Pura Vida!

Pura Vida!! You’re probably wondering what this means and its literal translation is Pure Life and it’s meaning in English would be This is Living. It’s a ubiquitous term in Costa Rica that they use to describe life there. It’s a wonderful feeling to scream Pura Vida at the top of your lungs after busting out the other side of a class 4 rapid, slapping oar blades with the six other girls in your raft).

Well, my last port came and went and I am sad. I loved Costa Rica...by far in my overall top six places (in no particular order, they are: Viet Nam, South Africa, Cambodia, Costa Rica, and Brazil, and Namibia). Those of you who have been to Costa Rica before know that it is a place that you can easily fall in love with. The people are friendly, the weather is beautiful, the environment appears to be pristine, and it's a huge playground for outdoor junkies like me. In short, it's pretty much the perfect place :-)

We tendered the first day outside of Puntarenas (the name of the actual port is slipping my mind right now) because the port area of Puntarenas was full that day. Around 8pm that first night, the ship sailed a whole five nautical miles to Puntarenas. I was one of 30 people who went on an independent trip put together by Raphael and it was a great time. The first day, right after we tendered to shore, the thirty of us were picked up by Matt, Kristin, and Scott- the first two are the owners of Pecuare River Tours and Scott is an "intern". They're from the States, but have owned Pecuare River Tours for the last two years. If you’re planning on rafting in Costa Rica, I highly recommend using them. Not only were they extremely friendly, but their company is operated by American standards…they have full evacuation plans set up in case of an emergency, they are all fully trained in first aid and swift water rescue…etc etc etc. I never once questioned my safety with them.

We drove for about 45 minutes to a national park where we were going zip lining through the canopy. I’ve only zip lined once in my life before and it was a little rinky-dink zip line compared to these big boys. I was a little nervous when I climbed up the first tower and was hooked onto the zip line for the first time, but after soaring through the air for a good 35 or 40 seconds, I wasn’t nervous anymore. It’s all about trusting the harness and the rest of your equipment. I took video of a few of the runs I did so you guys can get a good feel of what it’s like to “fly” :-). There were probably about 8-10 lines total (I was too excited to remember to count) and there was one section with tandem lines so two people could “race” to the other side. It really came down to who the heavier person was because they tend to go faster.

After the regular zip lines, we all marched to the very top of the first tower that we started from (probably 75 feet?) and were strapped into full body harnesses. We were about to ride the “Superman” zip line! A 4500 foot long zip line that stretched over the canopy AND a river about three hundred feet below. We had to lay belly down on a padded table where three people and worked to secure you to the line. Picture a cow hooked into a harness, suspended from a helicopter…that’s basically what we looked like haha. Maybe not the cow part, but I’m sure that all helped you picture what we looked like! It took almost a full minute to get from one side of the gorge to the other and it literally felt like I was flying. There was one point where I saw my shadow hundreds of feet down and I was like “holy crap, that’s my shadow!”…It was exhilarating.

After the canopy tour, we all loaded back into the buses and headed toward San Jose and then toward Limon (on the Eastern Coast of Costa Rica on the Gulf). We ended up at this small American owned hotel where we had dinner and drinks. A good 90% of the people ended up getting plastered and were running around like lunatics (it felt like a bunch of third graders), but we had the hotel to ourselves so it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just annoying because the walls were paper-thin so the 10% of us who were actually trying to sleep and not be hung over the next morning for white water rafting, couldn’t. It quieted down eventually…

The next morning, we woke up at 7:30, had breakfast at eight, and were on the road right around nine. We drove another hour or so to the put-in site in the Sarapicqui River. We were originally supposed to raft the Pecuare but recent floods tore up the river and it wasn’t safe to go down it yet. I was fine with that…the Sarapiqui was mainly a class 3 run, but there were a couple rapids that were small class 4 rapids. It felt better than amazing to be back in a raft on the river…it had been way too long…

Our raft was the only one with all girls (we had Kristin as our guide…she’s basically who I want to be when I “grow up”) and we were also the only raft who didn’t have anyone fall out of the raft or have the raft flip. Not because we didn’t hit the same rapids as everyone else, but because we all actually listened to what our guide was saying. Kedren and me sat up front and set the pace for the rest of the group. I am getting excited just thinking about those four hours on the river! I can’t wait to get back there…

After rafting, we grabbed lunch at a restaurant that sat overlooking the same river we rafted down. I could definitely get used to Central American food…rice, beans, and lots of fresh fruit. Mmm mmm. Delicious. After lunch, we hopped back in the van and headed back toward Puntarenas. Three-quarters of the group were spending the night in Jaco, so Kristin was nice enough to have one bus go to Jaco and the other go back to Puntarenas. She didn’t have to do that, but that’s just how nice these people really were. I was part of the group that came back to Puntarenas…

The last day in Costa Rica, a few of us walked around Puntarenas and just wandered around the city for a while. The beaches right near the ship weren’t the nicest and it was extremely hot so we decided to grab a few milkshakes before getting back on the ship. I ended up buying a ticket to go horseback riding from a girl down my hall so I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and headed out a half hour later. Me and another girl, Amber, were the only two experienced riders there and I was very happy with their choice of horses for me. I called her “Butterfinger” because she was the same color as one. She had a wonderful temperament and she listened to every command I gave her. The terrain was extremely rocky and steep in some areas and I’m surprised those who had never ridden before didn’t fall off. Amber and I had a chance to gallop at one point and I hadn’t done that in years so my adrenaline was pumping. I forgot what it felt like to gallop…makes me want to become a jockey...

It was bittersweet pulling up to the port. It was the last time I would be walking up the gangway on this voyage…I also knew that I only had a handful of days left before I would be home. I was way more excited than I was sad…I am ready to be home…

Well, this was my last “official” blog post correlating to a port I was in. I’ll be posting more in the next couple of days about random things…thoughts, feelings, emotions…that kind of stuff. Stay tuned…

-Amanda