Wow, was that a week...
Overall, it was a good trip, but we had some rather "unique" experiences along the way.
Things got off to a rather interesting start. The first night, our trip stays at Turrialtico, just outside Turrialba, near where we start our day two rafting trip. It's a very unique place, sitting at the base of two volcanoes. Needless to say, it is a bit of a volatile are, geologically speaking. We were all shaken awake at 4:30am by a pretty intense earthquake. It wasn't enough to do any damage, but we all got a good start and woke to the ceiling fans above us doing quite an interesting dance.
Things went pretty smoothly again until the third day, when on the ride one of the guests and I crashed into each other while riding across a little stream. Neither of us were hurt but for some scrapes and bruises, but it's not ideal when guides crash into guests. It definitely provided a good story for the day though.
The final bummer of the trip came on the last full day of the trip. We were out kayaking and hanging out on the beach, and at some point someone got into our bus and stole three people's backpacks. Our driver was with the bus the entire time, so the best we can figure is that there was about a 45 second window when we unloaded that everyone was looking at the river, and the person must have gotten into the bus then. It was a huge downer at that point in the trip. The guests had trip insurance to cover the lost goods, but you still hate to see that happen. We thought we were being careful before, now we're going to be extra vigilant for the last trip.
As I'm writing this, I realize I haven't really written a post about everything we do on the trip, so here's a quick rundown.
Day 1: We pick up the guests in San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica, and shuttle to the top of Volcan Irazu (which I talked about in last week's post). We have a picnic lunch on top of the volcano and descend about 8,000 feet to La Pastora before shuttling the last 20 minutes into the hotel (our hotel is on top of a big hill, and no one feels like riding it).
Day 2: Rafting on the Rio Pacuare! The Pacuare River was named by National Geographic as one of the top ten best day trip rafting trips in the world. Filled with class 3 and 4 rapids, the guests rarely get a chance to be bored on this rafting trip, but there are a couple places where it chills out enough to get out and swim. It's an awesome day, and everyone is worn out enough to sleep through the transfer at the end of the day to our hotel near Volcan Arenal, in La Fortuna.
Day 3: We ride out, around Volcan Arenal and along the shore of Lago Arenal (Lake Arenal) to Rancho Margot. Rancho Margot is a really cool organic ranch where we do a tour and have a fantastic lunch (next week I'm doing a full feature on Rancho Margot). That evening we go to a local woman's house, where she prepares a truly Tico meal for us. It's all typical Costa Rican food, rice and beans, barbecued chicken and pork, tortillas, and more! It's an amazing cultural experience.
Day 4: Today we walk through the rainforest! With two local naturalists as guides, we take a 2.5 hour hike through La Reserva de los Dendrobates. This is a reserve that surrounds not only the local water supply, but is also an area filled with little poison dart frogs (dendrobates). The most common here are the blue jeans frogs, named for their blue legs on red bodies (see photo album). From there we go up to Cataratas La Fortuna (La Fortuna waterfall), where we have a picnic lunch, hike down and do some swimming near the base of the waterfall (but not too near!). Finishing out our busy day is the canopy tour, where we go through a series of 13 ziplines through the tops of the trees of the rainforest. Everyone loves it (unless they're afraid of heights that is, as we are as much as 250 feet off the ground). The final zipline is over 1000 feet long and swings down over a river.
Day 5: We start out this morning with a boat ride across Lake Arenal, followed by a bus transfer to Hojancha. In Hojancha, we visit Cafe Diria, a coffee co-op that does a lot with organic and fair trade coffee. (More on Cafe Diria to come) We ride from Diria to our hotel on the Pacific Ocean, El Sueno Tropical.
Day 6: Time for vacation! We give the guests the morning to hang around town and shop, or sleep in, or lay by the pool, or whatever they want. In the afternoon we kayak down Rio Oro (Gold River) to the ocean where we hang out, boogie board, and just enjoy the beach! After kayaking we head into town for our final night dinner together at El Lagarto (The Alligator) which is a great barbeque place on the beach that serves the most amazing grilled steak and fish and veggies!
Day 7: Sorry kids, time to go home. We board a plane at 11:00am for a 40 minute flight into San Jose and send everyone home to recover from their vacation. Despite the dirt runway, no actual airport, and little twin prop plane, most of the guests prefer this to the five hour bus ride.
Ciao for now!
PS. 07 web album is up at http://picasaweb.google.com/jonvickphotography/CostaRica07
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