Rafting!

From my rafting trip with UD in 2008!

My life has been a blur since Sunday when I picked up my group.  I’ve barely had time to breathe!

Monday was spent rafting the Pacuare River. Did you know ‘Pacuare’ means ‘little toucan’? I didn’t.

I love the drive to rafting because we pass over a place where the “Rio Sucio” (Dirty River) and another river converge and run side by side.  It’s beautiful because the Rio Sucio is orange/brown in color from the volcano that runs from and the other river is crystal clear coming from the mountains.  It’s a gorgeous sight to witness the two rivers merging into one, and yet, maintaining their own identities. It’s one of my favorite views in all of Costa Rica.

Anyway, the rafting trip was a one day excursion that took us 18 miles down the river and fed us lunch half way. It was an awesome trip! We did the same section of the river that I did with UD as a student, so I remembered a lot of the rapids and views.  My raft had a great river guide as well, Roberto, who impressed us with this back flip off the raft. I think I impressed him too with mine. : ) Roberto also let me sit in back and be the guide for about a half mile of river…although I’m pretty sure he was actually the one still steering.

Toward the end of the trip, I got to witness a second favorite view in Costa Rica. As we were finishing our rafting through the canyon, the river narrows to about 50m wide. Your raft takes you between two lush, green covered canyon walls that are hundreds of feet above you and have small waterfalls lining the entire half mile stretch of river. The sight is breathtaking.

It’s been a couple of years since rafting here and I hope and pray I don’t have to wait another couple of years!

Pura Vida,

Jessica Lynn