Rio Pacuare!
So I had to post early last night because of some wifi issues and I didn't get many pictures up either. I'll include some more pictures of the house and explain our evening a little better...
The place that we stayed was called Finca Arricari and it was located right next to a farm with cows and chickens. When we visited in 2010 and again in 2014, it was not completed. It really is a beautiful, secluded location for large groups. No one opted to swim- which is unusual. I guess it's colder here than what I'm used to, but this is the first group that really didn't swim much. The time before dinner was pretty much spent playing pool and playing games on the phone.
Soda La U in Turrialba came out to cater our dinner. We had chicken and rice, beans, salad, chips, and watermelon juice. We were joined for dinner by the resident dogs: Simba, a very large reddish/brown dog, and Nala, an Australian cattle dog. We talked about what we missed at home and many agreed that it was their dog- sorry mom & dad.
We had a little meeting on the balcony after dinner to talk about what we want to start, stop, and continue doing after this trip. Ask the students what they said when they get home- and try to help them with it. There were a lot of great answers: stop taking things for granted, start traveling more, start being a traveler and not a tourist, continue doing community service, stop wasting resources, etc. We were then given instructions on how to prepare for rafting and got ready for bed. Lights out at 9:30, depart for breakfast at 7:30, and at the river by 9:45.
Some of us struggled to sleep last night. Carolyn was talking in her sleep, Maya (our bus driver) was singing for over an hour after lights out, the entire valley of dogs started barking to one another around 11:30, animals were scurrying across the tin roof, then the rooster and chickens started up at 4:30. But you know what? Pura vida! We all pushed through. Mrs. Walsh and I saw a toucan this morning so it was all worth it? Maybe?
We drove into town for breakfast at Soda La U since it is on the way to rafting. We had pineapples, watermelon, bananas, rice & beans, bread, and plantains for breakfast. We also had orange juice and coffee- so good. It was nice to sit and watch all the World Cup highlights during breakfast since we only watched the Costa Rica game yesterday. We then made a quick stop at the MaxiPali down the street, which is kind of like a Walmart/Costco type store. Christian wanted us to pick up snacks for after rafting because it would be a 3 hour drive from Siquirres, where the rafting ends, back to San Jose. There were other purchases made, including shirts that said "Tropical Girl," Lil' Swimmers diapers, "clout" glasses, and dress socks. As Reese and Nick put it "S/O to MaxiPali for the fresh 'fit" or something like that.
We went up the road about an hour into the mountains to meet our rafting guides from Rio Tropicales. They had a tractor with a wagon hooked up to the back and we had to ride that down the hill to the river because our bus wouldn't be able to make it. There was a giant grasshopper on the wagon and everyone was freaking out. He just wanted a ride, so it's all good.
At the bottom of the hill, we got fitted for our helmets and life jackets. The lead guide, Maximilian, gave us the instructions for rafting and all the safety information. We were then split into three rafts:
- Raft 1: Mrs. Walsh, Kara, Bazz, John, Eliza, Molly B, and Simone - Sasi (a take on "sassy" because he is "so full of jokes")
- Raft 2: Christian, Reese, Robby, Tallulah, Carolyn, and Creagan - Esteban. They kept howling like monkeys...
- Raft 3: Me, Nick, Zach, Sadie, Molly N, Lilly, and Gianna - Maximilian
The river is mostly class III and IV rapids; however, there can be class V depending on the rainfall and time of year. Maximilian called some of the rapids III plus or IV plus because they were getting close to changing based on the water level. Going down the river, we saw a toucan fly overhead and one that was perched in a tree. We saw lots of butterflies, including many blue morphos, and there were kingfishers everywhere. Our raft was last and we saw a sloth! Maximilian said that today was really cold, so he was cuddled up in the tree moreso than usual. We found the temperature rather comfortable today, but he said it was a chilly day in Costa Rica.
We had a rafting lunch on the banks of the river. We all got out and flipped one of the rafts over to make a table. The guides had lunch meat, sliced tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers, hearts of palm, lettuce, and bread for making sandwiches. They cut up fresh pineapple and watermelon, prepared chips with salsa or beans, and also had packs of Cremas for us. There were coolers of water or iced tea. After working so hard on the river, it is a simple, but very satisfying lunch.
One of the awesome spots on the river was a tough Class IV rapid, then a canyon called "Dos Bebes." Sasi told his raft that it was named that and that it was "a tranquil passage through the two mountains." The legend "la llorona" helped name the mountains because sometimes you can hear the sounds between the two mountains like babies crying. It was a gorgeous canyon with a bridge passing over the top and the water was still enough that we could get out and swim.
