Day 3: Rafting the Pacuare and Sightseeing

Our third day in Costa Rica the group split up. Five of us went white
water rafting and the rest of the group stayed behind to explore
downtown San Jose. However, due to an afternoon shower and hail storm
the group that wanted to explore wasn't able to. They said it "hailed
sideways" and they ended up getting ice cream and staying at the hotel.
The rest of us woke up at 5am to go white water rafting down the
Pacuare River on the Caribbean end of Costa Rica. We had an hour and a
half bus ride to the site, where they cooked us a typical Costa Rican
breakfast consisting of rice and beans and fruit. Then, we boarded
another bus for 40 minutes to the actual river. The five of us had our
own boat and guide, who learned quickly we were very much beginners.
His extreme patience paid off as we successfully made it through
multiple rapids with no one falling out. We stopped for lunch, which
was prepared by our guides and delicious. It was really nice how they
made us feel comfortable and tried their best to use English when in
fact we should have been making more of an effort to use Spanish,
seeing as we are in Costa Rica. Overall the rafting was amazing and was
an experience we'll never forget.

The
whole group regrouped for dinner later at the hotel and we tried a
local restaurant featuring traditional Costa Rican cuisine. We all had
very good meals and left full and satisfied. So far, Costa Rica is
proving to be an incredible adventure!

-Lindsay and Lauren