Day 2: Río Toro

Today we were picked up at 7am for our three hour journey to the Río Toro. Along the way we enjoyed beautiful scenery of rain forests and winding country roads. Our non-English speaking driver referred to me to translate his occasional share of Tico knowledge to the rest of our group of four in the van. We saw many Pineapple fields, which are Costa Rica's main export according to him, and quaint little towns with their colorfully painted homes. Talk about beautiful landscaping... giant leaved, colorful flowered plants are plentiful and used as hedges in front of many of the homes.


Once arriving at the river, we were greeted by our young, handsome, outgoing Tico river guides (why do all river guides fit this description?) with their accented English. After a quick safety presentation giving us instructions in case of falling out, when to jump to the side of the boat to help prevent capsizing, commands for getting in the bottom of the boat for particularly dangerous parts ("Get down", or especially, "Oh My God!") etc, we were soon on the boats, four per boat plus our guide.


The tour was pretty much pure adventure and white water rapids. Considering there were only four of us, all rowing at our guide's command, it was a pretty physical adventure. Our boat was getting very rocked by large class 3/4 rapids, big drop offs, and sharp turns that would slam us into walls. During most of the rapids, our instructions were to "paddle harder", which was against our instincts to want to curl up in the middle of the raft. Oh yeah, and our instructions were to sit on the sides of the boat, not in the middle, and to just lodge our feet along the edges to hold us in! Which, I soon found out, didn't always function as planned.

At the end of one particularly rough rapid, my foot that was lodged under one of the raft's support beams in the middle, which was what was holding me in the raft, became dislodged about the time our boat flew sideways over a fairly large rapid. The steep dip of the rapid threw my balance, my dislodged foot flew free, the rise of the next rapid knocked me back, and the proceeding dip finished me off and sent me flying from the boat. Luckily, our muscular and handsome young guide came to my rescue and swept me from the raging water quite quickly. It was more of an adrenaline rush than anything.... and made my rafting trip very memorable! Maybe that's why they call it the bull river... I rode the bull, and, well...he bucked me off.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that wasn't my last time to land in the river. Later, a guide from another raft had jumped in the water during a calm section, and in the middle of one of my conversations (of which I was oblivious to him in the water), he proceeded to grab the back of my vest and dump me head over heels into the river again. Surprise! This started an enjoyable few minutes with everyone taking dips into the warm water, before our smiling guide pulled me into the boat again, and we started the next white water section.

At the end of two and half hours (with one 30 minute break to eat fresh bananas and pineapple they had brought along for us), we finished our very enjoyable and thrilling white water rafting trip. We ate a traditional lunch called Olla de carne, which was a stew made with beef, potatoes, carrots, chayote (vegetable pear), plantains and yucca. Of course, served alongside was the Costa Rican staple of rice and beans. I also tried their Salsa Lizano, which is a curry ketchup, and was SPICY! I dished a bit to plentiful of a helping on my yucca, and had a long lasting nearly eye-watering spice that remained in my mouth long after finishing my entire non-spicy dish of food. Note to self: next time, test the food prior to inhaling a large quantity in one bite.

After experiencing our first Costa Rica torrential downpour (now we know why they have flash floods), we continued to La Fortuna and checked into our hotel, San Bosco. Tomorrow: Waterfall repelling and hiking the Arenal Volcano, and a visit to the hot springs.


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Mom's language accomplishment of the day: none. Regression perceived after a full day of touring with Americans.

Random thoughts and observations
I missed one finger's spot worth of sunscreen on the back of my neck. That'll be an interesting tan line (spot?).
A bruise is appearing on my leg from gripping under the edge of the raft so hard for 2 hours.
Didn't realize that waterfalls also came from the sky.
Surprisingly small amount of homeless dogs, and surprisingly large amount of very nice cars and full size SUV's.

update: 9pm Friday night: Woops, forgot sunscreen on my legs... pretty red color now. Can't wait for morning....