September 1, 2009: La Fortuna

Sean: Today was another day where part of my activities felt like a replay of last week. My father and I got up at 6:15 and threw down some breakfast before heading out on Desafio tour MamboCombo 1. This includes a morning of Canyoning and an afternoon of rafting on Rio Bolsa (class 2&3) – my 3^rd rafting experience of the summer!

Coincidentally, we had one of the same canyoning guides that my brothers and I had way back on August 23^rd. Things played out much the same as that tour (If you want more details refer to the August 23^rd post! ) except we were slightly more rushed. That means that we did not get to do the waterfall sit-down or go visit the large waterfall at the bottom of the final repel. Also, I discovered that canyoning is still fun the second time it is just not as much of a thrill. I knew what was coming the entire way and never felt nervous (like I did the first time). From now on I am going to try not to repeat the same activities…

Almost as soon as we finished the end of canyoning meal we were shipped off to go rafting. Unlike my last rafting adventure, this one was packed. There were over 30 people dispersed into 9 different boats. Sadly, on the drive we didn’t get to stop at the iguana place. After going over the mandatory safety info, it wa time to get on the water. We were on a boat with a family from New Jersey. Our guide Mario was one of the more charismatic guides and made sure we had fun.

While on the water I noticed that one of the other boats was being headed by our guide from last time (Daniel?). Also, our former camera man was also a guide for this trip. They both recognized me and I had a good time catching up with them. The rapids were quite fun and more action packed than I had anticipated. Even though it was only class 2 and 3, we managed to lose someone out of the boat and had a few paddles get tossed into the water.

Halfway through the adventure we stopped on a beach for some tasty fruit and swimming. Just as we were getting back into the boats it began to rain extremely hard, as it so often does in Costa Rica. It was very fun to be cruising down the river while the water poured down from the sky.

As with most Desafio tours there was a meal provided at the end of the adventure. The food was exactly the same as a week ago but this time Daniel snuck me a beer from the kitchen because we are friends now J. When we finished eating it was back to the hotel.

Back in the room, my dad was quite tired from the days activities so he decided to take a quick nap while I wandered around town and picked up a cheap dinner. I settled on a La Fortuna classic, Cup o’ Soup and some Pringles…

When we were finished eating we decided to try to go see the lava from the Wulcano. Somehow I remembered the route that our tour bus took last week and got us to the viewpoint. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy this time and there was nothing to see. The guides must have known this as there were no tour busses out there (last week there were tons!!).

It is now 8:45 and I am back in the room and excited to lay down and get some rest.

Ohh and I didn’t buy the canyoning photos this time so I just decided to use the old ones since it was the exact same thing J