the next day we woke up and got on a bus to take us to the white water rafting and la fortuna. in the informational section, it said the rapids were a mix of class III and class IV rapids. with the rainy weather, the water was going to be higher and maybe rougher. despite the concerns, i was excited to head out. john and i were going and dee was going to do the rappelling down waterfalls, which i also wanted to do cause of my love for rockclimbing, but white water rafting sounded more fun.

when dee and i white water rafted (WWR) in thailand, the briefing we received was, well, brief. the briefing we received today for WWR was in depth. they discuss falling out and capsizing. to add to my nervousness, the guide selected john and i to be in the seven person boat, which, according to the guide was going to be the small person boat. huh? i guess i am tiny.

since john and i had the most experience, we were stationed at the front of the boat where we set the pace for rowing. after boarding the craft, the guide tested our knowledge of commands. he said forward, and after what i thought was a good response, he said we had to be quicker about it. geez. this is gonna be intense.

the guide said we would navigate about ten miles of river and go through 45 to 50 rapids. not much breathing room in between either. i wish i had more to eat for breakfast.

i won’t go through the entire journey, but offer some highlights. john set the pace by belting out whatever he wanted. most of the time it was row or one. we were so enthusiastic about rowing that we couldn’t hear the guide say stop, so everyone had to yell stop to us to make us stop rowing. we felt like forrest gump. run forrest run. stop!

the other boats got stuck on rocks, people fell out, and one woman had to go through the rapid in the water. we had two people fall out of our boat. the one guy fell out for no apparent reason, but was quickly grabbed and put back on. the girl who was sitting next to the guide fell out after we went through the grand finale of the rapids. the guide asked us if we wanted to go over the boulder and then deep into a huge pocket of water. the girls were reluctant but gave in. as we approached the hole, i couldn’t see it until we went over the boulder. we all went tight inside the boat on the floor with our paddles to our sides. straight down and splash. now, usually, the water hits you in the face and no problem. this time i heard bubbles, which meant i was underwater. it was incredible. i had never been underwater in rapids. it was quickly over and we look back and belinda, the aussie was overboard. we grabbed her quickly and she was ok.

during the journey, i got hit in the head with a paddle once, some guy got accidentally punched and I beat the crap out of john whenever the rapid would make me fall on to his side. it was intense! the deep swells, the huge rocks and the fast water made for some great rapids. it wasn’t as bad as i had imagined. there was breathing room in between, but nothing were you got bored of waiting.
the setting for this incredible journey is through the rain forest. we spotted a monkey and a toucan. then came the rain. it wouldn’t be a rain forest without it. it was so hard and the raindrops felt huge. it stopped as quickly as it started but it still rained a lot while we were on the river. it was kind of surreal being there with the loud rain falling all around while we were going through rain forest. surprisingly, the rain was warmer than the river.
anyways, it was a great experience and the guides were amazing. very thorough and knowledgeable. at the end, they gave everyone an imperial beer, the local brew, and passed around towels. it was a lot of fun.

afterwards, we went to change clothes and have lunch. then we were off to la fortuna where our hotel was. we stopped off briefly to observe the largest iguanas i had ever seen. dee had my camera so unfortunately i can’t show what they looked like. however, i did manage to spot what i was looking forward to. the jesus christ lizard! it is a tiny green lizard that looked almost like an iguana. it can step up to 20 times a second, which enables it to have the ability of walking on water. amazing!!

well, we are in la fortuna tonight and tomorrow. tomorrow we are going on a tour of the rain forest. tomorrow night sounds like a lot of fun. we are heading to the volcano to spot some lava. blaine said you can hear the rocks tumbling down the side. it is overcast so we might not see much, but it is still cool to be next to one of the most active volcanos in the world. they will serve pizza and beer and we will hang out on a cliff trying to spot some lava and then we head to the hot springs to soak and hang out. so far, the trip is a lot of fun.