8:30 pick up this morning for a van that will deliver us to La Fortuna for white water rafting. The gang is all here as John stayed up late to submit his college paper early.  

La Fortuna has been on our must-do list since our white water rafting guide Rocky in Banff, Canada told us about his hometown river here was famous for rafting. Leanne even encouraged Kyle to find super-experienced rafting guide Rocky who splits his year between rafting in the Canadian Rockies and rafting here in his hometown of La Fortuna. This place is where some of the world’s best guides grow up learning how rivers rapids bounce off huge rocks and how to have intense fun without injury. 

Kyle attempted to get in touch with Rocky but the e-mail he had gotten from him bounced back.  In the van, we learn that Rocky actually works for this very company but was assigned to guide a different activity today.  He’s doing a floating safari on a slower river.  Tough luck.  Leanne is a bit dismayed fearing she might get an inexperienced guide that results in her ejection from the raft during a class 4 rapid.  

The rafts hold less people than the ones in Banff so we split up into two groups going with guides Yude and Oscario. Leanne is studying each face hard to search for any signs of crow’s feet or any other sign of maturity or mental illness. Yude wins Leanne’s vote of confidence.  He’s super funny but he looks like he has a bit more experienced than the other option we had.  Yes call it “ageist” if you’d like, but Leanne has a unique preference to stay alive.  Experience matters! 

That leaves the other guide who Leanne has deemed is more likely to end up with a seriously maimed or injured passenger for Kyle. So we have boat one, aka the Safe Boat, with Leanne, Justin and Corey and boat two, aka the Disaster Waiting to Happen Boat with Kyle, John, Ashley and Ashlynn.

All in all, rafting on the Sarapiqui River was a hoot!  Class 4 and 3 rapids.  Yude was the lead guide of the Safe Boat and made so many jokes about him fearing for his life himself at every huge rapid.  “Save me, I’m falling out!” And he’s totally joking. The first two times he fooled Leanne. But this guy could navigate this river with his eyes closed.  

During slower moments, he points out flora, fauna and several species of birds but then immediately pivots into the perfect maneuvering for the next rapid.  He’s loving every minute of life - Pura Vida style - as the Costa Rican’s say.   Enjoying every breathe every moment fully present.  Despite navigating a river full of huge six-foot wide boulders that look like they would surely win in a “blown-up-raft-vs-Boulder” WWF match, Yude had a magic to him that he was one with this river. He shared he grew up here just a mile or so away and this river was his backyard which was a good thing because Leanne needed that assurance.  

Meanwhile, in the Disaster Boat, things are not starting off so smoothly.  From the minute we set out, Oscario is yelling at us that we are not paddling at the same time, not paddling hard enough, not stopping when he yells stops, etc.  Man, you’d think it was his first rafting trip as a guide.  Wait, Kyle didn’t actually ask him the question so who knows. 

Things go from bad to worse when on our first real rapid, the raft goes up and lodge on top of a rock. After some more yelling at us, Oscario, looks around seeming somewhat unsure what to do next to get unstuck and moving again. He ends up getting the water and rocking the raft back and forth and finally shove it off.  The raft goes sailing and somewhat panicked looking Oscario makes an all-out lunge to grab the back of the boat and scramble up and in.  

Kyle is on the verge of saying one of his flippant comments, “hey Oscario, you know I rafted the Kicking Horse river in Banff, just let me know if you need me to take over,” but holds back as he doesn’t want to rattle the guide any further. 

What happens next?  You guessed it; we go from bad to worse to Disaster.  Things actually settled down for a while until we are cruising along observing the national park surrounding the river.  Oscario doesn’t even have us paddling when the raft suddenly spins a sharp left and the raft plunges side-way straight into a rock. No Bueno.  Ashlynn, Ashley and Kyle go flying through the air into the water. 

We have life vests on but the problem is actually the opposite. The water is only a couple feet deep with rocks everywhere and we are in a part of the river with a strong current.  We are swept alongside the raft banging off rocks like a ball in a pinball machine.  Kyle gets over to Ashley and grabs her and manages to get her to the side of the raft.  Looking back Kyle sees that Ashlynn is pretty far away from the boat and a kayaker is heading over to help her.  So Kyle manages to get himself up and into the boat and then helps John pull Ashley up and in the boat.  The Kayaker drags Ashlynn over and we help haul her into the boat.

So what was Oscario doing during the whole ordeal? Well, no one is really sure since he didn’t help any of us back into the boat.  When everyone was back in the raft, Oscario was still shouting, hopping around, frantically asking us if we are hurt.  Kyle says it reminded him of the cartoon character that arrives after all the action is finished running around in circles saying which way did he go, I’m gonna get him. 

Ashlynn fared the worst as she was the most bruised and banged up and was bleeding all over.  “The raft ran over me and I almost drowned,” a visibly shaken Ashlynn keeps repeating.   Kyle and Ashley were banged and bruised but luckily not seriously injured. 

“How often does that happen?” Kyle askes Oscario.  “Oh, it happens every single day,” he says.  “My ass it does,” mutters Kyle under his breath observing that the other two rafts have not come even remotely close to losing a passenger the entire day. 

So yes, Leanne absolutely nailed it with her assessment of the guides. Safe Boat was perfectly safe and Disaster Waiting to Happen Boat was a perfect disaster.  “Maybe next time, we could ask for 2 Safe Boats,” Kyle observes to Leanne.  “You think?” is her only response.

After rafting, we enjoy a delicious spread of Costa Rican food with a pulled chicken with spices that was so tasteful some of us had third helpings.  Note to self: definitely book Costa Rican cooking class tonight.

The guides show us sugar cane pressing and sharing the fresh pressed sugar cane juice and a fermented alcohol from the sugar that could put hair on your chest. Whew! 

Kyle asks Leanne about implementing a reverse tip with his guide. “What’s that?” asks Leanne.  “Well, I figure I’m supposed to tip him for being a good guide so likewise should he pay us for almost killing us?” “Good luck with that one,” is Leanne’s only response.

In the evening Kyle and Leanne make sure they hit their third hot springs happy hour which could also be called “Leanne and Kyle’s readjustment conversations” to prepare for our inevitable return to real life back home where we will socialize with non-teens. 

We speak to the Seattle folks again here for a family trip with a 90 year old Grandma and her clan. They are all super nice as we bore them silly with our travel stories in the jacuzzi. 

“Then we went to......” “After that....” “and then....”.  Ok maybe we didn’t totally bore them but they did laugh about the naked dude in the Vietnamese hotel hallway.  Even we still giggle over that story.