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Costa
Rica Adventure
March 5-20, 2005
The next morning, we awoke on
the early side, and I discovered with dismay that my “Eau de DEET” had failed
me during the night and I was covered in mosquito bites. Oh well, at least La
Fortuna wasn’t in a malaria risk zone. We’d been scheduled to go
whitewater rafting that morning. Due to a scheduling glitch with the rafting company,
our trip got moved to the afternoon, leaving us the morning free. We walked
into town for some breakfast, and mostly just bummed around La Fortuna
browsing for souvenirs and exploring. The weather was rainy and chilly, and
we got soaked a few times by downpours. But the saying “if you don’t like the
weather, wait five minutes” applies nicely to Costa Rica, so we mainly just
ducked for cover when the rain started to come down. After a light lunch, the four
of us who’d signed up for the rafting headed out to Rio Arenal, which is
considered level 2/3 in terms of the difficulty of the rapids (easy to
intermediate). Upon arrival we
discovered we would actually be using whitewater kayaks instead of rafts. Since it was dry season, the water level
in the river was very low, meaning that it would be very rocky and kayaks
would be easier than rafts to navigate. Or so we were told.
Cathy, me, Mandy and Noella with our guide: ready to
raft the Rio Arenal (Photo credit: SHS) The guides briefly explained
the basics of whitewater kayaking. Despite trying to convince us that it was
easy, nobody was all that eager to go solo. In the end, we went out in three
boats. Cathy and I went with Juan, one of the guides. Noella went with
another guide. And Mandy nervously
took the solo boat. We suited up in our life jackets and took off. While parts of the river were
quite tame, the adrenaline did get going in a few spots where the rapids were
swifter. We were soon glad we had the guide in our boat, as it was indeed tricky
to navigate through the rocks without getting stuck.
Kayaking through the rapids of Rio Arenal (Photo credit: SHS) Though it was raining, the
river was warm, since its water flowed from the volcano springs. We went
swimming in a few places – sometimes accidentally, sometimes on purpose. We
also switched boats on the river, each taking a turn in the solo boat. I
freely admit I was the worst at it by far, getting stuck in the rocks so
often that the guide grew tired of rescuing me and told me to get back into
one of the other boats. Oh well, I guess we all have different talents.
Despite the difficulties, going at it alone was thrilling, and the kayak trip
went down as another definite trip highlight.
Cathy and I at the end of the rafting trip (Photo credit: SHS) After the rafting was over, we
were served food and then headed back to La Fortuna. We’d been scheduled to
go on the volcano hike that afternoon, but we arrived back into town over two
hours late. The rest of the group had been waiting for us, wondering where we
were, and they were pretty upset – understandably so. Nobody really felt like
going on a hike in the dark. After some intervention by Julie, we rescheduled
the volcano hike for the next afternoon. We went for a nice Italian
dinner with the group that evening. After dinner, a few of us girls decided
to go out dancing, to a club called Volcano Look.
Out dancing at the Volcano Look club near Arenal (Photo credit: SHS) Well, there wasn’t much of a volcano
view from the club that we saw, but there was a nice view of plenty of Tico
guys looking to dance with female tourists. Whatever else, those guys could
really dance, and we all had a good time. We were all exhausted, so we didn’t
stay too long. The club had still not really gotten going when we left to
head back to town and the hotel to sleep. Next: Horseback ride to waterfall and volcano hike. |
