules to go over, so he gave us the basics before we met our boat guides. They split us up into four different boats:
Boat 1: Eva, Aubrey, Scotty, Colin, Aaron
Boat 2: Adrian, Alex, Griffin, Emma, Leah
Boat 3: Mrs. Wooden, Ben, Katie, Marley, Ryan
Boat 4: Me, Kelly, Justin, Reed, Alyson, Mikala
Once we were assigned, we met our guide and received further instructions: forward paddle, back paddle, lean in, get down, high left/right, etc. Other than that, you're operating on full adrenaline.
The Pacuare River (or Rio Pacuare) flows toward the Caribbean. It is one of the top 5 whitewater rafting rivers in the world, filled with mostly Class III and IV rapids. Our teamwork, or "workteam," as Adrian called it :) was put to the test. Only a few students had been rafting before and it was nothing like this.
We didn't take any pictures today because you can't really stop for photos on the river. Even if you have a waterproof camera or case, you worry about it popping out of the raft. They have two kayaks that accompany us down the river; one is a safety guide and the other is photographer. Some of the students chose to purchase their pictures at the end of the trip. But considering that people pop out of the raft so easily, we chose not to bring our phones or cameras. Colin and Aaron probably got some great footage on their Go Pros.
You are so focused on what's going on with your group that you don't really notice what's happening with the other rafts. It's hard to say if people fell out of the raft during the rapids or fell in on purpose. Kelly fell out of our raft during one of the Class III rapids. Our guide, Diego, yelled "get down," which doesn't so much involve us getting down in the raft as much as it is us falling into it. Well as he said this, you could see Kelly smiling wide as she spun around, facing into the boat, continuing to smile as she popped out. She was smiling floating down the river during the rapid, and smiling as we pulled her back in. She actually said it was a lot of fun :) Mikala almost fell out on one of the rapids, but Diego grabbed the back of her life vest just in time! In the other groups, I can't say for sure. After one of the rapids, half of a raft was in the water... they may say the fell intentionally, but who knows...
One of the coolest features of this river is the lack of development. There are two lodges set up along the river, Pacuare Lodge and Rios Tropicales lodge, and that's it. Everything else is just jungle. It makes it so much more pleasant to enjoy the scenery. There are a few spots where you can see small houses or huts that are only accessible by cable cars going across the river. We saw dragonflies, toucans, kingfishers, and cormorants from our raft. The dragonflies were a hit because they followed us and landed on us the entire second half of the trip. We even named them: Fred and Regina. Why? I have no idea.
The first part of our trip was about 2 and a half hours. We stopped for lunch along the banks of the river and had plenty of rocks to sit on. Each guide had a different plastic barrel in his boat containing the items for our lunch. One boat is pulled out of the water and flipped to create a giant buffet table. We made deli sandwiches, had chips with beans or salsa, fresh pineapple and watermelon, cookies for dessert, and water or iced tea to drink. Rafting is hard work, so most went up for seconds, some for thirds and fourths. Because of the effort you put in, it's probably one of the best meals of the trip. We clean up all the trash and put it into the barrels, reapply sunscreen, then head back down the river.
Another great feature of the river is the canyons. If you Google image search "Pacuare River," you'll see exactly what I'm talking about: high stone walls, waterfalls on the sides, and rope bridges above. We go through two or three of the canyons. The water is so deep here, it's a great spot to swim. Everyone jumps out of the raft, swims around close to the "chicken line," then helps pull each other back in. Justin did a couple backflips off our boat, which was impressive, UNTIL Diego had to one up him and get some serious hang time on his flip. You can't out-do the guides on this trip!
You know the 4 hour trip is ending soon when you encounter two bridges: one old iron train bridge and the major highway bridge running between Siquirres and Turrialba. When we got to the iron bridge, there was a large group of boys on the rocks and the bridge. All of a sudden, one of them jumped into the water: about a 30 foot drop. Next thing we know, two more boys, then another two, follow. Then the whole group is jumping in. We thought that at 2:30 on Tuesday, maybe they should have been in school. Someone in the boat even asked "where are your parents?!" We decided that in Costa Rica, if everyone jumps off a bridge, apparently you're going to do it to.
We went under the highway overpass, then stayed on the left bank of the river in calmer water. We saw the truck up on the bank and the raft ahead of us being carried out: our adventure was over. We helped carry all the rafts out, then took off our vests and helmets. Despite the reminds to apply sunscreen at the start and to reapply it at lunch, we have some very pink students coming home... Marco was waiting for us with all the bus seats covered with garbage bags and our towels. It was just a 10 minute ride to the Rios Tropicales headquarters where we all got showers, coffee and tea, and purchased pictures. While we were waiting on everyone to finish, someone spotted blue jean frogs, or strawberry poison-dart frogs! They are very small, less than an inch long, and there were four of them hopping around on the rocks between the plants on display.
It was about an hour and a half ride back to Turrialba; we gave 4 of our rafting guides a ride back and said goodbye. Incredibly, very few of them slept on the bus ride back. They had a little time before our last dinner together in Costa Rica.
It wouldn't be a day here without a trip to the hospital. We had 2 people get stitches on this trip; tonight, our second ear infection. So the first two days of the trip had a little excitement and now the last night! Eva, Mrs. Wooden, and Ben ate quickly at dinner, then headed to the clinic while the rest of us stayed at El Tomate Rojo. We watched the first part of the USMNT game vs. Argentina (ouch) while enjoying another Costa Rican specialty: gallo. Adrian made it clear that gallo is NOT a taco; this has its own Costa Rican flare. We had tortillas, the option of beef or chicken, black beans, fresh guacamole, lettuce, and pico de gallo. I am not a picky eater and I pretty much love everything here, but this was probably the best meal. Plates were clean at the end. Thankfully, the crew saved room for dessert: warm brownies. Only fitting to have one of the comforts of home right before we head back.
Everyone is packing up right now because we have to be up for breakfast at 5:45. That's 7:45 back home, but either way, anything before noon is painful for teenagers. We'll have our last activity tonight at 9: Rustic Ties, a great wrap up for the group.
If you lost your itinerary, our flight leaves from San Jose at 12:35 PM local time. We will land in Baltimore at 7:30 PM. Please keep in mind that we have to go through customs and immigration, so you may not hear from them at exactly 7:30. We take off from Baltimore at 10:40 PM and we'll see all of you at 11:55 PM in Cleveland!
Have a wonderful night & see you tomorrow! Pura vida!
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