We also passed under a railroad bridge that Maximilian said was over 100 years old- it was completed in 2010 by many international workers. He said now it is primarily used by cargo trains for Chiquita :)
After about 3 hours on the river, our journey had to come to an end. We pulled up the rafts on an embankment and carried them up to the trailer. Maya was waiting there with our bus. We drove about 10 minutes to the Rio Tropicales headquarters to use the locker rooms, buy pictures and souvenirs, and to get a cup of coffee or tea. It was then time climb on the bus to head back to San Jose.
We took Route 32 from Siquirres back into San Jose. This is a much better drive than going through Turrialba and Cartago because the road doesn't wind so much and there would be less traffic. We did, however, come across a big accident and that slowed up traffic on both sides of the road because it is only a 2 lane highway. Route 32 took us through Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo so there was a lot of rainforest to go through again. I told Mrs. Walsh that I saw a really unusual animal, but I wasn't sure of what it was. She asked me how I could see something out the window and I didn't want to tell her I was looking for tapirs again. But after looking it up, it was a white-nosed coati, a member of the raccoon family. Which makes sense because it was rummaging through trash that was dumped on the side of the road. So this nerd had a great day- a sloth and a coati.
Route 32 also had a long tunnel through one of the mountains, which would have been really nice to have on Route 2 to avoid some of the winding. It was kind of like driving on I-77, but not at all because it's Costa Rica and the roads are super narrow.
We finally got to the hotel in San Jose at 5:40. We had time to go to our rooms to shower (or write out the entire blog). We went to dinner across the street at La Gallera for a buffet dinner again: rice & beans, salad, vegetables, chicken, and beef. They had juice and peach pound cake for dessert. We took some time to do some last minute souvenir shopping, then headed back to the hotel.
Our last meeting was for Rustic Ties- we share something about the person sitting next to us and give them a bracelet. It was a great way to wrap up the trip.
We will leave for the airport at 3:30 AM. They are giving us a boxed breakfast to eat on the way to the airport, then we will check in. Our flight leaves for Newark/Liberty airport at 7 AM. We will send out a message once we get through customs and immigration to let you know if our flight to Cleveland is on time.
I hope to get one more blog post up tomorrow, so I will tweet when that is ready. Thank you for reading about our experiences and adventures in Costa Rica this week! Pura vida!
The place that we stayed was called Finca Arricari and it was located right next to a farm with cows and chickens. When we visited in 2010 and again in 2014, it was not completed. It really is a beautiful, secluded location for large groups. No one opted to swim- which is unusual. I guess it's colder here than what I'm used to, but this is the first group that really didn't swim much. The time before dinner was pretty much spent playing pool and playing games on the phone.
Soda La U in Turrialba came out to cater our dinner. We had chicken and rice, beans, salad, chips, and watermelon juice. We were joined for dinner by the resident dogs: Simba, a very large reddish/brown dog, and Nala, an Australian cattle dog. We talked about what we missed at home and many agreed that it was their dog- sorry mom & dad.
We had a little meeting on the balcony after dinner to talk about what we want to start, stop, and continue doing after this trip. Ask the students what they said when they get home- and try to help them with it. There were a lot of great answers: stop taking things for granted, start traveling more, start being a traveler and not a tourist, continue doing community service, stop wasting resources, etc. We were then given instructions on how to prepare for rafting and got ready for bed. Lights out at 9:30, depart for breakfast at 7:30, and at the river by 9:45.
Some of us struggled to sleep last night. Carolyn was talking in her sleep, Maya (our bus driver) was singing for over an hour after lights out, the entire valley of dogs started barking to one another around 11:30, animals were scurrying across the tin roof, then the rooster and chickens started up at 4:30. But you know what? Pura vida! We all pushed through. Mrs. Walsh and I saw a toucan this morning so it was all worth it? Maybe?
We drove into town for breakfast at Soda La U since it is on the way to rafting. We had pineapples, watermelon, bananas, rice & beans, bread, and plantains for breakfast. We also had orange juice and coffee- so good. It was nice to sit and watch all the World Cup highlights during breakfast since we only watched the Costa Rica game yesterday. We then made a quick stop at the MaxiPali down the street, which is kind of like a Walmart/Costco type store. Christian wanted us to pick up snacks for after rafting because it would be a 3 hour drive from Siquirres, where the rafting ends, back to San Jose. There were other purchases made, including shirts that said "Tropical Girl," Lil' Swimmers diapers, "clout" glasses, and dress socks. As Reese and Nick put it "S/O to MaxiPali for the fresh 'fit" or something like that.
