August 22, 2009: La Fortuna

Owen: Today we got to sleep in longer than ever! 7:30! It felt like so much sleep because we have gotten in the habit of falling asleep before 10 every night, and usually wake up before 6. At 8:30 we headed off to the rafting trip on the Rio Torro, a class 3&4 river. From our group, only Nick, Casey, Eve-Lyn, Emilie, the Brothers (the name that everyone calls us), and Danny came. We met up with a wealthy couple (who were both doctors, one dermatology, one orthopedic surgeon), a Spanish man, and our Desafio tour guides on the bus. We arrived at the launch point, got suited up, had a brief safety speech, and got going. Our group was doing well in practice, and we attacked the first series of rapids hard, but Liam and Eve-Lyn fell out, right away. After rescuing them, we continued down the Bull River. Soon, Emilie fell out and was saved. Pressure was on, for neither Sean nor I had fallen out yet. We made it to the end without anyone else bailing and were greeted with fresh cut pineapple and bananas. We also were treated to lunch with the guides and watched a slideshow of our pictures.

We got back to our hotel very tired. We relaxed around the room for a while, Sean treated his burns and Liam played with his iPod. What else is new? Although our bountiful feast of Peanut, Butter & Jelly sandwiches, Pringles and juice was quite filling, the rest of the group was heading to a bar, so we joined them. We listened to Michael Jackson and Queen for the majority of the night and then headed back early to rest up for tomorrow.

Liam: When we got on the bus to go to the river, we drove for about ten minutes before stopping at a mini-market to go to the bathroom and get snacks. This was a very interesting mini-market though; it had iguanas crawling around everywhere. We pulled up in front of the store and there were about 7 iguanas eating lettuce in front, we looked around and saw more climbing up the stairs, there was even one crawling around the isles of the store. After the stop we continued to the river and got in with our group. On the first rapid our raft turned to the side I was on, hit a rock and Eve-Lyn and I were ripped from the boat. After floating down the rapids for a bit, getting sucked under and avoiding rocks we were pulled back into the raft. A little over half way into the rafting excursion, we took a break and swam in the river for about ten minutes. We then got back in and finished up our adventure. We got changed and drove back to the tour company’s main building and had a lunch that was waiting for us. After buying the pictures, they were really got and there were a lot of them, we hopped back into the van and drove back to the hotel.

We hung around for a bit and after having dinner went to a karaoke bar with the rest of the group. Unfortunately for us, the karaoke wasn’t that night so we just hung around for a while and socialized. When we were tired we headed out and walked back to our room to get ready for bed.

Sean: I think the boys are a bit tired from the days adventures so I will elaborate a bit. The little market with iguanas was totally awesome! They had a small trough out front that many of the larger iguanas hung out at. From inside the store you could look out over the river and see at least 20 additional iguanas climbing in the trees below. There was even a howler monkey laying on one of the tree branches.

The rafting was also super cool. The class three and four rapids did not disappoint. The entire river was a constant stream of adventure. In all I believe there were 45 continuous rapids. A few of the runs were pretty big and I have to admit I was nervous for Liam when he was thrown from the boat. He sure loved it though! Also, the water on this river was warmer than any other I have ever rafted. Getting splashed felt quite nice!

Unfortunately, after the adventure was over I had a sunburn on the tops of my knees. Even though I applied copious amounts of sun cream I believe it was rubbed off of this sensitive area while on the water.

When we got back into town it was still fairly early so I decided to explore La Fortuna a bit. I walked the main street. When I was done I made a quick run to the mega super (market) for some water and aloe for my burns. Upon getting back to the room I made the boys come play some billiards with me on the slanted, beat up table at our hotel. It was fun but owen got quite frustrated with the playing field J