Costa Rica Riverboarding P.1

Friday began my adventure to Costa Rica. My friend’s band, Mozely Rose, was playing downtown Richmond and I really wanted to go see them play, but I was leaving for Costa Rica at 6am….from DC. Hmmm. I’m the type of person that likes to try to do everything I possibly can. If there’s a will, there’s a way right?

I ended up making the show, with the intent to stay for a bit, then drive to DC and catch a few Z’s til it was time to head to the airport. Well, I ended up staying for the entire show, leaving for DC around 1:30am, getting there around 3am, watching some show on the mythology and history behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, then heading to the airport at 4:30. No sleep.

Luckily, I wasn’t tired, and breezed through security and didn’t have to wait long to hop on my flight to Miami. From Miami I pretty much had to sprint around the entire airport to make my connecting flight. I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but there was no time. Booking it, I rounded the bend, only to find I had to hop on one of those little train thingies and had to wait for that. I totally could have gone to the bathroom…

On the plane from Miami to Costa Rica I met “William” from Puerto Rico. His real name was too hard to pronounce, so he just said to call him William. He didn’t speak hardly any English, and my Spanish is a bit rusty, but we were able to make friendly conversation for the 2.5hr flight. We talked about our kids, and his grandchildren, adventures, and books. He was reading a version of the Bible I could not pronounce, and I was reading “Think and Grow Rich”.

I was very thankful for my plane buddy when we landed, as I now had a customs line buddy. That was fun! Videos were playing of the miscelaneous adventures to be had in Costa Rica. Yay adventure! William thinks I am crazy.

Josh was waiting to pick us up. Rochelle Parry landed after me, then we drove to pick up Peter Cameron. Peter and his girlfriend, Ariel, were already at Josh’s house enjoying paradise.

Josh, Rochelle, and I stopped at a little market on the way to pick up Peter C. and bought some fresh fruit, and enjoyed some coconut water. After we had drank our fill we walked out to the “Mother-in-law bridge” and tossed our now empty coconuts into the water to watch the crocs thrash around. I have video of it, but videos will have to wait until I make it back to the U.S.

My plan to land and sleep in the car, or catch a nap upon arriving at the house, was thwarted by not being able to fall asleep in the car, then heading out to dinner when we got to the house. So, thirty-six hours later, from the time I woke up Friday morning, I was able to get some sleep. Oddly enough I wasn’t that tired. I didn’t even realize how long I had been awake until I thought about it before ordering my dinner.

The next day I was one of the first to wake, and I had no jet lag or grogginess from my stubborn attempt to do everything I think I just had to go to an extreme measure to get me back on a normal sleep schedule, seeing as how the entire week before I wasn’t going to be until 2-3am. But, it’s pretty easy to wake up with this view from my hammock out on the balcony!

Sunday was our first day on the river, the Savegre A fun little warm up run with some pretty stompin’ surf spots. A bit tough to get in, but once you were, hold on tight! There was a decent sized waterfall we hiked to and got to frolick in for a bit.

The shuttle rides are way fun and scenic too!

Yesterdays run was a lot of fun too, the Coto Brus. Caiman are known to inhabit these waters and Peter Cameron was more worried about the Caiman than the rapids. I joked on Peter, seeing as how he is originally from Australia, shouldn’t he be a croc wrangler? A little Caiman should be nothing! ha I told him I would utilize a “Bitch be cool stick” if necessary.

The first couple rapids were just continuous waves that seemed to go on forever. Definitely the longest rapids I have ever run. There were a couple rapids with some stompin’ waves. Just one “BLAM” to the face after another. Unfortunately, I hadn’t french braided my hair, which I have found is the only way my helmet will stay put on my tiny head. Each wave knocked it down into my eyes, and I raised it back just in time to see the next wave, “BLAM”. Yeah-hooo!

This stretch of river was different from the first, as we were more closed in by the jungle, and the canopy would close above us in some areas. Curious monkeys came to check us out, and beautiful birds skimmed the water. We came across a nice tree that hung over the river in just the right spot, so we decided to jump, flip, and dive off of it.

There were mulitple left or right decisions to be made on this stretch. I have dubbed this river “Indecisive”. The first time one river merged into the one we were on was pretty crazy. We were charging down a nice smashing roller coaster wave train, and I saw the other river coming in with the same force. The first thing that came to mind was, “I’m not quite sure what’s going on down there, but I bet it’s fun!” I could just see frothy whitewater sputter and spew at the confluence. Charge!

I hate to cut the story short, but we’re heading to la playa Dominical for some surf action!