Yesterday, we had our first water adventure: white water rafting. We thought we were getting class V rapids but the trip we were on only had class II and III.  I’m still not sure we got the tour we originally booked (or thought we booked); nevertheless, we had a blast. We took a bus ride up and around a mountain with the rest of our intrepid group: a young couple from New York and 6 community college teachers from the LA area on spring break and sabbatical.

I always like the ride on the tour bus because you get the silly tour guide jokes (my favorite of the day: “We have three kinds of bridges in Costa Rica, Oh My God, Jesus Christ, and Oh Shit!”) interesting local information. We drove through palm forests, which are used to make palm oil (I know, I know), mostly for biofuel and bioplastics, the guide said. Then we traveled through the town of El Silencio, a co-op that has its own money and farming business. We ate typical food (rice and black beans, plantains, salad, and a choice of meat or vegetarian) for lunch in their cafe, which, naturally, had a fabulous view.

But lunch was the end of the trip. First, we rafted the Savegre River (the cleanest river in Costa Rica!) with our guide, J.J. and the young couple from New York. It turned out that J.J. is quite the joker. Shortly after we got going, we ended up floating in the river, when he purposely flipped us over. Steven went in first (photographic evidence later confirmed) so technically he was buying the beer. The second time we went in, J.J. paddled over to me, asked me if I was OK floating and paddled away. Thanks! Luckily, I was laughing and enjoying the water, which was the perfect temperature for me to jump right in without feeling cold. Steven later told me the  young woman was kind of freaking out about her boyfriend, and he was a little panicky himself, so better to get him first.

As I said, the water was low and the rapids weren’t amazing, but we got plenty wet and had a fun ride. The guides had us paddle into the rapids a few times to get an extra little zing, too. We did this tour with Iguana Tours; in fact, we booked all our tours through them, so we will let you know how they did overall, but so far, so good. And while they all joke about Tico time, no one has been even a minute late.