Hotel room for the first night in Alajuela. It ain't big, but it was clean and cheap.
Would stay at the Hotel los Volcanes again, and might just do that on my return. Short aside. When I arrived last night, the guy who greated me said "hey, how are you doing?......you don't remember me do you......from your last visit?" Told him I've never been to Costa Rica before. He was a bit perplexed, but very apologetic. Guess all us gringos look the same ;)
On to the journey. 5hr drive from Alajuela to my destination. A little past half way we see some white water rafters and a kayaker.
Looks like a tour company. More about to launch.
A few of hunting birds in the sky.
Not sure how I got this pic
Oh yeah, I was in one of the rafts :)
Hanging vines were tempting
The guides start preparing a shore lunch
Wild plantains
One of the local trees. I believe it's a ceiba pentandra.
Butterfly that was being challenged by ants
Almost time for lunch
Freshly chopped pineapple
2 hours of rafting before lunch, 1 hour after. Loads of good rapids. Then....
MAN OVERBOARD!!!
Me too!!!
There were three long flat sections during the day where we were encouraged to take a swim. Good opportunities to test out my waterproof camera. The water was a little chilly, but nice once you got used to it. I was completely soaked after the 3rd or 4th rapid though, so jumping in wasn't a shock. Just had to watch for crocodiles.
Some people didn't go for a swim. Others had a ball.
Our raft needs a patch after tangling with some rough rocks.
The day wasn't without incident. On the first difficult rapid, the guy behind me (6 people total in my raft) was ejected, the guy beside me was on the floor of the boat, and the two guides with us were flung forward a row. Just me and one other guy were unscathed. But, we were unable to recover the man overboard quickly. He took a bit of a beating down some easy rapids, had a scary moment when he went under twice in quick succession, then was finally rescued by one of the kayaks (two guides were in kayaks primarily for situations like this). They guy shook it off, and didn't seem too bothered by it. Made for a good lunch story though.
The two other rafts with us each had ejections, but all cases were simple rescues with no injuries.
Great day. Not too hot, no rain, and, at 30km, one of the longest white water rafting tours in the world. Highly recommend this trip.
After rafting, it was a little over 2hrs to my destination of Puerto Viejo. Pics of that tomorrow, as I arrived around dusk today - not enough light for pictures once I got settled in.
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