Pura vida!

June 4

My alarm went off before sunrise, 4:30am for white water rafting. (Shout out and lots of McNair love to all UD McNair's for making me an experienced rafter :) We left the house at 4:54 to walk down and make the 5am bus. FYI, in San Jose, newspaper delivery is done by men on motorcycles- who drive on the sidewalks. So while this may be very alarming, as it was to a group of American girls in the very early morning, it is actually quite normal and should not make you freak out and want to run away. But we made it to the bus laughing at ourselves. Our second mistake for the day was evident very soon after- the bus only take 15minutes when theres no traffic and the bus driver is flying through the streets of San Pedro and San Jose. So add the extra slow 5min walk to the school and that gave us 40min to kill until we actually needed to be at school. This gave us time to encounter our second newspaper delivery man and confirm that a) we're still paranoid and b) this is in fact a normal occurence in San Jose.

Bus Ride=Party Bus

Once we all assembled, there were 2 options for transportation: the big bus or the short bus. Naturally I picked the short bus. Good thing because it soon became the “Party Bus” With about 9 of us in there, we (EWH students) exchanged stories with some other ALE students along the ride. Then there was karaoke including Gavin belting out Marvin Gaye classics, Cliff working on his Michael Jackson falsetto and everyone dancing and singing along to the songs that made middle and high school. And we had a pretty cool tour guide/driver who wasn’t above pointing out how gullible people can be when traveling. We stopped for breakfast at one of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen. The building was nice but the view of the countryside and mountains- with just the right amount of clouds- was probably the best thing I’ll ever have to look at during a meal. No offense to my family, roommates, or any other dining partners.

Paddling Toward Disaster

Once we split up into groups of 6 it was time to hit the water. My boat included Caitlin, Tommy, Tim, Cliff, Anjuli and our guide Fabio! The initial oars-in shout of “Pura Vida!!!” before we began set the tone for the whole trip- we were going to be loud, crazy, and the best. Let the Fiesta begin! All the way down the river we paddled hard, with impeccable technique and synchronization. As we improved, Fabio started to have a little fun with us- we went over every big rock possible and loved every second. We also went through rapids while spinning (on purpose), backwards, and backwards with our eyes closed and still paddling. Lunch was delicious and had more fresh fruit and vegetables than any college dining hall. The second half of the trip had more class 4 rapids that turned us into the rescue boat as we saved 6 people. Viva la fiesta! Pura vida!

White water rafting en el Rio Pacuare= Fiesta!!!!!!!!!!!!