Mi Primer Viaje

As part of my training for CRROBS, I went on one our our courses. The idea is for the new employee to get a good understanding of what we offer and to enjoy their new place of residence - this trip definitely did both for me.

It started off with an early morning school bus ride leaving from our Base Camp in San Ramon de Tres Rios, just outside of San José, with 22 students from Calvin College and a ton of duckies (inflatible kayaks) and rafts. As we made our way down into San José a strong smell permeated throughout - no not the coffee plantations of CafeBritt, but the brakes of our trusty school bus that could have been ridden by my mom when she was in school. A little uneasy already, I knew it would be an adventure.

We chugged along, passing lush rainforests and small waterfalls along the side of the road (view photo left). At this point I was beginning to understand that I was in Costa Rica. Yea, I had heard about the place from several people, but to be there is a very different experience.

After dropping our bags off at our little "cabinas" on the side of the Sarapiqui River, we headed off to drop our rafts and duckies in the river. We couldn't seem to locate the person in charge of a gate to enter a particular area of the river so our guide Felipe decided it would be best to go further up the river. 

So here is a situation when speaking Spanish is bitter sweet - you can understand what they are saying. Felipe was speaking with our other instructors about the rapid called "Superman". Yea, I heard this and was a little concerned about a rapid named "Superman" - Because we were unable to enter in the location beyond "Superman" we had to go to a location above "Superman".

Not being very comfortable and experienced in river settings, this whole idea of moving up the river was not the most exciting of news. So the students all got in their duckies and I was able to go in a raft with three other guides - very comforting to say the least. We cruised down the river through moderate rapids until we finally reached "Superman". Fortunately I was with three guides in my raft, unfortunately, we were the first to go down "Superman". Without stopping to see the rapid's condition, we carried on and smashed through the rapid, keeping everyone inside the raft. The water level was not very high, so the rapid was not too frightening but still a rush to say the least.

After the infamous rapid had already passed, we cruised down the river for a few hours, had our river side lunch and finally made our way to the exit point. A group of our students were pointing up to the trees as soon as they exited the water, so I took a look and it was a Toucan- pretty cool considering I thought I would only see those on a Fruit Loops cereal box.

We prepared and ate our dinner of Gallo Pinto - a very "Tico" meal with rice, beans, lisano sauce, and plantains. We arose early the next morning and went down the Sarapaqui River again - this time I went in a ducky. I made it through all of the rapids and was ridiculously sore from the continuos paddling - There was something very special about that day, something that no one will ever experience again.

To be continued....