We went up the road about an hour into the mountains to meet our rafting guides from Rio Tropicales. They had a tractor with a wagon hooked up to the back and we had to ride that down the hill to the river because our bus wouldn't be able to make it. There was a giant grasshopper on the wagon and everyone was freaking out. He just wanted a ride, so it's all good.
At the bottom of the hill, we got fitted for our helmets and life jackets. The lead guide, Maximilian, gave us the instructions for rafting and all the safety information. We were then split into three rafts:
- Raft 1: Mrs. Walsh, Kara, Bazz, John, Eliza, Molly B, and Simone - Sasi (a take on "sassy" because he is "so full of jokes")
- Raft 2: Christian, Reese, Robby, Tallulah, Carolyn, and Creagan - Esteban. They kept howling like monkeys...
- Raft 3: Me, Nick, Zach, Sadie, Molly N, Lilly, and Gianna - Maximilian
The river is mostly class III and IV rapids; however, there can be class V depending on the rainfall and time of year. Maximilian called some of the rapids III plus or IV plus because they were getting close to changing based on the water level. Going down the river, we saw a toucan fly overhead and one that was perched in a tree. We saw lots of butterflies, including many blue morphos, and there were kingfishers everywhere. Our raft was last and we saw a sloth! Maximilian said that today was really cold, so he was cuddled up in the tree moreso than usual. We found the temperature rather comfortable today, but he said it was a chilly day in Costa Rica.
We had a rafting lunch on the banks of the river. We all got out and flipped one of the rafts over to make a table. The guides had lunch meat, sliced tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers, hearts of palm, lettuce, and bread for making sandwiches. They cut up fresh pineapple and watermelon, prepared chips with salsa or beans, and also had packs of Cremas for us. There were coolers of water or iced tea. After working so hard on the river, it is a simple, but very satisfying lunch.
One of the awesome spots on the river was a tough Class IV rapid, then a canyon called "Dos Bebes." Sasi told his raft that it was named that and that it was "a tranquil passage through the two mountains." The legend "la llorona" helped name the mountains because sometimes you can hear the sounds between the two mountains like babies crying. It was a gorgeous canyon with a bridge passing over the top and the water was still enough that we could get out and swim.
We also passed under a railroad bridge that Maximilian said was over 100 years old- it was completed in 2010 by many international workers. He said now it is primarily used by cargo trains for Chiquita :)
After about 3 hours on the river, our journey had to come to an end. We pulled up the rafts on an embankment and carried them up to the trailer. Maya was waiting there with our bus. We drove about 10 minutes to the Rio Tropicales headquarters to use the locker rooms, buy pictures and souvenirs, and to get a cup of coffee or tea. It was then time climb on the bus to head back to San Jose.
We took Route 32 from Siquirres back into San Jose. This is a much better drive than going through Turrialba and Cartago because the road doesn't wind so much and there would be less traffic. We did, however, come across a big accident and that slowed up traffic on both sides of the road because it is only a 2 lane highway. Route 32 took us through Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo so there was a lot of rainforest to go through again. I told Mrs. Walsh that I saw a really unusual animal, but I wasn't sure of what it was. She asked me how I could see something out the window and I didn't want to tell her I was looking for tapirs again. But after looking it up, it was a white-nosed coati, a member of the raccoon family. Which makes sense because it was rummaging through trash that was dumped on the side of the road. So this nerd had a great day- a sloth and a coati.
Route 32 also had a long tunnel through one of the mountains, which would have been really nice to have on Route 2 to avoid some of the winding. It was kind of like driving on I-77, but not at all because it's Costa Rica and the roads are super narrow.
We finally got to the hotel in San Jose at 5:40. We had time to go to our rooms to shower (or write out the entire blog). We went to dinner across the street at La Gallera for a buffet dinner again: rice & beans, salad, vegetables, chicken, and beef. They had juice and peach pound cake for dessert. We took some time to do some last minute souvenir shopping, then headed back to the hotel.
Our last meeting was for Rustic Ties- we share something about the person sitting next to us and give them a bracelet. It was a great way to wrap up the trip.
We will leave for the airport at 3:30 AM. They are giving us a boxed breakfast to eat on the way to the airport, then we will check in. Our flight leaves for Newark/Liberty airport at 7 AM. We will send out a message once we get through customs and immigration to let you know if our flight to Cleveland is on time.
I hope to get one more blog post up tomorrow, so I will tweet when that is ready. Thank you for reading about our experiences and adventures in Costa Rica this week! Pura vida!
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